Twitter is going crazy for “Time Magazine’s” Person of the Year

Karen Fratti
Updated
Twitter is going crazy for “Time Magazine’s” Person of the Year
Twitter is going crazy for “Time Magazine’s” Person of the Year

We have to admit that after this roller coaster of a year, it was nice to wake up today, December 6th, and see that the #MeToo movement made it to the cover of Time magazine. Twitter’s reaction to Time‘s Person of the Year confirmed that people are ready to empower the victims of sexual assault.

On the cover, a wide range of women are depicted. There’s actress Ashley Judd and singer Taylor Swift, but there are also women of other industries — one anonymous woman’s arm, farm worker Isabel Pascual, lobbyist Adama Iwu, and former Uber engineer, Susan Fowler. All have “broken the silence” about predatory sexual behavior within their industries.

The magazine interviewed dozens of women and men about their experiences, and one thing became clear: This is a problem within every part of society. One woman, an anonymous hospital worker who’s afraid her family will be affected by disclosing her name, told Time of her experience with assault: “I kept thinking, ‘Did I do something, did I say something, did I look a certain way to make him think that was O.K.?'”

The shame and guilt surrounding assault — along with the fear of being blamed when you come forward with an allegation — is exactly what the #MeToo movement hopes to change.

And the People of Twitter are here for it.

Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo hashtag, told Glamour that now it’s all about the next steps. She said, “To me, 2018 will be all about processing #MeToo. The next step in the movement will be helping women navigate what happens after they disclose an experience. It’s about what happens if someone posts #MeToo and nobody “likes” their status and how to be advocates in our communities. How to talk to children about this. Discussing the sexual harassment teenagers deal with in school.”

Let’s keep the momentum going.