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'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

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Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#61

Post by int_19h »

rfw wrote: post #51
beaker52 wrote: post #39

I noticed that someone criticised the blood droplet as "Ambiguous and multi functional". I've noticed a lot of this kind of attitude around discussions of race, LGBT and women's issues - activists pushing for "exclusive rights" to things like emojis, words, activities, places for specific groups. That isn't very inclusive. I feel like the most outspoken "social activists" have good intentions but don't really know wh…

Inclusivity is about wanting to better include minorities or disabled people in spaces where they may have been discriminated against and affecting their livelihoods, e.g. the workplace. Using a definition of inclusivity here without a consideration for power dynamics between the parties involved is totally uncharitable: as you've observed in your comment, there is no barrier to actually denying "exclusive rights" to…

Inclusivity is a word with a broad meaning, and that's not it. Has it also been recently redefined in terms of "... + power (and we'll tell you who has how much power!)" in the social studies dictionary, same as racism?

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#62

Post by int_19h »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #22

It seems virtually certain that the "drop of blood" is more useful for issuing threats (jocular or serious) than for talking about menstruation, for the simple reason that there's a lot more threatening than there is talking about menstruation. Calling blood "the symbol of the period" is overreaching a bit.

My understanding from reading the article is that they call it that, because the group that pushed for its addition to Unicode wanted it to carry that meaning (and preceded with some less ambiguous designs, which failed in committee).

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#63

Post by int_19h »

salex89 wrote: post #57

Funny how these things can have different meanings. Here I read menstruation, threat and what not. If somebody sends this to me, I would instantly think:"Going to donate blood?". This droplet emoticon , or a variation of it, is very often used as the blood bank/transfusion center logo on my country, and based on Google, in some surrounding. You can see it around on t-shirts (donors get a t-shirt and they wear them pr…

FWIW, it's used in that manner in every single country I've lived in, US included.

Also, it looks like this is exactly how they got it adopted:

"Then in September 2018, Plan UK teamed up with NHS Blood and Transplant, the U.K. government's blood and organ donations service, and submitted a new proposal for a blood drop emoji. Unicode selected it as an official emoji in February."

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#64

Post by int_19h »

chongli wrote: post #26
_ZeD_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be fooled by the pretty images. While painting/photos can express multiple, deep emotions, they are unique. The value added by a copy it's none. Moreover emojis are for 99%+ simple nouns ("hand", "pig", "dog", "smile"). And for thing that are not nouns, you still need to understand that they are logograms, with a "fixed" meaning. Kanjis are not better than Romans - they are just different alphabets. And if you…

The real advantage of emojis (and the reason I suspect most people use them) is to compensate for the loss of body language in texting. I use them so much when talking to one friend in particular that she can tell something is wrong when I stop using them for a little while.

That was the original intent, right there in the name, back when they were still emoticons.

But well, you don't need ice cream cones and airplanes to compensate for loss of body language, unless you routinely pantomime those things.

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#65

Post by rfw »

int_19h wrote: post #61
rfw wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inclusivity is about wanting to better include minorities or disabled people in spaces where they may have been discriminated against and affecting their livelihoods, e.g. the workplace. Using a definition of inclusivity here without a consideration for power dynamics between the parties involved is totally uncharitable: as you've observed in your comment, there is no barrier to actually denying "exclusive rights" to…

Inclusivity is a word with a broad meaning, and that's not it. Has it also been recently redefined in terms of "... + power (and we'll tell you who has how much power!)" in the social studies dictionary, same as racism?

1. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/inclusivity

> The practice or policy of including people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as those who have physical or mental disabilities and members of minority groups.

2. Without an understanding of power, is there a useful definition of "inclusivity"?

Or is it just a whitewashed feelgood platitude that can't mean anything in the end, because if you include everyone, including people who are decidedly discriminating against you, that it constitutes some ideal of "inclusiveness"?

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#66

Post by lazyjones »

DanBC wrote: post #48
black-tea wrote: post #14

Period activists? There are people who dedicate their entire lives to increase human rights for others. Those are activists. What is getting a picture of a drop of blood on my phone supposed to achieve? I know women have periods. What am I supposed to do about it? Keep your problems to yourself.

Do you know that girls are excluded from school when they have their period? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seclusion_of_girls_at_puberty Or that girls avoid school because they cannot afford tampons or pads? This doesn't just happen in poor countries, it happens in the UK: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/international-womens-day-...

I‘m sure that adding a blood drop Emoji is the most efficient solution for these problems.

m-(

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#67

Post by yarg »

beaker52 wrote: post #39

I noticed that someone criticised the blood droplet as "Ambiguous and multi functional". I've noticed a lot of this kind of attitude around discussions of race, LGBT and women's issues - activists pushing for "exclusive rights" to things like emojis, words, activities, places for specific groups. That isn't very inclusive. I feel like the most outspoken "social activists" have good intentions but don't really know wh…

They want to be perceived to have good intentions. There's a huge effort by these people to silence any discourse contrary to their increasing thinly defined criteria of acceptable behavioural norms. The far left is once again joining the far right as both anti-liberal and devoid of empathy.

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#68

Post by TeMPOraL »

rfw wrote: post #58
josteink wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t care. The only thing they care about is virtue-signaling. With our current outrage-culture, it’s literally a competition in virtue-signaling at this point. When you look at the movement from this point of view, lots of the utterly irrational behavior starts to make sense.

Dismissing a position as "virtue signaling" is fundamentally lazy. Ironically, aren't you "virtue signaling" right now about how you're sincere enough to be able to look down on people who do it?

Virtue signaling is contagious; it infects everything that touches it. My response here will be seen as virtue signaling too, simply because the concept was invoked upthread.

Personally, I see a problem less with signals and more with how people make them and respond to them. Aforementioned attempt to appropriate a generic symbol for specific movement is an example of hostile behaviour. Sane people would roll their eyes and carry on with their days, but on the Internet, it starts to become dangerous to let this nonsense pass unchallenged, as then you might find yourself on the business end of Twitter pitchforks after saying something you're unaware that some activist group apparently has dibs on.

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#69

Post by int_19h »

daeken wrote: post #4
gnarbarian wrote: post #3

I can't wait to see what the abortion emoji looks like.

Yes, because those are clearly the same thing. A completely natural, healthy process, and a medical procedure. I know that when I see a smiley face emoji, I think that we should have a tooth extraction emoji.

We have an emoji for both, actually. It's U+0020, "SPACE".

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#70

Post by josteink »

rfw wrote: post #58
josteink wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t care. The only thing they care about is virtue-signaling. With our current outrage-culture, it’s literally a competition in virtue-signaling at this point. When you look at the movement from this point of view, lots of the utterly irrational behavior starts to make sense.

Dismissing a position as "virtue signaling" is fundamentally lazy. Ironically, aren't you "virtue signaling" right now about how you're sincere enough to be able to look down on people who do it?

> aren't you "virtue signaling" right now about how you're sincere enough to be able to look down on people who do it?

No. I’m just making an observation about a supposed movement’s true motives. I am in no way trying to appear superior or “better” (more virtuous) as a result of it.

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