Since the beginning of human civilization, we’ve fragmented our existence a lot. By different means and on the basis of different aspects of life; biological, physiological, physical, emotional, mental, sexual, etc.
With this extensive amount of fragmentation or division going on the forefront, it was inevitable for certain ideas to get superglued to those divisions. Most times people keep up with the strange labels given to them by doing everything in their power to fit in. And fewer times there’s zero correlation between a person and the bracket they were forced to fit into because people realized they’re much bigger than their labels.
And that bracket and label is called stereotype.
It’s not very easy to break from character especially when that character has been shoved down our throats. But it’s not impossible either. There are many people breaking free from stereotypes and there are many emojis doing the same as well. This blog post is about the latter.
🧔♀️ Woman With a Beard
Oh my gosh! What is this cringe?! *giggling* Geez. A “manly” woman. What’s up with her?? Did you see her?! She’s got a beard! Hahahahaahah.
Cool. Glad someone got their daily dose of humor. But, did you know women too have testosterone and androgen in their bodies? The hormones responsible for all male pubertal changes? Which also includes facial hair growth?
So, since humans are not naturally occurring plastic objects, we tend to have different DNA and hormonal compositions. When that happens, some women tend to have more testosterone and androgen in their bodies than other women. Thus, they have more facial hair.
Also, shocker, women do grow facial hair. We just take them out, because, stereotypes, of course. We grow hair everywhere a man grows hair, including our chest. The only difference? Most women have minimal amounts of testosterone and androgen, which causes minimal body hair growth. The keyword here is, most.
👩🦲 Bald Woman
Omg. God bless her soul. Whatever she’s fighting, I hope she’s okay.
That concern right there? That is what makes us human. But sometimes, that concern comes from a place of ignorance and not exactly compassion. The same goes for when you ask a heavy woman if she’s pregnant or worse ask her about the baby. STOP.
Every bald woman (yes women too can go bald) you see is not always battling a disease. Some of them, like any other human, go bald by choice. SHOCKING!!!
There’s nothing wrong with her, she’s not insecure (in fact she’s extra secure), and she’s okay. If anything, ASK. Ask before assuming. If that’s too awkward, then it’s easier to simply do nothing.
🙅♀️ Woman Gesturing NO
Um. How’s this breaking any stereotype?
Around the world, there are innumerable cases of violence spanning from bullying and verbal abuse to rape, murder, acid attacks, domestic violence, and the list goes on. Humans are very colorful that way. We come up with the latest modes of torture and we love it.
In all this, people have been taught and are even expected to succumb to any situation; good, bad, worse, ugly, horrible, and terrible. And according to stats, it’s mostly, women. So, in a world where a woman’s opinion is as valid as a toothbrush is to a person without teeth, NO is never taken for an answer.
Well, times are changing, son. And it has to. Ignoring the opinion of literally half the population and the reason why there’s life at all on the planet is stupidity at its best. It has to change. It will, all in good time. But until then and even after, “NO”, is a NO. Not a maybe. Not a not-right-now. Not an I’ll think about it. Just. NO.
🧏 Deaf Person
Say what you want, but it’s only now that people with disabilities are being recognized and represented on popular platforms. Being deaf, 🧑🦯 Blind, 👩🦽 using a wheelchair, or possessing any other inability is as human as it gets. We’re the same people. Being “able” doesn’t make us superhuman and being “disabled” doesn’t make us any less human. We’re the same.
So, emojis like the 🧏♂️ Deaf Man, 🧏♀️ Deaf Woman, 👩🦯Woman With White Cane, 👨🦯 Man With White Cane, 🧑🦽 Person in Manual Wheelchair, 🧑🦼 Person in Motorised Wheelchair are definitely here to break the stereotype of poor representation of people with inabilities. And that includes mental illness too.
🤵♀️ Woman in a Tux
Oh, wow! Now, that’s BOLD. Amazing. We’re progressing as a society. We’re breaking barriers, and it’s so wonderful.
As wonderful as it is, many don’t buy, let alone witness the possibility of a woman wearing whatever she wants to. She would invariably be consumed as someone who’s asking for “it”. “It” here is sexual violence, btw.
Here’s a small situation that can explain the issue better.
Customer: *at the store*
Helper: You like that?
Customer: No, no. I'm just browsing. I'll let you know.
Helper: No. You like that. I can see it. Take it.
Customer: What?! I don't want it, man.
Helper: You obviously came in to this store to buy something, right? You were just asking for it.
Customer: WHAT?!
Helper: Gotta buy it, champ. You asked for it.
Customer: No I did not. You are forcing me to buy it. You are forcing me to do something I don't want to.
Helper: You know what. I'll give it to you. All you gotta do is pay the price. But you're taking this product home.
Customer: Why TF should I pay for something I don't want?!
Helper: I don't know, man. You came in here. You asked for it. And I'm giving you what you asked for.
Customer: Fuck it. I'm outta here.
Helper: Not without what you asked for, you're not.
You get the gist. Pointless? Hell, yes. Annoying? Of, course. Does it make any sense? Not even a little. That’s exactly what every single woman on the face of the planet goes through every single day of her life. Except the “product” she’s forced to take home is something that’s bound to shatter her soul, if there’s anything even left of it after all that she faces each day.
All this? Isn’t made up. It may seem like it because women are taught the “virtue” of shutting up about things their whole lives. We’re manipulated in ways we have no choice but to bury all that happened and all that’s happening. So, when we do talk, our stories are so hard to believe and that’s how scary reality is.
👰♂️ Man With a Veil
Yikes. A man wearing a “bride’s” veil?
