Not too long ago this year, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were embroiled in a harsh legal battle with competing defamation claims. At the heart of the battle were claims of domestic abuse, with each side accusing the other of attacks. The case stirred intense public interest with innumerable articles, TikTok videos, and think pieces regarding who was right or wrongm or what evidence was valid or not. But the heart of the matter remained domestic violence, which is unacceptable in any regard.
Somehow, domestic abuse has become a costume for Halloween this year, with Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly dressing up as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, with one photo even depicting his hand around her neck, and the caption, “But are these even costumes.”
Yesterday, Lexus Amanda, who has been dating and living with Pasquale Rotella, founder and CEO of Insomniac Events, posted a photo on Instagram of the two of them in their Halloween costumes, dressed as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, complete with makeup on Lexus around her eyes and lips, implying she’d recently been “beaten” and was bruised.
Already this is a tasteless and wrong choice, but given the recent exposure of many alleged abusers and people who have allegedly committed sexual abuse within our own electronic music scene, dressing up in a costume to make a joke of domestic violence shows he is egregiously unattached to the scene which he claims to lift up and promote.
The costume began gaining traction on Twitter early this morning, calling it “indicative of how deeply the roots of sexism and misogyny run in dance music.” It’s rapidly gaining attention on social media, although Lexus has already deleted the photo from her Instagram feed.
Comments on Lexus’ post appeared overwhelmingly positive and in support of the costume, though a few were very clearly calling her out for the tasteless get up. Although, as many as popped up, they seemed to disappear just as quickly, leading us to believe comments were actively being deleted.
In the quote tweets on Twitter, most are echoing the sentiment that the costume is tasteless and expressing that domestic violence is not a joke, even in a situation in which such a case was covered by the media ad nauseam.
Pasquale Rotella and his partner making light of IPV with their tasteless choice to dress up as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard is indicative of how deeply the roots of sexism and misogyny run in dance music. sexual assault and domestic violence is a joke to these people. a costume. pic.twitter.com/bfatuNJcTJ
— staley (@stalesmcgalesss) November 1, 2022
I love dance music culture but the level of assault, sexism, and misogyny in this industry is wild.
IDC what your stance is on the trial, but making a mockery of domestic violence isn’t a laughing matter. Absolute trash @PasqualeRotella 🐸☕️ https://t.co/P5pksn4YBX
— kimberly (@kimmyhendrixx) November 1, 2022
Aside from this just being a shitty costume idea in every possible way, the utter lack of social awareness to do this with what’s been going down in the EDM scene this past month is just next level stupid. Like, WTF are you doing? https://t.co/uobII0uDXF
— Zoat (@zwcampo) November 1, 2022
Damn, pretty tasteless for sure.
Like out of all the things you could dress up as and choose this is pretty weird tbh. https://t.co/kJfuAMyMOe— Kelly (82%) (@momma_kellz) November 1, 2022
Your EDM has reached out to both Insomniac and Live Nation with requests for comment. A representative for Insomniac confirmed receipt of the request, though we have not yet received any response from Live Nation. We will update the article if that changes. Neither Lexus nor Pasquale have yet acknowledged the criticism to their costume, apart from Lexus deleting the photo.
In the meantime, if you need to speak to someone about your own experience, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-656-4673. You can also speak with a representative online.
Four4Consent also offers resources specifically for incidents regarding nightlife and entertainment. If you are a survivor of violence, and/or harassment or trafficking and are wishing to contact our organization for support, resources, referrals, or processing, please email [email protected] to be set up with a Nationally Credentialed advocate.
