The husband of a NYPD officer killed on September 11 has returned his late wife’s Glamour magazine “Woman of the Year” award after the magazine conferred the same honor upon Bruce Jenner last week.
Moira Smith, the only female NYPD officer to die while rescuing people at the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terror attacks, was posthumously honored with Glamour‘s Woman of the Year award in 2001.
But according to the New York Post, James Smith, Moira’s husband, has returned the award to Glamour after the magazine honored Jenner, the former Olympian and reality television show star, with the same award last week. Other recipients of this year’s award included actress Reese Witherspoon and Victoria Beckham.
In a letter to Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive, Smith said he was “shocked and saddened” that the magazine had honored Jenner, according to AdWeek.
Smith’s full letter reads:
Dear Ms. Leive,
On October 29th, 2001 I was honored to accept the Glamour magazine “Woman of the Year” Award posthumously given to my wife, Police Officer Moira Smith. Moira was killed on September 11th, 2001 while rescuing thousands from the World Trade Center. EMT Yamel Merino was also posthumously honored that evening for her heroism.
I was shocked and saddened to learn that Glamour has just named Bruce Jenner “Woman of the Year.” I find it insulting to Moira Smith’s memory, and the memory of other heroic women who have earned this award. Was there no woman in America, or the rest of the world, more deserving than this man? At a time when we have women in the armed forces fighting and dying for our country, heroic doctors fighting deadly diseases, women police officers and firefighters putting their lives on the line for total strangers, brave women overcoming life-threatening diseases… The list of possibilities goes on… Is this the best you could do?
I can only guess that this was a publicity stunt meant to resuscitate a dying medium. After discussing this slap in the face to the memory of our Hero with my family, I have decided to return Moira’s award to Glamour magazine.
In a statement to the Post, a Glamour spokesperson said the magazine had received a FedEx package containing the letter and the award, and also defended its decision to award Jenner.
“We were proud to honor his wife… in 2001, and we stand by our decision to honor Caitlyn Jenner,” the spokesperson told the paper. “Glamour‘s Women of the Year Awards recognize women with a variety of backgrounds and experiences.”
Smith was not the only one incensed by Glamour‘s decision to award Jenner the prized honor; in October, feminist icon Germaine Greer similarly bashed the magazine.
“I think misogyny plays a really big part in all of this, that a man who goes to these lengths to become a woman will be a better woman than someone who is just born a woman,” Greer said in a recent BBC interview.
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