A Period Emoji May Be Making Its Way to Phones Near You
While some of us may feel uncomfortable just talking about our periods, there are parts of the world where it can be difficult to even find menstrual products like tampons and pads. To raise awareness — and comfort — with period talk, Plan International has developed a campaign centered around brand-new period emojis. Yes: emojis for periods.
Research shows that 64 percent of women in the UK would feel uncomfortable discussing their period with their male friends, according to Plan International. In order to address this taboo, the advocacy organization is letting the public vote between five potential period emojis. The winning emoji design will then be sent to Unicode Consortium (AKA the company that makes emojis) to be considered for their 2018 emoji keyboard.
So far, the potential candidates include a calendar with a blood drop, emotive blood drops, underwear, a pad, and a uterus — and they’re leaving it up to the site’s readers to be responsible for narrowing it down to just one. So far over 28,000 votes have been collected via the campaign’s website and Facebook page.
The addition of a period emoji to phone keyboards worldwide might not be the magic solution to ending the global period stigma, but it can’t hurt. If nothing else, it’ll definitely make your group chat more illustrative.
Be sure to vote up your favorite emoji either on Plan International’s website or Facebook before June 2.
What do you think of Plan International’s emoji campaign? Let us know @BritandCo!
(h/t Hello Giggles; Photo via Facebook)