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This Faceless Woman’s Arm On The TIME Cover Is A Significant Detail You Can’t Afford To Miss!

byRachna Srivastava
7th December 2017
3 minute read
Time-Person-of-the-Year-Cover-Detail

It’s that time of the year, where one of most esteemed magazines of all time, TIME choses its person…s of the year with one face gracing the cover of the issue. Rumours were around that USA’s Mr. President aka Donald Trump refused to be on the cover of 2017, but the people at TIME had the most savage reply while refuting that.

Today, it’s plastered all over the news that this year’s TIME Person of the Year is/are The Silence Breakers, which includes faces of five women — Taylor Swift, Ashley Judd, Susan Fowler, Adama Iwu, and Isabel Pascual (name changed).

These are the women who have come out and spoken about harassment, sexual assault, and spearheaded the #MeToo campaign. They’ve become the collective voice that every woman resonated with (with their stories).

But ICYMI, which we’re sure most of us have, there, in the bottom-right corner, is an arm of a woman.

Image Source

Yes, this one!

This is actually the most important detail of the whole issue. It’s the arm of anonymity. The arm of a 22-year-old young hospital worker from Texas. She’s a sexual harassment victim who fears that disclosing her identity would negatively impact her family.

Many are hailing it to be the most prominent detail of the whole issue, because that’s what #MeToo is all about. Acknowledging the magnanimity of harassment, with or without naming the victim.

A TIME report read,

“She is faceless on the cover and remains nameless inside TIME’s red borders, but her appearance is an act of solidarity, representing all those who are not yet able to come forward and reveal their identities.”

In their cover story, the 22-year-old anonymous victim said,

“I stayed anonymous because I live in a very small community. And they just think usually that we’re lying and complainers.”

She shared, with them, her story. It read as:

“‘I thought, What just happened? Why didn’t I react?’ says the anonymous hospital worker who fears for her family’s livelihood should her story come out in her small community. ‘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.?’
It’s a poisonous, useless thought, she adds, but how do you avoid it? She remembers the shirt she was wearing that day. She can still feel the heat of her harasser’s hands on her body.”

 

Even Time Editor-in-Chief, Edward Felsenthal, pointed that detail out about the anonymous arm in an interview on Today,

“The image you see partially on the cover is of a woman we talked to, a hospital worker from the middle of the country, who doesn’t feel that she can come forward without threatening her livelihood.”

And, people have been lauding for the thoughtfulness and we can’t help but agree.

1. It is a symbol of solidarity.

2. It indeed is!

3. And, the impact is huge.

https://twitter.com/lefebvre_judith/status/938420380582268928

4. Many women are silenced and this is encouragement to them.

It’s quite a crucial detail and we know women who have so many harrowing stories to share with the world but can’t do so while revealing their identities. When #MeToo stories were being shared, the thundering echoes of it broke our hearts in a million pieces. And, sadly, not even one woman I know or someone around me knows said #NotMe.

We’re hoping there would be a TIME magazine POY who can one day proudly say, Not Me. And, we’re willing to wait for THAT day.

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