PHOTO: Women are farmers, chefs and mechanics too, and emojis will soon represent that.(Google).
Raise your emoji glasses and maybe even bust out a dancing lady to celebrate the weird and wonderful symbols for World Emoji Day.
July 17 was chosen to commemorate what some see as an “emerging language” because the Apple calendar emoji is set to July 17.
There is even an official World Emoji Day anthemand Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, an avid emoji user, tweeted about it.
Emojis often act as a mirror to society and represent important cultural values surrounding ethnicity, religion and sexuality.
To improve the gender diversity of the characters, Unicode Emoji Subcommittee has agreed to add 11 new “professional” emojis in both male and female options with all skin tones.
Although there are several which depict men in jobs such as police officer, paramedic and construction worker, the only options women have are princess and bride.
Because women do more than wear crowns or wedding dresses, Google made a proposal in May for a wider range of professions to “reflect the pivotal roles women play in the world”.
“While there’s a huge range of emoji, there aren’t a lot that highlight the diversity of women’s careers, or empower young girls,” Google said.
So get ready to see 100 new emojis including gender and race diverse teachers, scientists, farmers, chefs, mechanics and even rock stars.
Two camel emojis but only one representing disability
Another demographic under-represented in emoji world are people with disabilities, an issue which has also been highlighted today by disability charity Scope.
Currently there is only one emoji to represent disability, a wheelchair-user sign (often used as an accessible toilet sign).
PHOTO: The popular dancing lady emoji has been re-created to show a woman with a prosthetic leg. (Scope)
Although the latest emoji release in June included Olympic sports, there was no recognition of the Paralympics.
So Scope released a new set of 18 emojis featuring people with disabilities and Paralympic sports, even featuring the popular dancing lady emoji with a prosthetic leg.
“From crème caramel to two types of camel, emojis offer a colourful array of more than 1,800 characters to help sum up how you’re feeling … so it’s disappointing that disabled people are represented with just one emoji,” Scope campaign manager Rosemary Frazer said.
“As a wheelchair user, I’m shocked by the lack of imagination. This one symbol can’t represent me and the disabled people I know.”
More than 90 per cent of the world’s population use emojis, with young women the biggest users.(ABC News).
(Naturally, we knew you’d want to see what the new Scope disability emoji’s look like. So here they are, WDSA UK):
We are hoping alongside Scope that the18 new emoji designs will inspire Unicode, the organisation that oversees emojis, to represent disabled people in a positive way. We will certainly be using them during the forthcoming Paralympics on our social media. (WDSA UK)