Glamour magazine's annual list of Women of the Year has just been released, marking the frontman for U2, Bono, to be named as the first Man of the Year in the history of the magazine. The Women of the Year 2016 list covers a lot of territory; noteworthy fashionistas to social justice advocates, to sports heroes and business leaders.
Why the change?
"We've talked for years about whether to honor a man at Women of the Year and we've always kind of put the kibosh on it.
You know, men get a lot of awards and aren't exactly hurting in the celebration and honors department," said Cindi Leive, Glamour's editor-in-chief, as reported by CBS News. The model is outdated and now is the time to recognize the men who are fighting for women.
Bono will join quite a lengthy list of influential women. Some of the more notable from that list include singer and the issues' cover model Gwen Stefani, positive body activist Ashley Graham; known for breaking barriers by gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine as a size 16 model, the Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Christine Lagarde; the first female finance minister of France, also making her the first female in charge of any G8 country's economic portfolio, and Olympian Simon Biles; known for earning 10 world champion gold medals and five medals in the 2016 Olympics.
As you can see, U2 front man, Bono is in excellent company.
Exactly who is Bono, anyway?
Bono, lead singer of U2, has used his high-volume voice to launch such projects as The ONE Campaign and Project (Red.) Bono's attention has been turned mostly towards women and girls who need it the most; those who are faced with the most extreme cases of poverty with his ONE Campaign program, "Poverty is for Sexists."
Bono, real name Paul David Hewson, was born in Ireland in 1960. The band, U2 was formed in 1976 and to this day still contains all original members. He married Alison Stewart (now Hewson) and the couple has four children.
Other achievements include being granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services in humanitarian work, as well as his accomplishments in the music industry.
Bono was named Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2005 and he has also been made Commaneur of the French Ordre des Arts et des Letters.
What has Bono done to earn Man of the Year?
The Project (Red) campaign, a division of The ONE Campaign was launched in 2006 to show everyone that our purchase could have a tremendous effect on those on the other side of the world. In 2005 1,200 babies were born with HIV. Today, that number has decreased to 400. Project (Red) continues to get that number to zero with the hopes of achieving an AIDS-free generation by 2020. Life-saving antiretroviral treatments cost as little as 30 cents a day. Sadly, most people won't see this medicine in their lifetime. Project (Red) is fighting to change that by using 100% of the money to give HIV patients that medication.
The ONE Campaign was formed to help fight the battle against poverty and preventable diseases internationally, turning most of the attention towards Africa. ONE is responsible for lobbying political leaders and running grassroots campaigns to pressure the government to do much more than what they are doing to fight AIDS and other preventable, treatable diseases in the poorest places around the world.
In his fight for a better world, it should come as no surprise that Bono was chosen as the first Man of the Year. When asked how Bono took this news, Leive said after a conversation with Bono's Wife, Ali Hewson "Apparently he turned to his wife and broke the news, and she told him, "Eh, I think you still have some work to do,'" and she laughed.
In an official statement from Bono it was stated that "the battle for gender equality won't be won unless men step up and lead alongside women."
Women and Men of the Year will be featured at the November 14, 2016 ceremony in Los Angeles.