Is gender definition, when based on visuals, easy to neutralize by removing hair? In the iconic world of emojis, Apple has decided with the iOS update 13.2 to change/add 398 emojis, after running them through beta tests and putting them on your keyboard this week.
Diversity is also dealt with, both in work/play roles, indications for the hearing impaired and blind (look for the guide dog among the new animals), food (did you spot the falafel?) and the couples of all types and cultural?/racial? types.
The unsolicited reviews across social media range from bored to annoyed to confused. There are comments about the hair styles or lack of hair not defining gender/non-binary, and there is the question of the same shapes of eyes/nose/mouth across all the color variations in faces putting racial biases into question.
It may put the creators of Bitmoji and other similar keyboard-based emoji generators in revision mode; the power and reach of Apple in the visual design language and visual communication modes has a powerful effect that reaches into both common communication and the highly monitored and measured communications of advertising and marketing.
Your opinions welcomed here, but start by reviewing the full set of changed/new emojis, followed by a comparison set of some to show the gender-neutral additions in perspective:
Here are the full set of NEW emojis, courtesy of the emojipedia:
Here is a comparison view of selected ones with gender identification:
A comparison of various three gender-based emojis
