It's a small step for one man and a great genderless leap for Xerkind.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, MTV President Chris McCarthy said the network's iconic Moonman trophy has been discontinued. From now on, the metallic figurine — whose impenetrably opaque helmet has become the unofficial "face" of MTV's Video Music Awards — will go by "Moon Person" instead. Because who knows what's really going on beneath that lacquered astronaut getup, anyway.
"Why should it be a man?" McCarthy told the Times. "It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be transgender, it could be nonconformist."
It could be a complete absurdity. Which it is. Also the actual astronauts were men. But who cares about them anyway. Or MTV's line up of reality shows.
But sadly the MTV revamp seems to leave McCarthy as a man. If MTV really is serious about this, it will force its president to acknowledge his cishet privilege and go genderless.
This new development is just the latest installment in MTV's string of efforts to do away with gender norms during its awards proceedings. The network eliminated gender-specific categories at its MTV Movie & TV Awards earlier this year, where all nominees were placed in neutral categories (i.e. best actor in a show, best actor in a movie).
But the awards will still be just as worthless.
And the network isn't going to stop there. McCarthy also announced a new MTV reality series — still in development —called "We Are They" about a group of gender-nonconforming young adults coming of age.
So it's just more Real World then.