This news comes from the wonderfully dedicated Emojipedia Blog. This site, which digs through all major operating systems for new emoji, has found Windows 10 contains the first major Microsoft emoji updates in nearly two years – and some choices are rather controversial.
While the inclusion of the middle finger emoji may prove controversial, what Microsoft has chosen to omit has offended some even more: no same sex couples.
Same sex couples emoji have also been approved by Unicode 7 and were consequently adopted by Apple in iOS 8.3, but so far they remain absent from Windows 10. Of course there is no legal deadline for their inclusion and it may be they will appear at a later date. Still it feels like Microsoft could have avoided making this a talking point.
iOS emoji’s added racial diversity and same sex couples – image credit Forbes’ Amit Chowdry
New Racially Diverse Options – Grey Defaults
In a further interesting decision Microsoft also now displays grey-skinned people as a race-neutral default. This is inline with Unicode’s recommendation that default skin tones should be non-human in appearance, though grey is something of an odd choice and looks rather dull (and dead?).
4 thoughts on “Microsoft Flips Us the Bird: Set to Introduce New Offensive Emojis”
JoninOz
As far as I am concerned there are far too many people in this world with abnormal brains.
When and why from the recent past did an erect middle finger aimed towards someone mean something nasty.
Winston Churchill with a raised first and second finger meant V for victory, but when a person turns the hand around it is supposed to an abusive suggestion to another person, (in the UK and Australia)
Thumbs up means OK, good, well done, yes but thumbs down means ‘negative, no good, or from a Roman leader means death to the loser in a fight.
The thumb and finger forming a circle means OK, perfect, nice, ideal, and so forth, but when I see someone raise a middle finger or a backward finger’s ‘V’, in many instances create aggression and ‘road rage’.
When I see negative gestures I think to myself, “There goes another weirdo!”
Quote: “The thumb and finger forming a circle means OK, perfect, nice, ideal, and so forth, but when I see . . . ”
Apparently during the Apollo Mone Landing, Nekil Armstrong made this gesture as. in the USA, means “All Ok”, but in Japan, people wanted to know
“Gasp, can he really mean that”. . In Japan, at that time, it was a finger representation of the raised middle finger.
In Signing Language, hand forward, pinky and index finger means “I Love You”, but in Italian, turn the hand around means “I cuckolded you” or ‘I slept with your wife. Also “two horned”, ditto meaning.
Or to quote a famous anonymous . . There is no good that can be done, but cannot be construed as being something bad.
Thanks for the plastic cases, and for the great buy on Emsisoft
Do not point with the forefinger in Indonesia, it a sign of rudeness, close the fist and point with the thumb extended.
The pinky and thumb only extended relates to a ram in some countries, not a telephone, the forefinger and pinky relates to a goat.
The closed fist and extended thumb pointing to your open mouth indicates a requirement for food in many places.
In high society, extend the pinky when drinking a cup of tea………. 😉
As far as I am concerned there are far too many people in this world with abnormal brains.
When and why from the recent past did an erect middle finger aimed towards someone mean something nasty.
Winston Churchill with a raised first and second finger meant V for victory, but when a person turns the hand around it is supposed to an abusive suggestion to another person, (in the UK and Australia)
Thumbs up means OK, good, well done, yes but thumbs down means ‘negative, no good, or from a Roman leader means death to the loser in a fight.
The thumb and finger forming a circle means OK, perfect, nice, ideal, and so forth, but when I see someone raise a middle finger or a backward finger’s ‘V’, in many instances create aggression and ‘road rage’.
When I see negative gestures I think to myself, “There goes another weirdo!”
Quote: “The thumb and finger forming a circle means OK, perfect, nice, ideal, and so forth, but when I see . . . ”
Apparently during the Apollo Mone Landing, Nekil Armstrong made this gesture as. in the USA, means “All Ok”, but in Japan, people wanted to know
“Gasp, can he really mean that”. . In Japan, at that time, it was a finger representation of the raised middle finger.
In Signing Language, hand forward, pinky and index finger means “I Love You”, but in Italian, turn the hand around means “I cuckolded you” or ‘I slept with your wife. Also “two horned”, ditto meaning.
Or to quote a famous anonymous . . There is no good that can be done, but cannot be construed as being something bad.
Thanks for the plastic cases, and for the great buy on Emsisoft
Robert
Do not point with the forefinger in Indonesia, it a sign of rudeness, close the fist and point with the thumb extended.
The pinky and thumb only extended relates to a ram in some countries, not a telephone, the forefinger and pinky relates to a goat.
The closed fist and extended thumb pointing to your open mouth indicates a requirement for food in many places.
In high society, extend the pinky when drinking a cup of tea………. 😉
Showing off my ignorance, but what in the world is an “Emoji”???????
Is it “geek speek???? or a set of first letters? or a nickname?