‘The Silence Breakers’ of abuse get TIME honour
new york — ‘The Silence Breakers’ — those who have shared their stories about sexual assault and harassment — have been named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year.
Numerous women have spoken out since October about sexual misconduct by dozens of high-profile men in entertainment, media, business and sports. TIME praised those who have given “voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing us all to stop accepting the unacceptable.”
The magazine’s cover features Ashley Judd, Taylor Swift and others who say they have been harassed.
TIME’s announcement was made on Wednesday on NBC’s Today show, where longtime host Matt Lauer was fired last week amid harassment allegations.
The two runners-up were Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump, himself accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women. He has denied any wrongdoing. —
new york — Time magazine named as Person of the Year on Wednesday “the silence breakers” who triggered a national reckoning by revealing the pervasiveness of sexual harassment, assault and abuse in US life.
President Donald Trump was runner-up in the prestigious ranking, ahead of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Time designated as “silence breakers” the individuals, mostly women, who came forward this year to publicly expose patterns of sexual harassment, assault and even rape by some of society’s most powerful public figures.
Those recognised by Time range from famous actresses who took on disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein to ordinary women who shared their stories of abuse
This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. but it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries. Time magazine
using the hashtag #MeToo and its foreign language equivalents.
The accusations against Weinstein, who has denied wrongdoing, proved a tipping point for a flood of sordid revelations involving other titans of Hollywood, big business, politics and the news media.
Many once-admired leaders in their fields have been fired or suspended, their brilliant careers in tatters.
One of the figures singled out by Time, Ashley Judd was the first actress to come forward on the record to make accusations against the 65-year-old Weinstein.
She was followed by more than a hundred others, and a watershed moment began.
“When a movie star says #MeToo, it becomes easier to believe the cook who’s been quietly enduring for years,” a Time article read.
“This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries.”
“These silence breakers have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal charges have been brought.”
The Person of the Year announcement came as The New York Times published a report detailing a widespread “complicity machine” of powerful relationships that enabled Weinstein to silence or intimidate his accusers for years. Weinstein has denied via his lawyers and spokespeople that he engaged in any non-consensual behavior. He has not been charged with any crimes, though investigations have been launched in London, Los Angeles and New York.
A number of men also have revealed they were victims of sexual abuse, including Anthony Rapp, who accused Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey of making sexual advances on him when he was a teenager. —