MTV VMAs 2017: Moonman trophy to be called Moon Person in continued gender neutrality efforts

Los Angeles: As a move towards gender neutrality, MTV has decided to change the name of its Video Music Award (VMA) trophy — the “Moonman” statue — to “Moon Person” .

Network President Chris McCarthy shared the news during an interview with The New York Times, reports Variety. 

McCarthy said: “Why should it be a man? It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be transgender, it could be nonconformist.” The announcement comes as part of a push by MTV for more inclusive awards, including the decision to get rid of gendered acting categories at its movie and TV Awards.

In the upcoming 2017 MTV VMAs, the winners will be taking home the gender neutral figure. The award ceremony, to be hosted by Katy Perry, will be held on 27 August at Inglewood, California. It will be aired in India on 28 August on Vh1.

McCarthy also announced a new series called We Are They. The docu-series will recount gender nonconforming youths’ coming-of-age stories. He also revealed plans to bring back Total Request Live.

Katy Perry will host this year’s MTV Video Music Awards and she was also the first performer announced for the award show. MTV has experimented with different host formats for the annual party, which are generally better remembered for attention-grabbing on-stage incidents than for the award winners. Miley Cyrus hosted the event two years ago, but in 2016, MTV decided to have multiple presenters throughout the night rather than a single host.

With inputs from wire agencies