Tag: Emoji

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A Period Emoji Is Coming and It's About Damn Time


For all the time we spend talking about periods, it’s appalling (appalling!) that not a single emoji can adequately represent that time of the month. A syringe, a germ, and poo have all made the cut but there’s no emoji that can adequately speak to our monthly menstruation? Seriously?! Finally, that’s about to change. A period emoji is being released this moth.

The period emoji, a rather cute little droplet of blood, comes after a campaign by Plan International UK, a charity fighting for girls’ rights around the globe, to help put an end to period stigma. Literally everyone on the planet either has a period or knows someone who does but still, period stigma remains a very real thing. A 2017 survey by Plan International UK found nearly half of girls in the UK between 14 and 21 were embarrassed by their period. But it’s not just about embarrassment over Aunt Flo that matters—around the globe, period stigma keeps women and girls from work and school. In some cultures, period stigma even threatens women’s lives.

The shame needs to stop. “With emoji becoming one of the fastest growing global languages, we realized having a period emoji could help change things,” Plan International UK said. Think about it: if the poop emoji has made it easier to talk about that bodily function, a period emoji can help normalize menstruation. At least it’s a start.

The droplet of blood is admittedly kind of generic (Plan International UK’s first choice period emoji, a pair of period panties, was rejected by the global governing body of emojis) so, may we suggest a combination of the period emoji followed by ?, ? and ? to make sure your point gets across.

So when can you start getting your menstruation emoji on? The period emoji will be added to your keyboard sometime this year, according to Emojipedia. It’s not the only stigma-reducing emoji on the way—new emojis for 2019 also include people in wheelchairs and people with disabilities.

Credit: Emojipedia

Here’s to ending stigmas one emoji at a time.



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Did Kim Kardashian Block the Snake Emoji From Her Instagram Account?


Let’s take a trip down memory lane to Sunday, July 17, 2016. It’s late. You’re about to crawl into bed and dream about work being canceled the next day, when all of a sudden your phone starts blowing up. “Kim exposed Taylor,” 19 people texted you simultaneously. What!? WTF does that mean? Exposed what? Exposed how? Were these people referring to Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift or just two random people named Kim and Taylor? So many questions, but you’re too tired to find the answers.

You begrudgingly log onto the Internet, and that’s when you see it: Kardashian’s lengthy Snapchat Story, which features her husband, Kanye West, and Swift having a detailed phone conversation about his song “Famous.” You’re immediately reminded of the drama that led to this phone conversation: Swift claimed she didn’t approve of West calling her a “bitch” on “Famous,” but both he and Kardashian said the opposite. According to them, Swift absolutely green-lit the lyric—and she was excited about the controversy.

Kardashian published this phone conversation to set the record straight, but it honestly didn’t confirm anything one way or the other. Yes, Swift and West talked about “Famous” during their chat, but not the “bitch” lyric specifically. All this proved was that Swift knew about the song in general, but not the details.

Of course, this didn’t stop the Internet from praising Kardashian for “exposing” Swift. The hashtag #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty quickly popped up on Twitter, and fans started spamming Swift’s account with the snake emoji to show their disdain.

Why the snake emoji? That’s what people were using at this time to bully Swift. This started happening after Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Calvin Harris, went on a Twitter rant about her, but it really ramped up after the Kardashian drama.

But now Swift is fighting back. On Monday (August 21), she started dropping mysterious snake videos on her Instagram page. These clips led to the announcement of her new album, Reputation, which seems to be a clap-back to everyone who trolled her last year—including the people who called her a “snake.”

She’s officially reclaimed the snake emoji as a positive symbol, and her fans are living for this. They’ve reclaimed the emoji, too—but now they’re using it against Kardashian. Just look at this recent message Kardashian posted to Twitter; several Swift fans replied to it with—you guessed it—snake emojis.

Is this petty? Absolutely. Kardashian, though, still isn’t standing for it. According to BuzzFeed, the reality TV star has blocked the snake emoji from her Instagram page—which means people can’t use it in her comments section. A BuzzFeed staffer wrote the snake emoji on Kardashian’s page but then noticed it disappeared when he tried to view it from a different account. Interesting.

Apparently, this is a thing you can do. If you go to Instagram’s settings and select “comments,” you can set a filter that prevents certain phrases from appearing on your page—including emojis.

So…did Kardashian do this because of Swift? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s totally possible she’s just afraid of snakes now and doesn’t want to see them. They are snakes, after all.



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Kendall Jenner Is Getting Criticized Right Now for Using This Emoji


Kendall Jenner has encountered her fair share of social media criticism. Two weeks ago the supermodel had to deal with a barrage of messages from people who didn’t think she tipped her bartender in New York City. (She claims she tipped in cash.) And now Jenner is under fire for using a specific emoji in one of her tweets.

Let’s back up: In honor of Keeping Up With the Kardashians turning 10 this year, The Hollywood Reporter featured Kendall, her mother, Kris, and sisters, Kylie, Kim, Khloé, and Kourtney, on its cover last week. Naturally, the gals celebrated this with a string of social media posts. Kim kept her tweet short and sweet, simply writing out the name of THR‘s story: “The Kardashian Decade.” Kris said it was an “honor” to be on the publication’s cover.

But Kendall got a little crafty with her message. She uploaded a pic of the cover to Twitter and captioned it, “sister power…girl power,” alongside a medium skin-tone fist-bump emoji. See it for yourself, below:

Several fans had an issue with the skin color Jenner chose for her emoji, asserting that her family isn’t Black and therefore shouldn’t use it. “Y’all are not black. Next time use a white emoji,” one person tweeted. “Kendall & Kylie are worst of the Jenners & Kardashians. REALLY KENDALL?! You’re white. Not black. Use the correct emoji. Stop f–king up,” another user wrote. Someone even said Jenner using this fist bump was a form of cultural appropriation. Check out just a few of these reactions, below:

However, not everyone had an issue with Jenner’s emoji. A few fans came to the 21-year-old’s defense and said her critics were reading too much into this. “People are ACTUALLY mad about the COLOUR of the emoji Kendall Jenner used. Surely there’s more important things to be angry about?” a user named @jazz_matchett tweeted. See some other replies, below:

Jenner hasn’t commented on this story yet, but stay tuned.



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