According to Unicode’s draft emoji list, a new gender neutral emoji could be on the iPhone soon. The update will have men, women, and a being with “gender inclusive visual attributes.” In a proposal last year, the new emoji will be “open to interpretation in terms of gender without implying masculine or feminine gender explicitly.”
Progress.
In a gripping, modern-day Common Sense, entitled “What is Gender and Why Does it Matter to Emoji,” typeface designer & font developer Paul D. Hunt writes,
“As our emoji communication system continues to evolve with our culture, new emoji are planned for version 10 of the Unicode standard that helps to fill some gaps in gender options and better communicate gender diversity.”
Hunt explains that the future emojis will fill “out the middle of the [gender] spectrum,” for the “post-gender generation.” Hunt continues,
“Not everyone identifies as male or female. Some of us identify as a bit of both, or neither, or something else altogether. Regardless of your gender identity, I hope we can all find adequate ways to express ourselves in emoji.
My wish is that adding more gender options in emoji will help us all to celebrate our unity and our diversity. I advocate for everyone to feel comfortable using emoji men when we feel masculine, emoji women to express our feminine aspects, and gender inclusive emoji whenever we feel like celebrating our humanity regardless of gender.”
Just another small step towards utopia. Heat Street applauds this latest move, but also believes that emojis can go even further toward inclusiveness. After all, New York City’s government recently released a list 31 different genders people can apply to themselves. Until the emoji reactionaries implement an ideogram for “Gender gifted” and “Femme queens,” the struggle continues.
After all, if my $750 digital phone keyboard doesn’t respect the fact that I currently identify as a Victoria’s Secret changing room, we’re no better than barbarians.
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