A pregnant man emoji is among the collection of new emojis coming in the next smartphone and devices update.
The new pregnant man and pregnant person emoji mark attempts to increase the diversity of emojis by showing that people of any gender can be pregnant.
Having first been discussed back in July, there has been a lot of debate online as to whether it should be allowed.
However, Emojipedia explained in its proposal that pregnancy or childbirth shouldn’t be confined to one gender just because women have the ability to grow a child – adding that: “One’s sex does not dictate the capacity to care for children in the home or work in the market.”
The company continued to explain: “In the same way sex equality law has aimed combat harmful sex stereotypes, there are a great deal of parallels regarding how one’s sex does not dictate the capacity to cary children. This is not a new phenomenon.
“Pregnancy has been indiscriminate of gender throughout history but it is only now being formally recognised.”
They also reference the British Medical Association’s (BMA) advice for everyone to use the term ‘pregnant person’ instead of pregnant woman to acknowledge the fact that it’s not just women who can become pregnant.
“Although ‘a large majority of people who have been pregnant or have given birth identify as women’, there are intersex men and transmen who get pregnant,” Emojipedia said.
Referencing Harvard law professor Jessica Clarke, the company quoted the acadamic – who suggests “law could see pregnancy not as something that only happens to women’s bodies, but also as a bodily condition experienced by people who do not identify as women”.
Additional new emojis include hands making a heart shape, someone biting their lip, faces melting, saluting, holding back tears, and peeking out between their fingers, and so many more.
The vast majority of emojis available will also be able to be presented as a man, a woman, or gender neutral.
Emoji 14.0 is set to be rolled out later this year or early 2022.
Featured Image – Emojipedia
