Breaking the taboo: New period emoji will make menstruation discussions fun with your girls
A total of 230 new icons were approved for release this year.
By ET Online and Agencies |
Agencies
NEW DELHI: Attention, ladies! Now, celebrate your womanhood with a new period emoji.
On Tuesday, coding consortium Unicode announced Emoji 12.0 update for 2019 - featuring 59 new symbols with 171 variants for gender and skin tone, which makes a total of 230 new icons approved for release this year.
New emojis approved in #emoji12 will come to operating systems (iOS, Android, Windows), apps (WhatsApp) and web pla… https://t.co/s0uvG1idMS
One of them will include a 'drop of blood' emoji which can be used for menstruation, blood donation and other medical use. The other emojis include mechanical arm, deaf person, band-aid, waffle, ice cube, yawning face, pinching hand and people holding hands.
We are thrilled to announce that we are actually getting a #PeriodEmoji! It is through your support that we can no… https://t.co/m3n2KRoyod
— PlanInternational UK (@PlanUK) 1549455690000
The new icons will come to your smartphone in March.
Child rights group in United Kingdom, Plan International UK, ran a social media campaign #PeriodEmoji to open up conversations about menstruation. The group aims at normalising the issue, and smashing the shame & stigma girls and women face when they talk about period.
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Menstruation is still taboo in many countries. In Nepal, the centuries-old Hindu practice of "chhaupadi", where women are banished from their homes during their periods, has already led to four deaths in the past few weeks.
After the emoji was announced, the girls' rights group said that young women will be able to use an emoji to chat about their periods, which will help to end the shame around menstruation.
However, head of girls' rights group, Lucy Russell, had lobbied for two years to get the emoji. In a statement, she said, "An emoji isn't going to solve this, but it can help change the conversation. Ending the shame around periods begins with talking about it."
In 2018 we teamed up with @GiveBloodNHS creating a proposal for a blood drop emoji For our friends @GiveBloodNHS i… https://t.co/t8Xvnp3Bpk
— PlanInternational UK (@PlanUK) 1549537760000
Women refer to periods using some 5,000 euphemisms, such as "on the rag" and "Bloody Mary", a 2016 survey of 90,000 people in 190 countries found.
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Plan said nearly half of 18- to 34-year-old women that it surveyed believed a period emoji would make it easier for them to overcome the embarrassment of talking about menstruation. Globally 1.25 billion women do not have access to a toilet during menstruation, according to the charity WaterAid.
The United Nations estimates that due to a lack of facilities, one in 10 girls in Africa will miss school during their period and will eventually drop out of school as a result.
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For a good cause: Here are some Bollywood stars who endorsed social campaigns
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The government has roped in Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan to promote Goods and Services Tax (GST), ahead of the sweeping tax reforms implementation scheduled from July 1. The megastar has been roped in just as the roll out of the biggest tax overhaul since independence entered its final phase. Ace badminton star PV Sindhu was previously the GST ambassador. This is not the first time that Big G has promoted a social campaign. Earlier, he was named the UNICEF brand ambassador for polio eradication. He has also been associated with 'Incredible India' campaign and Tiger conservation, since 2016.
The government has roped in Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan to promote Goods and Services Tax (GST), ahead of the sweeping tax reforms implementation scheduled from July 1. The megastar has been ..
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Aamir Khan, who's made sensitive films like "Taare Zameen Par", which deals with the issue of dyslexia in children, has been roped in by UNICEF to become their brand ambassador for Nutrition and Child Rights in the year 2011. He has also been associated with the Incredible India campaign, as part of which he promoted Atithi Devo Bhava. In the past, he had also been appointed the brand ambassador by the Women and Child Development Ministry for spreading the message of curbing malnutrition among children. Being approached by the Railway Ministry along with Sachin Tendulkar Part of the National Voter Motivation Campaign in 2004 to urge people to step out of their homes and vote.
Aamir Khan, who's made sensitive films like "Taare Zameen Par", which deals with the issue of dyslexia in children, has been roped in by UNICEF to become their brand ambassador for Nutrition and Chil..
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Vidya Balan works for the cause of drinking and sanitation campaign after the Rural Development ministry approached her to be the brand ambassador for a cause, which is still a persistent problem in rural India where women's basic need is neglected. In March 2011, she endorsed World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour campaign in India. In 2012, she has campaigned for the cause of nutrition in India for Child in Need Institute, an NGO based in Kolkata. For her attempts to empower women, Vidya Balan was awarded the Prabha Khaitan Puraskar 2012 by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce.
Vidya Balan works for the cause of drinking and sanitation campaign after the Rural Development ministry approached her to be the brand ambassador for a cause, which is still a persistent problem in ..
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This yesteryear actress is well known for her social activism; she has raised her voice and expressed concern on a variety of issues. In 1989, she undertook a four-day march for communal harmony from New Delhi to Meerut. Her focus over the years though has remained in the areas of child and women's rights. She has fought for the stigma and injustice of those associated with AIDS. In 1998, the United Nations Population Fund appointed her as its Goodwill Ambassador for India. She has also advocated the cause of slum dwellers, displaced Kashmiri Pandit migrants, and victims of the earthquake at Latur (Maharashtra) in the past. Shabana Azmi has been the Goodwill Ambassador of the UNPF as well as for the HIV/AIDS programmes for SAARC region.
This yesteryear actress is well known for her social activism; she has raised her voice and expressed concern on a variety of issues. In 1989, she undertook a four-day march for communal harmony from..
