According to The Independent, this award was created especially for the 16-year-old environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, who received her award in London last week at GQ's annual awards ceremony, where honourees are recognised for their outstanding contributions to popular culture, politics and activism by the men's magazine.
Greta's award is therefore a nod to the #FridaysforFuture movement, which garnered much attention and praise last year "when her decision to go on strike from school to raise awareness for environmental issues inspired 1.6 million others around the world to do the same."
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The editor of British GQ told The Independent that “the Game Changer Award was created for Greta Thunberg. Her fearless dedication to raising awareness of the global climate change crisis makes her the absolute embodiment of this award and on behalf of GQ we couldn’t be prouder to celebrate her at the upcoming GQ Men of the Year Awards.”
The teen Swede's October issue cover is now her second since her ballsy display of activism for climate change in August last year, as she's appeared on the cover of Time magazine as one of their 100 most influential people.
Reading through Greta Thunberg's 12-month strong list of accolades and moments on international podiums including the UN's, it's difficult to not admire her strides (or should we strikes) towards climate change. However, her recent appearance in the British GQ October issue has sparked a sense of indignation from a few social media users.
A 16-year-old autistic Swedish girl lecturing men not to drive fast cars and to recycle jam jars instead on the front page of a "men's magazine" is surely peak masculinity. pic.twitter.com/heq8gVxy57
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 16, 2019
Hi ???? female chiming in here since everyone’s telling men they shouldn’t have an opinion on this. This cover is f_cking stupid. No one wants to have climate change shoved down their throat by what’s supposed to be a men’s style magazine.
— Mindy Robinson ???? (@iheartmindy) August 18, 2019
I'm passionate about the planet but this girl is so cringy I want to drive to the lake and throw a plastic bag in it
— Aliquam Surgere (@alwgil1) August 16, 2019
I can only assume GQ want to go out of business.
— RG esq. (@ryanmchugh77) August 16, 2019
But in this thread, many more came to Greta and GQ's defense, swiftly hushing the opinions of naysayers - you know, just another day on Twitter.
no peak masculinity is whinging on the internet about how a magazine cover hurt your feelings
— Burt! Burt! Burt! (@BurtStanton3) August 17, 2019
A 37-year-old man crying because
— Rational Disconnect (@RationalDis) August 17, 2019
"Muh mEn'S mAGaZinEs GOt a gIrL oN It!" is surely peak masculinity pic.twitter.com/S6bvee7DmQ
insecure men getting offended by science is my favourite 2019 trend
— Zoe Thorogood (@zoethorogood) August 18, 2019
It goes without saying that the handful of outraged social media users has their anger somewhat misdirected. Could it be that they're perturbed by the fact that a 16-year-old teen with Asperger’s is on the cover, thereby not pandering to the male gaze in any way or is it the fact that their quarterly fix of "looking sharp and living smart" is now interrogating the latter part of this slogan in terms of their environmental habits in particular?
The jury's still out on this one, we guess.
However, what can be said is that a truly eco-conscious issue of the gentlemen's glossy could have perhaps made one where a climate change activist is on the cover a digital edition in the spirit of saving the trees and the future Greta would like to see.
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