Many favourite female emojis only wear pink, few play sports and none are represented in professional roles. A campaign from Always brand wants to start this conversation.
Women can’t be police officers, detectives or construction workers but can be brides, princesses or bunny ear-wearing dancers.
At least, according to emojis.
This issue of gendered stereotypes perpetuated by emojis and the subtle limitations stereotypes placed on young girls is the focus of a video and survey from Always brand feminine hygiene products. The video — part of a campaign to promote confidence in young girls — shows girls sadly realizing many of their favourite female emojis only wear pink, and that few are playing sports and none are represented in professional roles.
The Always survey, conducted by MSLGROUP Research utilizing Research Now Panels, included responses from 1,000 American women aged 16 to 24 who were asked questions about their attitudes toward and use of emojis. The online questionnaire found that 75 per cent of respondents want to see female emojis portrayed more progressively and 67 per cent said the available emojis imply girls are limited in what they can do.
“If you scroll through the emoji options ... there is a lot of pink and hearts and lipstick, kisses, a pink purse — a lot of emojis that are very stereotypically girly,” said Heather Payne, CEO of HackerYou, a Toronto-based programming boot camp. “Why isn’t there a police officer with a female haircut?”
Payne called the perceived stereotypes “super subtle.”
“A lot of people wouldn’t even notice until the moment you’re trying to use an emoji that represents (you),” she said. “If we’re trying to move society forward, it probably makes sense to have emojis that represent everybody.”
So why can’t Apple just pop a ponytail on the side of a police helmet?
This would be a welcome step forward for Debbie Gordon, director of the Centennial College’s Kids Research Centre, a think tank that creates positive media content for kids, who said it’s “hugely disappointing” gender modifiers weren’t available earlier.
“Show me some emojis with girls in a lab coat or doctors or engineers or architects,” she said. “Shake it up. Reflect the real world.”