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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

#71

Post by thaumasiotes »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #46
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.

Calling blood "the symbol of the period" is overreaching a bit. Keep in mind that the blood drop was the only thing the Unicode working group accepted. The more explicit symbol was more popular in the UK but rejected by the Unicode folks. If you're uncomfortable with a blood drop emoji being used in this way maybe you should direct your discomfort at the Unicode folks.

I'm not uncomfortable with a blood drop emoji being used this way. I'm calling the activists stupid for saying that this very general symbol is specifically symbolic of menstruation.

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

#72

Post by NeedMoreTea »

josteink wrote: post #70
rfw wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How do you know "true motives"? Are you a part of said movement? If you're just making an observation you have no better knowledge of their true motives than any of the rest of us reading here.

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

#73

Post by ubercow13 »

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.

I don't really understand what you're saying, who should keep their problems to themselves? Are you saying you're offended that this emoji exists because you don't want anyone messaging you about periods?

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

#74

Post by Waterluvian »

What perplexes me is the level of ignorance of the people pushing these. You don't get to decide how people use emojis. That kind of evolves naturally.

I'm more concerned with it being yet another thing activists get upset over when people start "using it wrong."

I just wanted to communicate that I had Chipotle last night.

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

#75

Post by int_19h »

rfw wrote: post #65
int_19h wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 just gave a useful definition of inclusivity, which doesn't rely on power in the sense that it is employed in this context. Or, alternatively, excluding others is a power in and of itself - a very common power to have, and people do that all the time to those who have other powers over them (sometimes for that very reason!).

But no, it doesn't mean that you have to include people who are decidedly discriminating against you. Which, again, has nothing to do with their power to actually do so, systemic or otherwise. For example, an NBP black supremacist can be rightly rejected because they're known for their anti-Semitic rants with threats of genocide, despite the fact that they have no ability to actually carry them out.

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

#76

Post by DanBC »

lazyjones wrote: post #66
DanBC wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-(

If it helps women and girls talk about it then yes, it's one of the small things that will help.

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

#77

Post by jimmcslim »

Something that seems to be missing from both the article, and the discussion here, is the idea I've heard elsewhere, that to signal menstruation you would combine the blood droplet with a moon emoji.

The blood droplet emoji by itself has plenty of other uses; blood donation, etc.

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

#78

Post by Emma_Goldman »

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…

This and the thread that follows are conspicuous for the fact that the group being discussed is never defined. 'Social activists'. 'These people'. It's a good discipline to argue against actual people and their beliefs, not a vague phantasm of them. Your argument - to associate the words of one unnamed person with an large and multifarious politics - is equally unhelpful.

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

#79

Post by Jonnax »

Waterluvian wrote: post #74

What perplexes me is the level of ignorance of the people pushing these. You don't get to decide how people use emojis. That kind of evolves naturally. I'm more concerned with it being yet another thing activists get upset over when people start "using it wrong." I just wanted to communicate that I had Chipotle last night.

The article doesn't even say this.

The story is that a group was pushing for the creation of an emoji.

They wanted underwear with a droplet symbol on it, but Unicode only approved a blood droplet.

Of course it can be used for other things and that's what the quote from that group said, expressing their disappointment.

I'm confused as to why most the comments here seem to outraged about activists trying to own the emoji when that wasn't mentioned at all in the article and sounds ridiculous.

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

#80

Post by FabHK »

josteink wrote: post #49

While countries with traditional ideograph-based languages (China, Japan, etc) are slowly turning to the alphabet to simplify their written language, we are reinventing ideographs, poorly and politically. Quite fascinating, but also incredibly sad.

No.

A) Emojis are better ideographs than CJK characters, not poorer ones. This is a horse, recognisably: [imagine the horse emoji here... :-) ]. This not so much in my view: 馬.

B) Nobody is proposing to replace all words with hackneyed emojis. (“Although” sort of sounds like “old owl”, so let’s replace it by an owl with gray hair, maybe sitting on top of a mouth so we can disambiguate it from a reference to an owl.)

C) The notion that CJK characters represent ideas, not words & sounds, (embedded in the term “ideograph”) has been extensively criticised, eg by John DeFrancis in his The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chinese_Language:_Fact_a...

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