Pop mogul Taylor Swift is just one of the many featured on the cover of Time for their annual Person Of The Year edition. This year’s person of the year is a group of individuals— “the silence breakers”— those who helped “set off a national reckoning over the prevalence of sexual harassment,” as announced by the magazine’s editor-in-chief on NBC’s Today on Wednesday morning.
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
The cover image also featured Ashley Judd, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler, the back of a woman’s head (meant to represent victims of assault with no public audience), a Mexican strawberry-picker named Isabel Pascual and Adama Iwu, a corporate lobbyist in Sacramento— among others.
Yet Taylor Swift is the only one featured who is the subject of much debate, at least on Twitter. It seems one cannot feel lukewarm when it comes to musician— you either love her or you hate her. Many did not think the pop star deserved a spot on the cover, especially in light of her threatening to sue journalists who attempt to write about her white supremacist fans and her unwillingness to speak out against President Trump’s sexual harassment allegations:
https://twitter.com/joannarothkopf/status/938419960879206400
It’s kinda weird that “silence breaker” Taylor Swift tried to sue a blogger for an op-ed about white supremacists who like her music. 🙃🙃🙃
— Tyler Coates (@tylercoates) December 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/Abhi5hekk/status/938392373272313857
https://twitter.com/eiffeltyler/status/938388672533225472
Taylor Swift doesn't get to market herself as a feminist icon. She has remained silent on anything political.
— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) December 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/kateritchie/status/938387010691231747
The women on the cover of @Time’s Person Of The Year: The Silence Breakers.
ISABEL PASCUAL, strawberry picker
ASHLEY JUDD, actress
ADAMA IWU, lobbyist
SUSAN FOWLER, former Uber engineer
TAYLOR SWIFT, musician pic.twitter.com/pCf4BMVEMY— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) December 6, 2017
I love TS but I think Kesha deserved this place so much more, I'm disappointed but not suprised
— Flor 🌸 (@rottengrace) December 6, 2017