MTV was an integral part of my youth. Of course, back then the network played music videos with the occasional game show. Today, it’s a morass of teen angst-themed television shows and lazy virtue signaling.

The latest virtue signaling comes as the network has announced that their “Moonman” trophy is now a “Moon Person.”

From The Federalist Papers:

Because MTV needs to be at the forefront of everything stupid, they’re re-naming the trophy they give out for their Video Music Awards. The “Moonman” trophy will be given the gender-free name “Moon Person,” because everybody knows that if they didn’t do that, a female simply would never … um … set foot on the moon (which hasn’t happened, by the way. Maybe leftists can blame Moonman after all). In a bizarre interview with the New York Times, the 42-year-old President of MTV, Chris McCarthy, said all their awards will be “gender neutral” from now on – just like “Moon Person.” “Why should it be a man?” Mr. McCarthy said. “It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be transgender, it could be nonconformist.”

If this had happened a decade ago, I wouldn’t have cared. The only reason the idea of a woman walking on the moon seems ludicrous isn’t that they’re not capable, but only because it seems that so few care about going back to our nearest solar system neighbor.

What bothers me is that it’s just lazy virtue signaling. It’s the network trying to show that they’re young, hip, and into all the cool things such as showing just how understanding they are of women and people of various sexual identities.

The thing is, no one cared in the first place.

The Moonman trophy came about as a result of one of the network’s first spots, which featured footage of a man walking on the moon, holding a flag bearing the MTV logo. If I remember correctly, it was actual footage of Neil Armstrong planting the American flag.

The spot became a key part of the network’s identity, so when they created the first Video Music Awards, an astronaut was the logical choice to put on the trophy.

Yet it was always said to be a man because that spot was of a man planting the MTV flag. Only men have walked on the moon. For better or worse, that is an unassailable fact. As a result, remarkably few people felt like the “Moonman” should be anything else. One would be hard pressed to find people upset that a trophy for the best videos (on a network that doesn’t show them anymore) wasn’t more inclusive. I’m sure you can, because there are people who will get butthurt over anything, but their numbers are small and relatively silent.

MTV may argue they’re being proactive, but I say they’re just trying to make sure the left remembers the network is on their side.