One man has launched a campaign to change the bald emoji, branding it 'a lazy stereotype.'
Newstalk's Simon Tierney has lodged an official complaint with the Unicode Consortium, who are responsible for emojis.
He told Moncrieff it began when his fiancée sent a save-the-date message featuring emojis - a bride, a heart and a groom.
"If you type 'groom' into WhatsApp or Twitter or anything, you get a very nice looking gentleman wearing a suit - but he is haired," he said.
"I said to her: 'That doesn't represent me, that's not the man you're marrying'.
"So we typed in 'bald man' and up came - what I can only describe as - a baby man.
"When you type into WhatsApp or Twitter or Instagram, or any of those platforms, they do have a bald emoji - but it looks like a baby.
"It's emasculating, it's OK to feel emasculated - but technically this is degrading to a man's masculinity.
Today I’m launching my Campaign to Change the Bald Emoji. I've lodged an official complaint with the Unicode Consortium
1] The bald emoji looks like a baby. It’s degrading
2] The ‘old man’ emoji is bald. This is ageist
As a member of the bald community, I’m calling for change pic.twitter.com/f6fzxhaH9S— Simon Tierney (@tierneysimon) January 10, 2023
"The second problem is that it's a lazy stereotyping, I think.
"There's been a lot of effort by the powers that be into making emojis more representative of different groups of people... but the bald community awaits change.
"It's just too infantilising; it doesn't represent a man, and it should."
Simon said he also took issue with another bald emoji.
"I sent my formal complaint... I also talked about another bald emoji which they have, which I also think is problematic but in a slightly different way," he said.
"If you type into the search function the phrase 'old man', what comes up is an emoji of a bald man - who definitely looks more like a man - he's got a little bit of grey hair on either side.
"It's kind of a form of reverse ageism... the Unicode Consortium are automatically equating the idea of baldness with old age," he added.
