Maybe refrain from using these emojis, they have sinister different meanings in the manosphere

The manosphere is getting more attention than ever before, in part due to the Netflix doc, Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere, and shows like Adolescence.

With most of the manosphere operating in a digital space, emojis have become a major part of communication. Each seems to have an alterior meaning, and some you’d never expect.

“The symbols frequently appear in memes, comment sections, and group chats, making it difficult for adults to recognise when a young person is actively engaging with manosphere ideologies,” Safeguarding experts SSS Learning said.

According to the experts, these seemingly innocent emojis have very different meanings in the manosphere:

• Flexed biceps – high status man or being dominant
• Fire – an affirming, reactionary emoji for agreeing with someone’s opinion
• Red circle – red pill thinking
• Black circle – a reference to black pill beliefs
• Skull – used mostly in incel communities to convey hopelessness
• Crown – a high-status man
• Gorilla – extreme masculinity
• Snake – used to call men traitors if they believe in feminism
• Money bags – money equals power
• Upside down face – used to put down women and “traitor” men
• Cat face – an insult to women
• Baby bottle – used to mock traitor men as unmasculine
• Unicorn – represents the idea of a “perfect” woman
• Clown Face and world – the world has become a joke
• Chilli pepper – dangerous woman
• Rocket – strength, power, and on the rise
• Wolf – Rejecting mainstream dating

Adolescence also exposed some manosphere emojis

Netflix’s show Adolescence was a monumental hit, in part due to its sensitive unpacking of the incel plague and the many emojis they use to communicate in the shady areas of the internet.

In the show, Adam, the son of Ashley Walters’ D.I. Bascombe, explained how the 100 emoji is a tribute to the 80/20 rule that is prevalent in online incel communities.

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“80 per cent of women are attracted to 20 per cent of men. Women, you must trick them because you’ll never get them in a normal way,” he said.

Essentially, it’s the idea that dating is inherently imbalanced in women’s favour. As with a lot of far-right mantras, mottos, and motifs, the 80/20 rule was originally something much different. In reality, it’s actually an economic principle called the Pareto Principle that suggests 80 per cent of consequences come from 20 per cent of causes.

Again, the red pill was initially something very different and long before it became a calling card for misogynistic men, it was simply a metaphorical device used in questions of morality and ethics. Basically, you’re posed with two options: Learn a life-changing truth by taking the red pill or live in happy ignorance with the blue bill. Over the years, we’ve seen it adapted into countless media such as Total Recall, The Matrix, and even Rick and Morty.

In 2025, the red pill emoji is synonymous with incel culture and the larger black pill movement and there are other emojis that serve as identifiers for the groups. These include the kidney bean emoji, the dynamite emoji, and the coffee bean emoji.

The love heart emojis also seem completely innocuous, and I’m betting most of us have used them at one time or another. Well, so have incel communities.

Adam told his father: “Red means love, purple horny, yellow ‘I’m interested, are you interested?’, pink ‘I’m interested but not in sex’, orange ‘you’re going to be fine’, it all has a meaning – everything has a meaning.”

For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Netflix