The creative geniuses behind the emojis we use every day have released a slew of new designs. The new emojis include a gender-neutral “person with crown,” interracial handshakes, and, weirdly, a mustached “pregnant man.”
The latest batch of emojis that could be hitting smartphone screens soon were revealed on Thursday, and they include some head-scratching choices: an androgynous “person with crown” as an alternative to the gendered “prince” or “princess” emojis, 15 new interracial handshake combinations, a gender-neutral “pregnant person,” and, most confusingly, a “pregnant man” with a mustache.
The inclusion of a pregnant man is not a joke, nor is it a reference to the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy ‘Junior’. Instead, Emojipedia – a member of the Unicode Consortium responsible for creating and releasing new emojis – said the pregnant man was included to “recognize that pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people.”
These new creations are only a shortlist, and emoji fans can vote for their favorite abominations, with the winners set to be announced on Saturday, or World Emoji Day. The actual winning designs will be released later this year.
The pregnant man was slated online, as were the creators responsible for him. “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but men can’t get pregnant,” Abigail Marone, press secretary for Republican Senator Josh Hawley, tweeted.
This isn’t the Unicode Consortium’s first dabble with wokeness. A collection of bearded ladies and interracial gay couples was released earlier this year, and Apple has included gender-neutral versions of its emojis since 2019.
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