Finally, an emoji to denote that uncomfortable feeling after you ate too much at lunch. — Jennifer Daniel, Head of the Emoji Subcommittee for the Unicode Consortium
On Tuesday, news broke that Apple uploaded a new “pregnant man” emoji to its texting lexicon. However, Jennifer Daniel, the illustrator who drafted the proposal for the “pregnant man” emoji in 2020, fully embraced the emoji being used as a joke.
“Oy, I ate too much Chipotle!!” Daniel argues. Daniel demonstrates how a food baby emoji would be useful for this kind of text message.
Daniel’s graph below, submitted in her full proposal, shows that online users have searched for “food baby” 6 billion more times than “pregnant-man.”
However, Daniel knew which argument would win the day for getting her emoji published: affirming trans identity. Daniel lists the “pregnant-people” and “pregnant-man” findings first and specifically acknowledges them in her proposal.
Daniel continues by arguing that the emoji will help present gender “more ambiguously.”
Daniel’s report presents statistics about the alleged usefulness of the pregnant-man emoji, but cynically concludes her explanation for her emoji with this final point:
The point is: this emoji isn’t just about gender. This is about understanding how language is fluid and representation of a person with a swollen belly has value as an emoji expression.
Jennifer Daniel, Illustrator
Daniel is a great capitalist, having successfully marketed her illustration to major online digital markets. Perhaps we need a capitalist emoji!
