Why this brave woman, not Donald Trump, should have been Time’s Person of the Year

Does it matter who an American news magazine chooses as its Person of the Year? The soon-to-be most powerful man in the world, Donald Trump, certainly thinks so. He famously used to hang a fake front cover of the publication in his golf courses, including at Turnberry here in Scotland.

A flattering picture of Trump was emblazoned with the headline above the Time masthead: “Trump is hitting on all fronts… even TV!” An amusing piece of flimsy, perhaps, but the President-elect’s obsession with Time goes much deeper. During his first term in office, he used to boast that he had been on more Time covers than anyone.

“I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine,” he claimed in a speech to CIA staff. But he was wrong. Disgraced former president Richard Nixon appeared on far more, a record that should perhaps serve as a warning to Trump as he prepares for his second term.

Gisele Pelicot deserves to be recognised as the Person of the Year (Picture: Christophe Simon) | AFP via Getty Images

A notable name was missing

But this weekend, he has no need to commission a fake magazine cover. He has just been chosen as Time’s Person of the Year for the second time, beating off strong competition from, among others, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and Trump’s new best friend; Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of Russia’s leading dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February; and the Princess of Wales who has spent much of 2024 battling cancer.

But there was one notable name missing, that of Gisele Pelicot, the French grandmother who has, with grace and courage, changed the global narrative on rape and sexual abuse. Madame Pelicot, whose husband of 50 years stands accused with 50 other men of raping her while she lay drugged in her marital bed, is not even on the Time 100 list for 2024.

This is the magazine’s annual roll call of people from across the world who are deemed to be the most influential artists, leaders and icons. But, in a strange twist of fate, E Jean Carroll, the woman who successfully sued Donald Trump through New York’s civil courts for sexually abusing her, is there under the Leader category.

“She embodied what #MeToo was actually about: not a woman taking down a powerful man, but a woman freeing herself. And in E Jean’s case, it just so happens, freeing millions more alongside her,” wrote her sponsor Tamara Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement. She goes on: “Her only job was to survive. So, as we honour her, let’s also think about how to say thank you by making the country safer.”

‘Who got it right?’

Let’s hope the irony of Time magazine choosing Carroll’s abuser as Person of the Year is not lost on Burke, or indeed on the magazine’s publishers. They stress that their award is for the person or group that has had the biggest impact on the world – for good or bad – but even they must accept that honouring both the survivor of sexual abuse and the perpetrator is hypocritical, bordering on the contemptuous.

The New European newspaper did choose Pelicot as its Person of the Year, and in a clear challenge to Time’s choice, asked on social media: “Who got it right?” Women across the world have only one answer: Gisele Pelicot.

Her decision that her abusers’ trial should be public – which led to videos of her being raped while unconscious being shown day after day on giant screens for all to see – has changed the perspective on sexual violence, and not just in France. There is far more on trial at the Palais de Justice in Avignon than 50 men. Male attitudes towards women and sex are under intense scrutiny in a way never seen before.

Refusal to be ashamed

Pelicot’s courage in choosing to have her abuse broadcast means that no one can hide from it. Defence lawyers cannot argue she “asked for it”. The media cannot suggest she was a “willing partner”.

Men the world over can no longer pretend that it is only degenerates and perverts who sexually abuse women. Just as the man found liable of sexually abusing Carroll boasts of his family ties, so those who stand accused of raping Pelicot are the typical ‘man next door’ – loving fathers, sons and husbands. Not every man is a sexual abuser, but far more than we think could be – even the Time Person of the Year.

Pelicot has also refused to be ashamed of what happened to her. Every survivor of sexual abuse will tell you that guilt and embarrassment burn through her, often for decades after it happened. The stigma of being abused is, in some ways, worse than the actual physical act. And the insistent internal dialogue – “was it my fault?” – can destroy a woman’s self-worth for ever.

Extraordinary courage

But Pelicot was having none of that. “I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too. I don’t want them to be ashamed any longer.” Her influence on women’s rights could prove to be as important as that of Simone De Beauvoir, Germaine Greer, and, in more recent times, JK Rowling.

Last year, no one would have noticed Pelicot as she walked through the streets of her home village Mazan. She was just another a grandmother, a woman who had reached the invisible stage of her life, of interest only to her family. Today, her face is almost as familiar as Trump’s, at least in Europe. She is emblazoned on t-shirts, immortalised on front pages and appears on every social media platform.

It is for being an ordinary woman showing extraordinary courage that Gisele Pelicot deserves to be the Person of the Year. And as we honour her, let’s think about how we make the world safer for all women and girls.