Maneskin were censored at the MTV Music Awards

Yesterday's MTV Video Music Awards were held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, making way for performances by artists from around the world. Technically it's about seeing staged musical performances -not that fashion doesn't play a central role in building an artist's image during such events - to award the best music videos of the year. Among the most anticipated performances was certainly that of Maneskin, who took the stage with the song Supermodel.

Damiano's look, like the styling often exhibited by the rest of the glam rock band, often focused on creating deliberately sexy and genderless looks: for the occasion he wore a pair of Gucci black leather pants fitted with jockstrap and was shirtless. Maneskin's performance at the MTV Video Music Awards was apparently censored after cameras moved away from the stage for an extended period of time to most likely censor the singer's buttocks. Fans were quick to notice the incident, fueling a debate over whether or not male nudity was acceptable and showing all the disappointment over an act of censorship that lacked foundation. After years of genderless collections aimed at the narrative of a masculinity unencumbered by the stereotypes that have fueled cultural and social models since time immemorial, the male body - especially in its most markedly sexualized forms - still lends itself to forms of restraint ascribable to a community anchored to a precise aesthetic imaginary. Will wearing a pair of jockstrap always be socially unacceptable, or is a change taking place?