First of all, it’s not a bride’s veil, it’s just a white veil. Secondly, we cannot call something so biased as fashion, progress. If women dress up the way they want, it’s empowerment, but when it’s vice versa labels are bound to sprout. That’s biased empowerment.
👨🍼 Man Feeding Baby
Chances are that the baby in this emoji is the man’s own child. So, this section is based on that assumption.
“Paternal instincts” are not as evident as maternal instincts, but that doesn’t mean the former has nothing at all. They do. A very strong instinct. But sadly, it’s always not seen or rather shown as much. Media mostly focuses on the mom’s side of the parenting partnership thus giving viewers a stunted view of the father’s role in raising a child.
Sure, there are uninvolved and indifferent fathers in the world. There are such parents and not only fathers. Fatherhood is a wonderful thing that’s a lot more there than it is shown. They’re just as magical as mothers.
We also have a 👩🍼 Mom feeding the baby and a 🧑🍼 Gender Neutral Parent too.
🤶 Mrs Claus
Most of us are aware of Santa Claus. Aware?! He’s a given when it comes to Christmas! Obviously, we’re aware! But. What about his family? He wasn’t Jesus for sure. So he did have a wife. And here she is! Mrs. Claus.
Thanks to patriarchy the “male side” of everything is always dominant. Although she’s referred to as “Mrs. Claus”, we’d like to emphasize that she does have her own name. Just not one that’s consistent. Here are some of her names according to different sources; Holly, Annie, Jessica, Mary, Maya, and Matha.
Given the fictionality of the situation, it’s understandable that one person can have these many names. But the ones that have actually been constant with Santa’s wife are Mother Christmas and Mrs. Claus.
So, the next time you write a letter to the “father” of Christmas, change the subject a little and write it to the “mother of Christmas” too! Or do it alternately.
🧑🎄 Mx Claus
Saint Nicholas was indeed the Man of the Season, come Christmas (after Jesus, of course) He’s the Father of Christmas. But as time has passed and we have progressed (hopefully), it’s not mandatory for only a man to be “Santa Claus” right? So, we have Mx Claus, aka Transgender Santa.
If this ain’t breaking stereotypes, we don’t know what is.
🦾 Mechanical Arm
The “mechanical emojis” starring 🦾 and the 🦿 Mechanical Leg are some of the most wonderful emojis on the list. Yes, they do look “robotic” and “machine-like”, but these emojis represent prosthetics.
It’s a huge iron whack in the face to all the able-bodies.
People with prosthetics and external extensions of body parts or devices that support the functioning of a particular part of the body, like the 🦻 Hearing Aid, are not represented enough on mainstream media.
Like we mentioned before, we’re all the same. So, what’s being layered and hardly visible on widely consumed platforms is fulfilled by digital symbols or emojis. And that’s quite awesome, tbh.
All Women-Centric Emojis
Emojis are not just for fun. They can be revolutionary. Think about it. The first humans etched their own symbols on walls and caves. These symbols were a part their language. They had deep meaning and interpretation attached to each of them.
Since the current era is built upon technology and the internet, emojis might just be the “symbols” of the current digital age. Which makes them, our symbols.
Each of the emoji categories that involve women is breaking at least one gender barrier across the world or in small parts of it. One bias at a time. If not, these emojis are at the least creating awareness and empowerment.
Women aren’t represented enough on many platforms and in many professions. This ain’t because we’re incapable, but because we’re aren’t allowed to work where we want to. So, in such a biased world, these women-centric emojis are creating equality online.
All Gender-Neutral Emojis
This section comes down to the basis of this list; stereotypes, and how strongly they’re attached to the biology (gender/sex) of a person.
Before we talk about “gender neutrality”, it’s important to understand that not everything that has the word “gender” in it, is about the LGBTQIA+ community. Yes, there are non-binary people, but gender-neutrality transcends the physical. It involves the way we think, the way we act, the beliefs we have, etc.
It talks to something that’s way beyond physicality.
When something is gender-neutral, it will not have a gender attached to it. Everything will just be human. Nothing masculine, nothing feminine, nothing binary. It wouldn’t be mankind, it would be humankind.
When “gender” is out of the equation, that is, when everything is neither black nor white and it can all be grey, the ideas attached with black and white will stop becoming the norm. Hence anything that’s in between will be accepted and celebrated. That way, there will be no suffering and torture branching out of difference.
Love is Love
If you’ve noticed, there are emojis of two women holding hands, two men sharing a kiss, and two women having a family. If these emojis made you uncomfortable, this section is precisely for you.
So, what is this all about? These emojis represent the LGBTQIA+ community. Actually, screw the labels. These emojis just represent different forms of love, families, and companionship.
Many are not used to the fact that a woman can fall in love with a woman and that a man can have a family with another man. How will they make babies, hahahah. Seriously? That’s the problem? In fact, many have a fixed idea about how a family should look like. Tell you what, even a human with a bunch of dogs is family.
Anyhoo. These emojis are sending some ripples of awareness about different people, different lives, different sex lives (although it’s none of anybody’s business), different preferences, orientations, etc., and that’s breaking stereotypes for sure.
Division is dangerous. It’s destructive, hateful, and narcissistic. Unity is our thing. It’s always been our thing. We ought to live by that basic and natural law. The barriers we’ve created amongst us and between us and the rest of the earth are making the planet such a pathetic place for life.
Change is coming. Much like winter, and like the great war, here too, life would win. But not against death. Against ourselves. So, in the meantime, let’s bring in more love, more unity, more kindness, more equality, more respect, and more representation for all those who identify as human.
We hope you like these stereotype and barrier-breaking emojis, and we hope they come to the rescue in times of great stereotypes.