Earlier this month, the world learned that one of the winners of US magazine Glamour’s Women of the Year awards was going to male rockstar Bono. Last night, Bono accepted his award with a speech which reflected both the absurdity and heartfelt intention of the award.
Glamour magazine said Bono was included in the list because of his championing of gender equality and his ‘Poverty Is Sexist’ campaign which helps the world’s poorest women. Glamour Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive said “By establishing Poverty Is Sexist, Bono is making it clear that powerful men can, and should, take on these deep-rooted issues.”
During last night’s awards, Bono was introduced to the stage by Amy Poehler who summed up the situation:”It’s gonna be hard to give another one of these awards next year because, frankly, there’s no one more deserving than Bono, and we’re gonna spend the next four years watching white men congratulate themselves. I think we’ll be full up.”
During his speech, Bono read his ‘favourite’ tweets about his nomination: ” ‘Out of all the women alive, Bono is my favourite. It’s just so inspiring how she overcame the adversity of being a millionaire white dude.’, ‘It’s so important that our daughters understand that they can grow up to be Bono’.
“And this is actually my favourite, but it really hurts: ‘Sure, Glamour named Bono woman of the year, but in their defence, the transition lenses do make him look like a 75-year-old lady from Miami'”
The rest of his speech was heartfelt, around the 1:37:00 mark:
Other honorees included Gwen Stefani; Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross; Black Lives Matter founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi; Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles; actress Zendaya; model Ashley Graham; IMF chief Christine Lagarde; ISIS kidnapping survivor Nadia Murad; and Emily Doe, victim of Stanford rapist Brock Turner.
