Time Magazine’s Cover Portrays Dr. Christine Blasey Ford

The most recent cover for Time Magazine is an artistic rendering of Dr. Ford’s swearing in. The cover features the words of her testimony shaded and arranged to make up the now famous portrait of her hand raised and eyes closed. The artist explained how powerful Ford’s testimony was for him. The cover art is paired with the caption, “Her Lasting Impact.” The words are powerful and simple.

Because we spent some time discussing past Time covers in class, I thought this was a significant choice to examine. In the cover that we looked at in class of the young girl, it seemed like Time was telling her story for her, or their version of it. Dr. Ford, on the other hand, seems to have been given full control of her narrative. Her own testimony is used to make her image, giving power to her words. It may be because her story is already too widespread to retell, or it may be that the Times is making an effort to allow people, especially women, to speak for themselves.