I must admit I never understood why we moved away from yellow faced emojis and found myself gritting my teeth while hovering over a white or yellow face. Isn’t it better we escape judgments about skin colour or looks in general while online?
However, I must admit I did a squeal of joy when I heard there were emojis coming out with ginger hair! So perhaps your online presence is the perfect place to showcase differences you are proud of, particularly if they are under-represented or even maligned in the mainstream.
Actually, I think I shed a tear of validation when I saw there was a single mum emoji (thank you Christina Aguilera’s Twitter!) Single mums are typically portrayed as incompetent parents or benefit scrounging sluts, instead of the kick-ass grafters of insurmountable love and that we truly are. So finding ways to represent ‘not so perfect families’ like mine can give us the chance to show them off in a positive light.
So in conclusion, if you want to use a generic yellow face and celebrate commonalities: that’s cool. Or if you want to celebrate uniqueness and select from over 30 different nose shapes on Bitmoji: that’s cool too. Dance the way you want to… just enjoy the party… and don’t leave a mess.
Angelic Electric 