this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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  1. over time this might affect our collective consciousness in regards to the purpose & function of the eggplant; and

  2. can we please just get a straightforward penis emoji already?? Half the human population has a penis attached to their bodies anyway, why are we still so prude about incorporating actual penises into mainstream vernacular & daily life?

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[–] Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world 98 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

There's actually kind of a funny history behind the Eggplant emoji. Emoji are Japanese in origin and around the time they were taking off there was this Survivor like gameshow where one guy was confined to his apartment and he had to try and survive past the basics by applying for and winning sweepstakes items from various promotions from newspapers and magazines.

The participant's shortened form name was Nasu - which means "eggplant" so since the guy started the challenge with literally nothing including clothes they put a little Eggplant over his junk in post. That became a Japanese cultural meme that translated over once emoji became more widely adopted.

You probably won't see actual dick emoji in the actual set because emoji are an all ages access thing and exist on an international level. It's actually kind of funny how different cultures use the same finite set. Like in China how the angel emoji is construed as "I'm going to end you". One could see the things as becoming essentially a hieroglyphic set where they gain their own full individual linguistic meanings.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 44 points 8 months ago (1 children)

emoji are an all ages access thing

Last time I checked, penises are an all ages thing too. But who knows, I’m no urologist.

[–] Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago (6 children)

They are an all ages thing for some... But remember when I said international? I don't particularly like puritanical prudishness but the conservative held belief as those things being inappropriate for all points of society is also pretty common.

I doubt those who keep the emoji want any hassle of the conservative European diaspora middle East, the Americas, facets of Africa and China getting their knickers in a twist.

In the world of stockholder retaliation some things people count as just above their pay grade.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

U realise the unicode consortium only makes standards and describes the meaning the actuall image used is not up to them for instance a this🇹🇼 emoji wont show on most chinese devices if a country doesnt like a dick emoji then they can ban it.

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[–] key@lemmy.keychat.org 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is that the show where the contestant came out about how horribly abusive the production was? Like he was tricked/coerced into doing it and basically imprisoned the whole time?

[–] Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Oh yeah... It was horrible. Dude was traumatized.

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[–] Michal@programming.dev 6 points 8 months ago

It's up to the app/os how emoji are rendered. You can hack your os to display whatever you want instead of 🍆 , or add support for 👨🍆 with zero width space between, but it's less likely to be used.

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[–] Potatisen@lemmy.world 38 points 8 months ago (2 children)

For nr 2, in America, where most of this stuff comes from, it's super taboo with sex and anatomy. Violence, theft and other things are ok tho... 🍆

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Specifically the Unicode Consortium is the body that adopts new emoji. It is incorporated out of California.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

yeah I remember reading how some guy came up with an idea for an emoji and the long process leading up to being invited to Silicon Valley to present his idea at this consortium and his delight after jumping through all the hoops for his emoji idea to be finally accepted

[–] rar@discuss.online 9 points 8 months ago

Seeing how the gun emoji was rebranded into a water gun, I won't be surprised if same process is attempted anywhere in the world.

[–] key@lemmy.keychat.org 35 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Just last week I meant to make eggplant parm but got mixed up and next thing you know I was deep throating that sucker. Dinner was ruined.

Feel free to submit a request to the Unicode Consortium in April when they open up again but given vulva/vagina was previously declined I doubt they'll accept penis https://www.unicode.org/emoji/emoji-requests.html

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[–] omxxi@feddit.de 21 points 8 months ago (2 children)

wait, have I been using the wrong one? 👃

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

Human horn.

[–] runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)
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[–] ludw@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago (4 children)

You could use the Phallus hieroglyph: 𓂸

[–] AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago

Very conspicuously absent on my Windows computer

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[–] palumoqur@lemmy.world 18 points 8 months ago

See Sidebar Rules: The entire showerthought must be in the title

[–] hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (8 children)

over time this might affect our collective consciousness in regards to the purpose & function of the eggplant

I think that that's already happening. Personally, when I see an eggplant, I automatically think of penises, and it makes me a bit uncomfortable.

As a bonus, here are some ancient Egyptian dick hieroglyphs: 𓂸 𓂺 𓂹

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[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 16 points 8 months ago (4 children)

We can't even have a gun or a middle finger emoji. I doubt we're getting a penis one anytime soon.

