It took a tampon advert to make us realise how inherently sexist emojis are

In their online #LikeAGirl campaign, Always have released a video pointing out just how sexist emojis are.

I doubt telling you that girls send over a billion emojis per day is going to make your jaw drop to the floor. And on average, I probably send an emoji in every text conversation I have. The sassy hair flick, the princess, the dancer in the red dress – I’m no stranger to them. But until today, I was a stranger to the sexist nature of emojis and the fact that they have a number of gender issues.

And I’m embarrassed to admit that.

The sanitary brand, Always, has launched an online campaign called #LikeAGirl to raise awareness of this dissonant reality, and as part of it they’ve released a video, albeit pretty cringy, that puts it all into perspective.

Clearly, there are women emojis, that’s not the point. But the thing is they’re all horrendously gendered to the point where we’re unable to escape the distasteful sugary pink that consumes the majority of the women emojis. Pink tops, pink nails, pink bikini – it’s like stepping into a tasteless Wes Anderson movie filter, except at the other end of the sexist scale. They’ve even brazenly chucked in load of stereotypes for the fun of it. Ever thought the dancing Playboy-esque girls was a bit odd? And the dancing woman in the red dress?

But it’s not just the colours and stereotypes that are a problem, as one girl points out the lack of women in work on emojis: “There are no girls in the professions emojis. Unless you count being a bride as a profession.” Are we not supposed to work? Because last time I checked, we’d got to the point where we were celebrating women in the workplace, not completely leaving women out.

And then there’s the sporting emojis. There’s a whole load of them: a man running, a man weightlifting, a couple of men cycling, the list goes on – they’re all men.

One girl in the video says: “Except for the surfer, that one’s a girl.

“Nope, it’s just a guy with long hair.”

Why do the only women have to be inherently stereotypically sassy? They’ve forgotten that there’s definitely more to us than a hair flick. There should be female doctors and policewomen – we should be able to choose between a man and a woman for occupations. They’re not gendered in real life, so why does it seem that way on our phones?

And as for the sports, give us women playing tennis, running, cycling. Who cares about changing the hair colour of a male sportsman when you’re prevented from even selecting the gender? We have multiracial, multinational and and a number of different faith emojis now, I think it’s probably about time they sorted out their gendering issues.