Pictured on the cover are: Isabel Pascual, a strawberry picker; Ashley Judd, an actress; Adama Iwu, a lobbyist; Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer; and Taylor Swift, a musician.
There are many more women — and men, including Terry Crews — featured in the issue.
A couple of thoughts:
1. Every survivor who is featured in this issue is audacious in the best sense of the word. I take up space in solidarity with them.
2. I like this choice for Person(s) of the Year, but something about the framing isn't sitting well with me. I've been part of a vibrant and tenacious movement to dismantle the rape culture for a very long time, and I don't think it diminishes the significant contributions that survivors are making now to advance and visibilize that movement to note that the movement to break the silence on sexual harassment and assault has existed for a long time. Longer than I've been alive.
"The Silence Breakers" is itself a complicated moniker. Does it mean survivors breaking their own silence? It must. Because plenty of us have been relentlessly making noise, and the problem wasn't silence but a lack of listening. And I'm not sure I love the (unintentional) embedded responsibility hung on survivors implied by "The Silence Breakers," with no attendant framing about the need to listen when survivors speak.
Anyway. What do you think?
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