In a major shift, Apple has announced that they will include a pregnant male emoji as part of their iPhone upgrade. The pregnant man emoji will be included in the iOS 15.4 beta test’s feature release, which is set to become generally accessible later this Spring. According to Emojipedia, which is the official governing body for all emojis, “pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people” prompted the creation of the pregnant man emoji.

Concerns have been raised, however, that Apple’s new pregnant man emoji, as well as a gender-neutral pregnant person emoji, may be misused for bad purposes. Some people feel that the new emojis will eventually become “a tongue-in-cheek way to display a food baby,” which is a slang term for a distended stomach following a hearty meal.

In addition to the pregnant male emoji, Apple will also be releasing other emojis including a bitten lip, interracial handshakes, a drained battery, a crutch, X-ray scan of the human chest, bubbles, an empty glass jar, a swimming pool slide with and without eggs.

The pregnant father emoji made headlines all over the world in September, when the Unicode Foundation officially approved a transgender emoji for the next update. In response to this news, phone companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple created their own stylized versions of the authorized emojis that may be utilized on their platforms.

“Since 2019, vendors have been making considerable efforts to offer all people emojis with three different gender variants – one ‘Man,’ one ‘Woman,’ and a non-gender-specifying ‘Person,’” stated Keith Broni at Emojipedia. “This latest Apple beta update continues this trend by adding two new gender-neutral people emojis in the form of Person with Crown and Pregnant person, as well as adding a new Pregnant Man emoji.”

Following is Jane Solomon’s blog post “Why Is There a Pregnant Man Emoji?” written in response to the new pregnant man emoji, which was met with widespread criticism when it was first revealed in September.

“The new pregnancy options may be used for representation by trans men, non-binary people, or women with short hair – though, of course, use of these emojis is not limited to these groups,” Solomon said. “Men can be pregnant. This applies to the real world (e.g., trans men) and to fictional universes (e.g., Arnold Schwarzenegger in [1994 film] ‘Junior’). People of any gender can be pregnant too. Now there are emojis to represent this.”

It’s still unclear when iOS 15 will be released; however, it is anticipated to hit the market in the spring. People may use a beta version of iOS until then, which includes the new pregnant man emoji.

What are your thoughts on the pregnant man emoji and the other new emojis?