I know, I get it.
You’re mad.
Glamour magazine creates a ‘Woman Of The Year’ award, and then goes and gives it to a MAN. A man! Can we not have anything of our own?
When I first read that Bono was the recipient of this year’s newly-created ‘Man Of The Year’ award – over nominees Simone Biles, Nadia Murad and Zendaya – I was equally outraged.
Just a week earlier I had been reading how a man won the International Olympic Committee’s ‘Women And Sport’ award. Seriously. First we miss out on a female president, and now this. What the hell was going on?
But as the internet’s hotlines lit up with disgruntled women across the globe having a go at Bono, I realised something.
He deserved that award.
OK, let’s take a look at what the Glamour awards are actually all about.
Glamour, of course, is a magazine owned by Condé Nast. A big one. It’s one of the world’s longest running publications, having being around since 1939.
In 1980, Glamour decided it was high time to celebrate extraordinary and inspirational women, and so created the ‘Women Of The Year’ awards.
Over the years, winners have come from all walks of life, from entertainment and music, business, sports, science, medicine, education, and even politics. Previous winners have included singer Cher, author Gloria Feldt, and TV host Ellen DeGeneres.
The qualifying criteria is simple: be someone who lifts women up, gives them a voice, and inspires them to greater things.
Right, so. Bono.
Best known as the man of transition lenses and consistently sheer t-shirts. The rock star of U2. The husband to powerhouse Ali Hewson. The dude who sung ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’. A man, by any definition, and most definitely not a woman.
So what the heck is he doing crashing the Glamour awards? Because Bono, my dear reader, is one of the great modern feminists.
Among a slew of other charitable deeds over the years (including Amnesty International, Live Aid, Chernobyl, AIDS, Live 8 and more), Bono has been a lifelong campaigner for equality between the sexes.
In recent years, Bono has been particularly vocal about why the battle for gender equality must be fought by both women and men. His own mother passed away at the age of 14, and he has been with wife Ali ever since. He is the family of two girls, and describes them as a ‘family of activists’.
Daughter Eve notes that before heading off on charity tours, Bono would say to them, “I’m leaving you, so other fathers don’t have to leave their daughters.”
His ONE campaign to end extreme poverty has seen countless women vaccinated, educated, inspired, and given a chance at life otherwise denied by their circumstances. His ‘Poverty Is Sexist’ campaign has in particular shone the light on women in developing countries.
In his words: “We have pledged our life to fighting this battle.”
What does sexism mean to you?
Maybe it was a missed job opportunity, or a slur from a male colleague. Maybe it was realising your pay was significantly less than your male counterpart. Maybe it was dodging fertility questions once passing the age of 30.
Look, whatever it was, it’s serious. Any shade of sexism is serious. Equality is a battle that’s fought on an infinite number of battlefields from the office to the home and back again.
But what is so exciting about Glamour‘s selection this year is finding someone who bringing our attention from our first-world feminist journey to somewhere that needs it maybe a little bit more – that is, developing nations.
“Poverty is sexist. Poverty is worse for women and girls,” said Bono is his acceptance speech.
“It denies them the essentials like human rights and health, but it also denies them a way out through education and opportunity. They can work the land, but they can’t own it. They can earn the money, but they can’t bank it.”
This kind of sexism is the type that doesn’t offend women, or slow them down… but kills them.
Bono is a tireless campaigner for this cause, for women in underprivileged circumstances. And for that, he deserves to be recognised.
Not because there’s a ‘shortage of females’.
Because he deserves it.
Top Comments
I'm unclear as to whether Glamour created a Man of the Year award or if it is just being called that as a man won it. You are right there a outstanding men out there who are doing outstanding things but I do struggle with the idea that a woman of the year award going to a man.
I have come across this paragraph in a number of articles.
"Other award winners include International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, fashion designer Miuccia Prada, pop star Gwen Stefani, Daesh kidnapping survivor Nadia Murad, Black Lives Matter activists Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garz, and Opal Tometi, model Ashley Graham, actress Zendaya and Olympic gymnast Simone Biles."
Instead of focusing on one person perhaps focusing on all the awards would be beneficial. With so many awards only the details of one are promoted and celebrated what about talking about all the others too.
This award makes sense. Good for Bono and good on him for his good works.
Last year when they gave it to Caitlyn Jenner I did not agree with that at all. Because I didn't her doing anything for women or transgender. She did it for herself and her profile and her reality show.
Yeah, that kind of bugged me too. I get that it's important for young transgender people to have visible role models and so on, but at that point, about all she'd done was transition. At least give her time to actually do something for other people.