Ashley Judd among Time Person of the Year group, “The Silence Breakers”

UK+alumna+Ashley+Judd+spoke+to+students%2C+faculty+and+staff+for+the+14th+annual+Irma+Sarett+Rosenstein+lecture+at+the+Singletary+Center+on+Friday%2C+December+1%2C+2017+in+Lexington%2C+Kentucky.+Photo+by+Arden+Barnes+%7C+Staff

UK alumna Ashley Judd spoke to students, faculty and staff for the 14th annual Irma Sarett Rosenstein lecture at the Singletary Center on Friday, December 1, 2017 in Lexington, Kentucky. Photo by Arden Barnes | Staff

Bailey Vandiver

Time announced its Person of the Year Wednesday morning, but it is not just one person. 

It is a group, which Time called “The Silence Breakers,” whose speaking up helped launch the #MeToo movement that encouraged victims of sexual harassment to share their stories. 

Kentuckian Ashley Judd is among the group of “The Silence Breakers” and is one of five women featured on the cover of the magazine.

Joining her on the cover are Susan Fowler, Adama Iwu, Taylor Swift and Isabel Pascual. The elbow of another person is visible on the cover, likely representing the many other silence breakers who joined the movement.

In the lengthy Person of the Year story published by Time, which was written by three women, the stories of the women on the cover as well as many more men and women are told. 

The story opens with Judd’s own experience, beginning in 1997 when she went to a meeting with Harvey Weinstein and he tried to coerce her into bed with him.

She told Time that she managed to escape and immediately began telling people about Weinstein. In October of this year, she went on record with the New York Times about Weinstein.

“Emboldened by Judd, Rose McGowan and a host of other prominent accusers, women everywhere everywhere have begun to speak out about the inappropriate, abusive and in some cases illegal behavior they’ve faced,” Time writers Stephanie Zacharek, Eliana Dockterman and Haley Sweetland Edwards wrote. 

Judd was born in Kentucky and attended UK. On Dec. 1, 2017, she returned to UK to speak. 

The Time cover can also be seen here