School, college and other closings for Monday

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

magazine has reserved the "Women of the Year" award for, well, women.


Previous proposals for a male nominee were rejected "on the grounds that men aren't exactly hurting for awards in this world," the magazine writes. But this year, the glossy broke with tradition and named Bono as its first Man of the Year.

Bono was recognized for establishing a campaign called "Poverty is Sexist," which is "specifically aimed at helping the world's poorest women," Glamour writes.


"I'm sure I don't deserve it," Bono told 

. "But I'm grateful for this award as a chance to say the battle for gender equality can't be won unless men lead it along with women. We're largely responsible for the problem, so we have to be involved in the solutions."
The gesture of giving a Woman of the Year award to a man was also inspired by the woman-friendly actions of other men, including President Obama identifying as a feminist and "super-cool actors" endorsing the United Nations' #HeForShe campaign, 

 life-imitating-art similarities to a plotline on the show 

, where Ron Swanson received a Woman of the Year award from a committee that said, in part, "Every year, we give it to a woman, and, frankly, nobody cares."
And it must be said that 

 headlines in a way that, perhaps, the prize otherwise would not. We at The Two-Way have never written about the 

 Women of the Year before.
So lest we let one man overshadow the accomplishments of many women, let's all take a moment to appreciate the 

Women of the Year honorees, who include:


, gymnast extraordinaire who took home four gold medals at the Rio Olympics this summer.
"I've been brought up to never take anything for granted and to always be the best Simone—the best version of myself," Biles 

the pseudonymous survivor of the Stanford University sexual assault who wrote a widely read open letter to her assaulter, Brock Turner.

Turner was convicted and sentenced to just a few months' jail time, with his success as an athlete cited as a factor in his favor and the judge expressing concern that a harsher sentence would have a "severe impact" on his life.


"Emily Doe" wrote a powerful letter to Turner that she read at his sentencing. Later, her words went viral on 

 to watch the world discover her story — the shock of getting a note from Vice President Joe Biden, the joy of seeing other women and girls lend their voices to her words. And the painful comments, too.
"In the very beginning of it all in 2015, one comment managed to lodge harmfully inside me: 

Sad. I hope my daughter never ends up like her," 

"I absorbed that statement. Ends up. As if we end somewhere, as if what was done to me marked the completion of my story." She continued:

Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, 

founders of the Black Lives Matter movement who coined the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. "We gave tongue to something that we all knew was happening," Tometi 

. "We were courageous enough to call it what it was. But more than that, to offer an alternative. An aspirational message."

The three women 

 this summer about the changes they've seen in the last few years, and they're hopes for the future.


"I think if we demonstrate a collective commitment and a collective practice to changing not just how police and policing happens in this country, but certainly to changing the conditions that black communities are living and existing in, then we have a real shot for living in a world that is more just, more equitable — in a world where black lives actually do matter," Garza told NPR.

"We talk about this movement really blossoming in the last three years," Cullors said. "But ... we're part of a movement that's been happening for hundreds of years, and this just happens to be a tipping point."

survivor of ISIS captivity and human rights activist. Murad was captured by ISIS in 2014, during the infamous Islamic State attack on the Yazidi religious minority in the area around Iraq's Mount Sinjar. We'll let 

, which is graphic and deeply disturbing:



Murad ultimately escaped ISIS territory and arrived at a refugee camp, where she rejoined her older sister and began telling her story to the world. You can read more about Murad's activism on behalf of Yazidi women, including her impassioned testimony before the United Nations, over at 

 Women of the Year award include actress and activist 

Arts and Culture

The honorees also include the survivor of the Stanford sexual assault, the Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad and three female founders of the Black Lives Matter movement.

For first time, Glamour's Women of the Year include a man: Bono

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox