New York magazine just released its newest cover story, which features 35 women who have publicly accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault for one powerful photo series. The arresting black and white cover photo presents each accuser seated in a chair with one final empty seat remaining at the end.
35 women speak about being assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the culture that wouldn’t listen: http://t.co/H5dss5F2F4 pic.twitter.com/RCF0BWBrxA
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) July 27, 2015
The magazine spoke to all 35 women separately over the course of six months. Noreen Malone writes:
Each story is awful in its own right. But the horror is multiplied by the sheer volume of seeing them together, reading them together, considering their shared experience. The women have found solace in their number—discovering that they hadn’t been alone, that there were others out there who believed them implicitly, with whom they didn’t need to be afraid of sharing the darkest details of their lives.
On Monday morning, just hours after the story was published online, the magazine’s website appeared to be hit by a DDoS attack blocking any attempt to successfully read any article coming from New York. The alleged hacker told the Daily Dot the hacking had nothing to do with the cover story and it was instead motivated by a recent bad trip to New York City.
http://t.co/pJeaQkGh0M will be down for hours…. 😀 ENJOY
— Vikingdom2016 (@Vikingdom2016) July 27, 2015
People have since responded on social media by using the hashtag #EmptyChair to praise the story and to speak out against sexual assault.
#TheEmptyChair signals the women who couldn’t come forward mostly b/c we, as a culture, wouldn’t believe them. https://t.co/fiG8qii2iO
— Janet Mock (@janetmock) July 27, 2015
There are SO many women who could be the #EmptyChair. Not just Cosby’s rape victims, but rape victims everywhere. They aren’t lying.
— Patrick (@QuadCityPat) July 27, 2015