Taylor Swift Is A Time Person Of The Year
A little while ago, Donald Trump, who Time made Person Of The Year last year, tweeted that Time had offered to grant him the same honor again this year but that he’d have to sit for an interview and a photo shoot. Trump also said that he turned the magazine down. People from the magazine disputed Trump’s claim, and now we have a new Person Of The Year. It’s actually a group of people, whom the magazine has dubbed “the silence breakers.” It’s a group of women — some famous, some not — who have come forward this year about being victims of sexual predation, launching a movement to expose and punish this sort of behavior. And one of them is Taylor Swift.
Swift hasn’t given any magazine issues behind the release of her new album Reputation. But she has corresponded with Time about something else: Her legal battle against a Colorado radio DJ who groped her during a 2013 photo op. That DJ sued Swift, blaming her after the radio station fired him. She countersued him for $1. Swift won the lawsuit after testifying forcefully against the DJ. And in a written interview with Time, Swift writes about both her trial and about the larger cultural moment in which all this sexual harassment and assault is finally being brought to light:
I think that this moment is important for awareness, for how parents are talking to their children, and how victims are processing their trauma, whether it be new or old. The brave women and men who have come forward this year have all moved the needle in terms of letting people know that this abuse of power shouldn’t be tolerated. Going to court to confront this type of behavior is a lonely and draining experience, even when you win, even when you have the financial ability to defend yourself. Even though awareness is higher than ever about workplace sexual harassment, there are still so many people who feel victimized, afraid and silenced by their abusers and circumstances. When the jury found in my favor, the man who sexually assaulted me was court-ordered to give me a symbolic $1. To this day he has not paid me that dollar, and I think that act of defiance is symbolic in itself.
Time’s larger feature includes plenty of famous people — actors Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan, Selma Blair, and Terry Crews, as well as TV journalist Megyn Kelly and #MeToo creator Tarana Burke. But it’s also got plenty of non-famous people who have also come forward about the attacks against them. You can read Swift’s interview here and the larger feature here.