Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Bono Named Glamour’s First ‘Man of the Year’ at ‘Women of the Year’ Ceremony

Fine, so I don’t know much about Bono, other than that he’s the guy from U2, and that on BBC podcasts, they make fun of his earnestness. Also that he is a supporter of Jewish poetry, and an opponent of Donald Trump, so, go Bono! I mention Bono now, on the Sisterhood, because he has recently #CausedControversy by getting selected as Glamour magazine’s “Man of the Year Award” for his activism. He received the honor at Glamour’s “Women of the Year Awards,” which… yup.

How are we supposed to feel about this? That is, about an award otherwise given to women, going instead to a dude? A mix of ways. I think it’s important, given the down-the-toilet-ish-ness of contemporary politics, to take support where you find it. Even from Bono name-checking Sheryl Sandberg and Lena Dunham at a women’s magazine event, a convergence of tidbits that probably caused some socialist heads to explode. Now is not the moment to start calling out would-be ‘allies’ for being too self-righteous. If a man trips up a bit when trying to promote feminism, or a non-Jew when trying to oppose anti-Semitism, it’s like, nobody’s perfect, at least they’re not being Bannon-esque? And points, I suppose, for acknowledging the criticism?

At the same time, without shaming either Glamour or Bono, without devolving into a rant about members of privileged groups making it about them, we can use this moment to remember that activism can’t just be well-meaning haves doing their part. It can’t just be the leveraging of privilege for the greater good, followed by the proverbial cookie. Now is probably not the moment to make an enormous thing about how, whenever women get together to try to enact political change, a man comes charging in to make it about him. But it’s a phenomenon worth keeping in the back of our minds.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.