TIME magazine has named its person of the year, and it turns out it was multiple people. The women, and men, who spoke up this year are being recognized for the change they made in our entertainment world. Hollywood is finally taking action against powerful men who took advantage of their position and assaulted less powerful people.
People like Taylor Swift, who was taken to court after a man gropedher; Terry Crews, who was groped at a Hollywood event, and the hundreds of thousands of people in 85 countries who used the #MeToo tag.
Sexual assault has always been something that women have dealt with and were shamed if they talked about it. But, it is finally being shown how pervasive this issue is and what needs to be done for it to stop. Powerful people need to be held accountable and punished for when they assault other people.
It is also important to remember that not every person wants to share their story, and even though many people have been brave enough to share their story, sexual assault is deeply personal and not something everyone is comfortable bringing up or putting on social media.
While it is vitally important that stories are shared to stop people from continuing to sexually assault others, people who come out about their assaults often receive threats from both their assaulter and strangers online. Survivors are not given support, and without it, there is no incentive to share their story because the cons outweigh the pros.
If we truly want people who assault others to be punished, then we must support survivors and their stories. More than just celebrities shared being assaulted by their bosses, and speaking out could cause them to lose their jobs or they may have to continue working with the person they spoke out against.
There is a woman on the cover of Time Magazine who preferred to only show her elbow, and this represents all the woman who do not feel safe sharing their stories, but these woman also lived through assault or groping or rape.
Support for survivors means supporting everyone, even the ones who don’t want to share their stories, or the atypical survivors, which are people other than straight, white, attractive women.
This year has been a huge step in support for survivors of sexual assault. But there is a need for more. Trump is our president, despite several accusations of assault. Keep supporting survivors.
