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2017 MTV Awards Celebrate Gender 'Fluidity'

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MTV did away with gender-specific categories for its acting awards this year, including men and women in the same category.

Emma Watson was given the award for best actor for her role in "Beauty and the Beast."

"I feel I have to say something about the award itself. The first acting award in history that doesn't separate nominees based on their sex says something about how we perceive the human experience," Watson said, according to E!News. 

"MTV's move to create a genderless award for acting will mean something different to everyone. But to me, it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. And that doesn't need to be separated into two different categories," she continued.

Amy Doyle, the general manager of MTV, VH1, and Logo said the decision to eliminate male and female acting categories was a "cultural statement," and the driving force behind the change was the MTV audience which is "uniformly rejecting obsolete labels and embracing fluidity." 

The entire awards show seemed to follow that same theme, according to newsbusters.org, an organization devoted to exposing and combating liberal media bias. 

Here are a few of the changes to this years MTV award show that they spotlight:

The first award presenter was Asia Kate Dillon, the first gender non-binary character on television. Dillon says auditioning the character in her show, "Billions," led to her own "self-discovery."

". . . when I saw the breakdown for the character, it said 'female, nonbinary.' And I thought, 'Interesting, I think I know about those words, but let me do research into every aspect of this character and their world and who they are.' And so, female meaning sex and non-binary meaning a gender identity that is an umbrella term for people who identify as neither man nor a woman. I just went, 'oh my gosh, there is language to express something about myself that I've always known, but could never put words to,'" Dillon told Vulture. 

Next, the Best Kiss Award was given to the only gay kissing couple nominated. 

And finally, the Best Fight award was changed this year to the Best Fight Against the System Award. 

"We have to constantly be pushing ourselves to not only respond to culture but lead it," MTV President Chris McCarthy told CNNMoney.

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Caitlin Burke Headshot
Caitlin
Burke

Caitlin Burke serves as National Security Correspondent and a general assignment reporter for CBN News. She has also hosted the CBN News original podcast, The Daily Rundown. Some of Caitlin’s recent stories have focused on the national security threat posed by China, America’s military strength, and vulnerabilities in the U.S. power grid. She joined CBN News in July 2010, and over the course of her career, she has had the opportunity to cover stories both domestically and abroad. Caitlin began her news career working as a production assistant in Richmond, Virginia, for the NBC affiliate WWBT