After an ongoing plea for more diversity amongst the iPhone's emoji alphabet, Apple finally responded to the call. While we're certainly appreciative of the company's efforts to address the issue by including a wider variety of skin tones, we have to say they still have miles to go when it comes to fair representation of female emojis. A quick glance at the selection of "femojis" reveals an obvious imbalance that continues to linger in the current lineup.
As Makers points out, women are portrayed in emoji form as brides, princesses and salsa dancers while men are portrayed as policemen, jockeys and other professionals who partake in activities such as rowing, bike riding and swimming.
But here's the major problem: Women's contributions to society span so far beyond being cute, engaged and/or married, royal or sexy.
Hopefully, Apple will acknowledge and work to quickly resolve this glaring omission, but in case they need any suggestions on where to start,
Makers created a collection of mock femojis using the images of female celebrities, and you guys - their list is absolutely ah-mazing! Amongst the star-studded set are famous accomplished women like
Taylor Swift,
Oprah,
Gloria Steinem,
Venus and Serena Williams,
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and more.
Take a look at some of the proposed "femojis" below. Plus, why we think they deserve to be officially incorporated into the emoji alphabet:
Mindy Kaling
Mindy wrote and produced
The Mindy Project (which was
picked up by Hulu for another season!) and the Emmy-winning star previously served as co-executive producer, writer and director of
The Office. Mindy for the emoji win!
Lena Dunham
We all know
Lena HBO's
Girls, the popular series she created, writes and stars in. Throw in the fact that she's the first woman to win a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Director in a Comedy Series and she's a femoji shoo-in.
Mae Jemison
In 1992, Mae became the first African-American woman to travel into space. We'd be over the moon if she became an emoji!
Taylor Swift
T. Swift broke some major ground with her latest album
1989, which sold more than a million copies in its first release week, bringing the number of albums to accomplish that same feat to three.
Beyoncé
C'mon - it's
Beyoncé. Not that her inclusion on this list needs an explanation but here are just a few of the facts: In 2014, she broke the record for
most Grammy nods for a female artist. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Queen Bey's officially the top certified artist of the 2000s and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame even houses some of her most famous performance outfits. She's the face of major brands like Pepsi, American Express, L'Oréal and more. SIGH. Can we
please get a Bey-moji already?!