MTV makes its Video Music Awards completely gender-neutral
Beyonce (Getty Images)
After creating gender-neutral categories for its TV and Movie Awards, MTV has also dropped all gendered awards for its Video Music Awards show.
The Best Female and Best Male Video honours will be combined into one genderless Artist of the Year moonman trophy for the August event.
The award will see Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeran compete against Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Lorde and Bruno Mars.
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MTV sparked controversy earlier this year by adopting gender-neutral categories for its films and TV awards for the first time.
Emma Watson won the first gender-neutral MTV award for best actor for her lead role in Beauty and the Beast, and praised organisers for recognising that “imagination should have no limits”.
Watson’s win in May set off chat show host Piers Morgan, who has continued to make hateful comments against gender-neutral creations – as well as genderfluid and non-binary people – ever since.
MTV has also recognised a few LGBT artists in its nominations.
Miley Cyrus, who has said she is gender-neutral and pansexual, received a nomination for Best Pop Video for her song Malibu.
Young M.A, who came out as a lesbian earlier this year, got a nod for Best New Artist, while Halsey was nominated for Best Cinematography for her hit track Now or Never.
Ariana Grande will compete for the gender-neutral Artist of the Year award just months after a bombing attack at her concert in Manchester killed 22 people.
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Her actions in the weeks following the terror attack earned her praise which led to her being controversially labelled “gay icon of the generation” by Billboard.
A video of Ariana – who also saw her song Side to Side nominated for Best Choreography – tearing into homophobic interviewers went viral last week.
Last year Beyonce became the artist with the most VMA trophies ever, taking her tally to 24 and surpassing Madonna’s previous record of 20.
At the MTV Movie & TV Awards this year, Moonlight, the ground-breaking, Oscar-winning film about a gay black man’s journey to adulthood, won Best Kiss.
Ashton Sanders and Jharrel Jerome became the fifth ever same-sex pair to win the category.
