Fast company logo
|
advertisement

NEWS

Women finally get a menstruation emoji

Also included among the next release are emoji for hearing aids, manual and motorized wheelchairs, prosthetic legs and arms, white “probing” canes used by the vision impaired, service dogs, and guide dogs.

Women finally get a menstruation emoji

[Image: courtesy of Aphelandra Messer]

BY Michael Grothaus1 minute read

The Unicode Consortium has announced that 59 new emoji will make it into the sixth major update to the official roster of emoji. With another 171 variants for gender and skin tones, that means a total of 230 new emoji will be coming to your phone by the second half of the year. What’s significant about this latest batch is its focus on disabilities and gender-related experiences.

Included among this release are emoji for hearing aids, manual and motorized wheelchairs, prosthetic legs and arms, white “probing” canes used by the blind and vision impaired, service dogs, and guide dogs. This latest batch of emoji will also see one representing a woman’s period. The menstruation emoji was one fought for by Plan International U.K., a girls’ rights charity that held an online vote for what such an emoji should look like, reports the BBC.

While the vote decided menstruation should be represented with an emoji that was a pair of underwear marked with blood, that idea was rejected by the Unicode Consortium. Instead, the new menstruation emoji will take the form of a single drop of blood, an alternative Plan International U.K. supports.

In addition, new emoji in the latest batch include a yawning face, a person kneeling, a sloth, an otter, an orangutan, a skunk, a flamingo, garlic, a waffle, a falafel, a Hindu temple, ballet shoes, a diya lamp, and more.

advertisement

Recognize your company's culture of innovation by applying to this year's Best Workplaces for Innovators Awards before the final deadline, April 5.

CoDesign Newsletter logo
The latest innovations in design brought to you every weekday.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Privacy Policy

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Grothaus is a novelist and author. He has written for Fast Company since 2013, where he's interviewed some of the tech industry’s most prominent leaders and writes about everything from Apple and artificial intelligence to the effects of technology on individuals and society. Michael’s current tech-focused areas of interest include AI, quantum computing, and the ways tech can improve the quality of life for the elderly and individuals with disabilities More


Explore Topics