The Hollywood abuse silence breakers have been named Time magazine’s 2017 Person of the Year. Silence breakers are people who have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct.
The decision to give the award to the “silence breakers” which is closely related to the #MeToo-is an endorsement for the scores of people who have come forward with allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
More than 50 women have publicly accused Weinstein-who produced Oscar-winning films Shakespeare in Love, The English Patient, and The Artist-of sexual harassment, assault, rape, and inappropriate behaviour that spans four decades.
Among this 50, five women were featured on the Time cover including actress Ashley Judd, singer Taylor Swift, former Uber software engineer Susan Fowler, California lobbyist Adama Iwu, and strawberry picker Isabel Pascual. All of these women went public with the stories of sexual harassment they alleged they faced in the workplace.
The Silence Breakers are TIME's Person of the Year 2017 #TIMEPOY https://t.co/mLgNTveY9z pic.twitter.com/GBo9z57RVG
— TIME (@TIME) December 6, 2017
Edward Felsenthal, Time editor-in-chief said: “This is the fastest-moving social change we have seen in decades. It began with individual acts of courage by hundreds of women – and some men, too – who came forward to tell their own stories.”
US President Donald Trump, who was bestowed with the accolade last year, came second, while Xi Jinping, the leader of China, came third.
The award is decided by Time’s editors and goes to the person or group who has had the most influence on the year’s news for better or worse.
