Picking genders for characters could be the next big thing for emoji

According to the common emoji keyboard, women don’t run. Only men run. But that could soon change under a new draft proposal to the Unicode Consortium, the body that develops and maintains software standards for texts and characters in the United States.

The document outlines a number of changes, including male, female and neutral gender options for many human-looking characters. If adopted, this would follow Apple’s move last year to unveil a new set of emoji that allows users to pick skin tones, which came after calls for racially diverse emoji.

The new gender options would allow, for instance, a male or female runner.

And, the businessman who levitates? Now a businesswoman or businessperson can hover, for some reason. (Seriously, why is this person in a suit hovering?)

Other changes would allow for customising hair colour to black, blonde, brown, red and grey, as well as bald. According to the proposal, the list of hair options come from “the distinctions made in the US Online Passport form, the UN Grounds Pass application, and other forms such as driver’s licences.”

The proposal also includes changing the direction of characters to face left or right and the possibility for some regional flags.