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Chris Hemsworth isn’t even my favorite Hemsworth, so I’m ambivalent about Chris being named GQ Australia’s Man of the Year. But I am enjoying his beard and his arms. Chris was honored last night in Australia – although he didn’t actually show up to the event – alongside Iggy Azalea (Woman of the Year), Joel Edgerton (Actor of the Year), Jon Hamm (International Man of the Decade) and more. Apparently, Chris’s GQ profile was written by none other than Tom Hiddleston, which is actually the reason I’m covering this.

Tom wrote in GQ: “One morning on the set of Thor: Ragnarok, I watched Chris zero in on an important scene between Thor and Loki with razor-sharp focus and commitment. The scene required a lot of nuance, but he wanted to shoot it quickly, because he had to be off-set by lunchtime in order to make it to father-daughter day at school in the afternoon. That’s a Man of the Year if ever I saw one.”

Hemsworth was unable to attend the black tie dinner in celebration of GQ Australia’s Man of the Year Awards, so he recorded a video message to express his gratitude.

“It’s been a real dream of mine, since I was a young boy, to be a man. I achieved that when I was 18, but this obviously is the icing on the cake and the true recognition of what it takes to be a man—the highest honor,” Hemsworth joked. “I’m just going to continue to do manly stuff throughout my life and uphold that title: chopping firewood, wrestling crocodiles, all sorts of manly business.” After acknowledging his fellow honorees (and ribbing guest Chris Evans), Hemsworth took a moment to give Elsa Pataky props. “Thanks to my wife and all the great women of the world who make us men truly what we are,” he said. “You can’t have a great man without a great woman.”

[From E! News]

Why can’t I put my finger on why this irritates me so much? I don’t know. I guess what bugs me is the whole idea that Chris is being praised (by Hiddles, no less) for having an amazing work-life balance, and managing to make it to his daughter’s school. If we were talking about a “woman of the year,” would that be part of the conversation, or would it be a given that a mom would show up for her kids, instead of being cited as evidence of her goodness?

Photos courtesy of GQ Australia.
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