Apple has been inclusive with its emojis for a while now, and in what many are calling “another woke move”, the company rolled out a ‘pregnant’ man, ‘pregnant’ person emojis recently. These new emojis join a bunch of other gender-neutral emojis that have been made available to all iPhone users as a part of the iOS 15.4 update. This OS update was initially rolled out in March but it has been refreshed and in total it brings in 35 new emoticons including the pregnant emoji, a gender-neutral ‘person with crown’ (to go with the king and queen emojis).
The ‘pregnant man’ and ‘pregnant person’ emojis were a part of an optional update that was rolled out in January and these two new additions have come in more two years after Apple added same-sex couples and gender-neutral emojis in 2019.
While Apple seems to be going out there, trying to be as inclusive as it can, the internet is not happy with the ‘pregnant man’ emoji. Many have been joking about this stating that the man is not pregnant, but has just eaten too much instead. One user asked - "Is it a pregnant man emoji or just me after an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet?", another asked - “Don’t you think it looks like beer belly man?".
Another user went on to write - "So as everybody knows the new emojis are in a pregnant man […] so abortion isn't only a woman's issue any longer? It's not women's healthcare? Men can have abortions [too]?"
"This is so wrong of Apple. Emoji of a man being pregnant by Apple," another user tweeted, while another posted - "Hey @Apple what's this emoji? A 'pregnant man" or are you 'fat shaming'?"
How Apple handles this now remains to be seen, but as is the case with anything woke or inclusive, you can’t make everyone happy.
Additionally, the iOS 15.4 also brought in a few new voice options for Siri along with the ability to provide date and time information when offline, improved web page translations on Safari with Chinese and Italian support, etc. This update also brought in the much-awaited feature that allows users to unlock their smartphones while wearing face masks. This feature, however, works only on iPhone 12, 12 Mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max, and iPhone 13, 13 Mini, 13 Pro, and 13 Pro Max.
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