If you’re looking for an easy way to purge your group of friends, how about eliminating anyone who texts with the following:
(For reference, that is pop star Beyoncé and “notorious” Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the top row, and on the bottom, Oprah Winfrey and Lena Dunham — of course.)
These “femojis” are the product of MAKERS, “a digital and video storytelling platform that aims to be the largest and most dynamic collection of women’s stories ever assembled.” The group hopes Apple, in the wake of expanding the racial diversity of its emoji collection, will do the same when it comes to sex.
Touting the project, the organization writes:
Compared to larger global women’s issues, emojis may seem insignificant, but these tiny characters have become the primary language young girls use to express themselves in text messages or on social media. And if they don’t see a female police officer like Val Demmings [chief of the Orland Police Department, a Democrat], are they less likely to aspire to be one?
In the words of many of our MAKERS, “You have to see it to be it.”
If Apple is going to make an effort to be progressive and value diversity, their next iOS update needs to feature a larger representation of females in their emoji alphabet.
In the spirit of valuing diversity, we clicked around the full “femoji” list, but, strangely, we couldn’t find the Carly Fiorina or Megyn Kelly femojis.