MTV have announced plans to make their Video Music Awards completely gender neutral this year.
This will be the first time since the show was first broadcast in 1984 that it will be gender neutral, and to match up to the changes made to the network in the last year, the show has decided to rename the iconic ‘Moonman’ award the ‘Moonperson’ instead.
Earlier in the year, the network abandoned the gendered categories for the MTV Movie Awards. Following suit, the Video Music Awards have decided to also abandon these categories this year as part of their change.
MTV’s president, Chris McCarthy commented in an interview with the New York Times, “Why should it be a man? It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be transgender it could be a nonconformist.”
Last Thursday, it was announced by the MTV that Katy Perry will be the host of the awards show this year.
The network announced that the award winning singer would be hosting the event this year by posting a picture of the star dressed in an astronaut costume, including a nod to the traditional space theme to the show.
In a recent statment, the Chained to the Rhythm singer joked that for the awards she has started “training in zero gravity”.
The awards will be taking place in California, on Sunday August 27th.
