'Pregnant man' is one of 37 new emojis appearing on your phone very soon

17 September 2021, 14:16

By Heart

@thisisheart

Two new emojis showing a pregnant man and pregnant gender neutral person will be added to smartphones over the next few months

WhatsApp addicts will soon have thirty seven new emojis to play with - including a pregnant man.

The new icon will soon appear on phones as part of the Emoji 14.0 update, which also brings with it a swathe of other inclusive illustrations that cover all skin tones and genders.

There are characters representing a gender neutral 'pregnant person' and 'royal person', too.

The proposal to add the two new pregnancy emojis to the ever growing image library was first announced in July this year.

It read: “Currently, emojis only depict people assigned female at birth in a role of pregnancy. If emojis are designed in a manner to be as inclusive as possible this emoji should present its gender more ambiguously.

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“One’s sex does not dictate the capacity to care for children in the home or work in the market.​ In the same way sex equality law has aimed [to] combat harmful sex stereotypes, there are a great deal of parallels regarding how one’s sex does not dictate the capacity to carry children.

"This is not a new phenomenon. Pregnancy​ has been indiscriminate of gender throughout history but it is only now being formally recognised."

It's worth noting that the emoji isn't just favoured by expectant mothers - some people use the little pic of a woman holding her swollen abdomen to represent being full up with a 'food baby' after a big meal!

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Gender neutral and male emojis are nothing new, and the pregnant person and pregnant man join similar versions of almost every other humanoid character in the emoji-verse, including zombie, police officer, glam rocker, scientist, Santa, elf, fairy and hearing impaired.

Other updates that will be appearing in your emoji library between now and early 2022 include the 'handshake' emoji in all skin tones rather than just being a standard yellow design, pointing, hand shake hands, finger and thumb grip, and our favourite, 'heart fingers'.

There are also quirkier additions; a melting face, an empty bird's nest, beans, a troll, a mirror ball, a slide, an x-ray and a crutch.