The Moonlight kiss

In my earlier post about Emma Watson and how MTV has gone gender neutral with their acting awards, I wondered about the impact – specifically whether or not this kind of decision will encourage diversity in storytelling and diversity in storytellers, creating more opportunities for women in the industry. The MTV Movie and TV Awards may not influence the way Hollywood works. But, given its audience, what I don’t doubt is the potential effect the show can have on a younger generation. 

The category that the MTV Movie and TV Awards is probably most known for is Best Kiss. This year the Best Kiss Award went to Moonlight actors Ashton Sanders and Jharrel Jerome. Have you seen Moonlight yet? If not, I’m yelling at you. SEE MOONLIGHT. It’s a gorgeous film and it’s a gorgeous kiss – on the beach, by moonlight, tentative, sweet, and heartbreaking, everything a kiss is in a Nicholas Sparks movie, only this movie is about black men, black male vulnerability, and black love, celebrated in front of a crowd that will hopefully internalise this message and externalise it within their own communities. As Ashton and Jharrel said last night, this kiss was not just a kiss: 

 

"This is bigger than @jharreljerome and I." Congrats on winning Best Kiss ❤️

A post shared by MTV (@mtv) onMay 7, 2017 at 5:56pm PDT

OK but how f-cking cute are they? Look at them on that carpet, posing goofy, posing hard, and feeling themselves in all that steeze. Their presence alone is a statement to those who’ve in the past felt that they would never be invited and never belong at this kind of event. And remember, it’s about how they got there – by being part of a film that is a rejection of toxic male masculinity, a portrait of male tenderness, which is a word that usually gives me the squicks but one that fits perfectly here.