#MeToo Anti-Harassment Movement Named TIME’s Person of the Year, Including Rose McGowan and More
Zack Sharf
TIME has given its Person of the Year 2017 honor to the #MeToo anti-harassment movement, which the magazine dubs “the silence breakers.” Included in the group are actresses Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan, and Selma Blair, actor Terry Crews, journalist Megyn Kelly, activist Tarana Burke, senator Sara Gelser, singer Taylor Swift, and many more.
The anti-harassment movement beat out shortlisted Person of the Year candidates such as “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and President Donald Trump, who earned the title in 2016. Other groups that have been shortlisted in the past include the Black Lives Matter activists and the CRISPR scientists.
“The galvanizing actions of the women on our cover, along with those of hundreds of others, and of many men as well, have unleashed one of the highest-velocity shifts in our culture since the 1960s,” TIME Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal said in an official statement about selecting the anti-harassment movement as this year’s Person of the Year.
“The roots of TIME’s annual franchise—singling out the person or persons who most influenced the events of the year—lie in the so-called great man theory of history, a phrasing that sounds particularly anachronistic at this moment. But the idea that influential, inspirational individuals shape the world could not be more apt this year,” he continued. “For giving voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing us all to stop accepting the unacceptable, The Silence Breakers are the 2017 Person of the Year.”
TIME writers Stephanie Zacharek, Eliana Dockterman and Haley Sweetland Edwards spoke with dozens of women who went public with sexual harassment and abuse allegations this year. Many of the women have been featured in a Person of the Year video, which is embedded below. Click here for the full TIME article.
The anti-harassment movement exploded in October after the first allegations were made against Harvey Weinstein in an article published by The New York Times. Ashley Judd was one of the women included in the first wave of allegations.
