On Thursday 12 December 2024, TIME Magazine announced that President Donald Trump would once again grace its cover as ‘Person of the Year’. The politician and businessman previously received the honour back in 2016 after winning the US presidential election. Understandably, people have a lot of opinions on this. And one of the most salient conversations taking place on social media right now concerns the hypocrisy of how a man who was found liable for sexual assault could be awarded such an accolade in the same year we saw the horrifying Gisèle Pelicot case unfold.

For anyone who might not be familiar with the Pelicot case, it involves the mass rape of a now-71-year-old woman named Gisèle Pelicot. The extreme sexual abuse Pelicot faced was orchestrated by her husband, who repeatedly drugged his wife and invited strangers from the internet to come to their home and violate her without her knowledge. With over 50 defendants involved, Pelicot’s story is one of the most harrowing and heartbreaking crimes most of us will ever come across in our lifetimes. And you still wonder why we’d pick the bear?

For many people, the mass rape survivor has become a true feminist icon—having insisted on keeping the trial public in order to bring greater awareness and attention to sexual violence and particularly the employment of drug use to commit abuse.

So, given all this, it’s understandable why there was such an immediate and visceral response to seeing Trump be named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. However, before we get into that, it’s important we first delve into exactly how the selection process for this title works.

While some people might assume that the individual chosen for TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year is automatically reflective of a hero in society’s eyes, this isn’t actually the case. According to the magazine, “the title goes to ‘the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse’.”

Indeed, there have been many controversial former chosen individuals—Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin, and Elon Musk.

While the final decision is ultimately made by TIME’s editors, the magazine does also invite readers to weigh in on who they think has earned the title via the reader’s choice poll.

Given the fact that Donald Trump’s second term as president of the United States will directly impact the autonomy and rights of women and marginalised groups across the country, it’s understandable that people were mildly annoyed at TIME’s choice.

86 years later @TIME magazine put up another Nazi for Person of the Year pic.twitter.com/rPTCHkcPlM

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) December 12, 2024

The Only one who should be Time Magazine’s Person of the year is Kamala Harris. pic.twitter.com/aszYIrV0xh

— 🤬Marilyn🤬 (@twitweeting) December 10, 2024

But what was really powerful was seeing so many netizens point out how it should have been Pelicot on that front cover.

Only in a year where #GiselePélicot holds 50 men who raped her to account does a rapist President get named Person of the Year (for the second time). The message is clear: misogyny rewards power, while survivors like Gisele fight to ensure #ShameMustChangeSides. https://t.co/L2T8BEkUh1

— David Challen (@David_Challen) December 12, 2024

The *actual* Person of the Year https://t.co/EZwBXikKwd pic.twitter.com/ebDKxzXsti

— Hélio Carvalho (@helio_lamego) December 12, 2024

One X user wrote: “Donald Trump, a self-confessed sexual assaulter, being named Time’s Person of the Year over Gisele Pelicot, who was drugged & raped by her husband & 100 men for years, and who waived anonymity to change the world for women, shows you exactly why women are rightly f*cking angry.”

Donald Trump, a self-confessed sexual assaulter, being named Time's Person of the Year over Gisele Pelicot, who was drugged & raped by her husband & 100 men for YEARS, and who waived anonymity to change the world for women, shows you exactly why women are rightly fucking ANGRY. pic.twitter.com/HVNtbwTlpj

— Vittoria (@vitt2tsnoc) December 12, 2024

Pelicot’s story has evidently had a global impact and while I understand TIME’s criteria, I have to agree with the internet on this one. Why not highlight the strength of an incredible woman rather than the weakness of America’s most pathetic man?