2018 MTV VMAs Calling Trophies ‘Moon Persons’ Instead of ‘Moon Men’

The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards is the second ceremony since MTV changed the “Moon Man” trophy name to the gender neutral “Moon Person.”

MTV president Chris McCarthy announced the name change in an interview with The New York Times in July 2017.

“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.”

Although the change was instituted before last year’s awards, some fans still took to Twitter to complain during the 2018 VMAs pre-show.

“Moon person!? Really? Y’all so damn pc you took away moon man! Wtf,” one person wrote.

“IT IS NOT ‘MOON PERSON.’ IT IS #MOONMAN #VMAS that sounds so f– clunky. god, I’m watching something die aren’t i,” one very passionate person wrote.

“I’m here for smashing the patriarchy but the VMA award being a ‘moon person’ is the dumbest thing,” Vanity Fair‘s Katey Rich wrote.

“MTV still doin this moon person s– like they really did something,” another viewer wrote.

“A moon person? Since when did the name change?” another asked.

The VMAs have been giving out Moonmen awards since they launched in 1984. The award is a reference to the first MTV broadcast on Aug. 1, 1981, when the network aired footage of an astronaut landing on the moon.

Instead of planting the American flag, the astronaut planted a flag with the MTV logo. “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” an announcer said, officially launching the network.

Photo credit: AFP and Getty Images / Anglea Weiss