[–] null@slrpnk.net 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)
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[–] DarkMetatron@feddit.de 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well there is🖕and 🔫 in UTF 8 at least, so it is kind of there as an emoji.

But as the UTF 8 pistol is shown as a water gun this very much shows why a penis will always be denied.

[–] vsg@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The gun emoji used to be a real gun, but controversies made Apple change their emoji into a water gun. Other companies followed suit.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 8 points 8 months ago

Because the way to prevent mass shootings is to remove people’s ability to convey the concept of gun in communication.

It’s a flawless plan with no possible downsides.

[–] DarkMetatron@feddit.de 3 points 8 months ago

Yes, that's exactly what I meant, a gun in UTF 8 had already produced a shitstorm of controversies, a penis (and vagina to complete the set) would most likely break the Internet due to the outrage of puritans and other people with strong opinions.

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[–] fubo@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (8 children)

Here's an oddity ... people use 🍆 "eggplant" for penis, and 🍑 "peach" for butt, but there doesn't seem to be a general consensus on which emoji to use for vulva. Some options include:

  • Flowers such as 🌷 "tulip" or 🌹 "rose"
  • 🐚 "spiral shell"; compare South American Spanish concha
  • 🦪 "oyster"; which has a visible pearl (i.e. clitoris) on many systems
  • Food items whose names are used as slang for vulva, such as 🍯 "honey pot" or 🌮 "taco"
  • 👛 "purse"; compare the origin of the word "pussy" in English
  • Any of the various cat emoji, also for "pussy"

(Really there are plenty of other options for penis as well, such as 🌽 "ear of corn" or 🕹 "joystick", but folks seem to have settled on the eggplant.)

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago (8 children)

I use the peach emoji to indicate pussy, and/or implied as any fleshy hole a man would want to penetrate.

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[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

I've seen plenty of people online use cat emojis for vagina.

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[–] muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago (3 children)

🤮 well at least we got this for giving shrek head

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[–] HeavyRaptor@lemmy.zip 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Would the black version of the penis emoji be longer than the others? Would it be an erect or a flaccid penis? Why not both? Or better even, a full range of male excitement. The applications are endless!

(I'm joking of course but it does demonstrate the silly questions you would have to answer if you were to actually implement this)

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[–] KombatWombat@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Emojis are used very widely, including places meant specifically for young kids. These places would already censor words, but requiring emoji censorship as well is adding complexity to a problem that is already difficult to handle. Companies not on the ball with the release of sexual organ emojis would let kids see that until it's added to their filter list. Kids wouldn't know what it means, but it can lead to them googling for context or encourage a conversation with the predator using it if they ask about it.

Honestly, I just don't think it's worth the headache. Eggplants and peaches and cats are already pretty easy to understand in context, and if you need more than the emojis we already have, we do have our old fashioned words.

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I vote for having penis, balls, butt, labia and titty emojis.

[–] some_designer_dude@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Where does it end? Anuses (anii?), dildos, ball-gags, pierced v. unpierced, big boobs, small boobs, all in each skin tone…

The eggplant is fine. Maybe a sausage or hotdog would be better in the long run and easier to implement.

[–] Carnelian@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago

Unironically all great suggestions

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Where does it end?

It never ends. We want it ALL!

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[–] TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't help that social media censorship is leading to a more constrained language, if anything. Not only profanities are either censored or shadowbanned by some platform algorithms, there's also general use words for sensitive topics such as suicide, abortion and the like.

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[–] squiblet@kbin.social 5 points 8 months ago (4 children)

What I don't get is that a dick the size or shape of an eggplant would just not work, for anything.

[–] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

There are lots of dick-shaped, dick-sized eggplants. Chinese eggplants and Japanese eggplants are pretty phallic, similar to cucumbers or zucchini in size/shape.

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[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)
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[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Can we please stop these idiotic calls to de-profanify all things and pretend everything’s for every situation.

Are you aware we invented clothing super super super early on, and that humans tend to wear loincloths when there’s no other need for clothing?

Stop trying to greenfield rewrite culture. It’s like trying to tear down a bridge you’re standing on.

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[–] BreadOven@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

8================D~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~🍆

Edit: Sorry to everyone, but I think I just won the Internet. You're welcome, in advance.

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