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Transcript

SMNTY Classics: A Fruitful Look at the History of the Eggplant Emoji · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and welcome to Stefan. Never told
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: your production of iHeartRadio and Yes I am solo today Samantha.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Her voice is not cooperating and that is very important
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: in an audio medium, so we wish her a speedy recovery.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: But in the meantime, we have this classic for you.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: This was a fun one. I do think we should
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: come back and update this one more fully. But it's
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: about emojis and sexting, and it's been on my mind
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: because Apple is releasing eight new emojis, I believe, and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: it's always a big deal when they do, and there's
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of discussion about what gets as an emoji
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in what doesn't, and what that says about society and
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: things like that. It's also been on my mind because
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: there was an SNL sketch recently about the most popular
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and least popular emojis, and I hadn't thought about looking
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: at the least popular ones, but now I'm really curious.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: But also the show Adolescence had a scene in it
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: that I thought was really interesting where the detective and
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: his son have a conversation and his son is basically
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: telling him, you're going about this investigation all wrong because
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: you don't understand the meaning of emojis. You don't understand
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: what this is actually communicating, and you're actually embarrassing yourself,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: which is true, and it's interesting to me also the
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: generational difference between how we understand certain emojis. So there
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: is a lot to unpack with this, and it's always
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: been a topic that stuck with me. I was lucky
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: enough to get to speak at Dragon Con a couple
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: of years ago, and I brought this one up just
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: because it's one of those things that some of us
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: don't really put a lot of thought into, but I
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: find really fascinating and it is a part of our
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: life of like choosing that emoji, what does it mean?
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And why don't they have this one? Anyway, please enjoy
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: this classic episode. Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: welcome to STEPH. Mom never told you your protection of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: iHeart Radio. So I have a question for you, Samantha.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Oh no, oh, yes, that's right. It's a real gotcha question. Okay,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: do you use.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: A lot of emojis?
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: You know, I have some favorites, and usually they're the
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: typical upside down smiley face, because I feel like that's
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: how I feel right now, uh huh. Or the ones
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: with the hearts on the face.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, like the love heart Yeah yeah.
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: And I also love a good thumbs up.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah that's like, you know, I feel like that definitely
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: goes a long way.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: But I've really gotten.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Into gifts as it took me three years to finally
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: figure it out, So more of a gift person.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you do you like emojis?
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I don't use them that often, but I do think
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: they're really useful in conversation. I use the thumbs up
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: a lot, and I used to like suspicious chin strokey
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: face a lot and.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Then the scared face.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, that's legit.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: So perhaps that is some insights who are psyche.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: I'm sure there is some kind of conversation of that
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: represents for each individual.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Oh I bet that's fascinating.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: I bet it does.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, here's another question, and it's more personal. Oh no, yes,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: have you engaged in a lot of sexting in your life?
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: I have not because I can't take it seriously, Like
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: it just sounds so ridiculous that I am reading something
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: from my person and it's supposed to be sexy text.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: So I don't I don't do you. And I say
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: this in an understanding. I've already asked, and I know
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: who I'm asking, but do you.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I have never purposefully done it, but I purposeful. I
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: definitely have caught myself in a situation where I'm like, oh,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: this is sexting, and I.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Don't really know how I ended up there.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: It's usually really goofy stuff that I thought was really silly,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: but it's clear the other person did not, So never
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: on purpose.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: I have to That's the problem is it was someone
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: is genuinely trying to sex to me. I just take
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: it as a joke, and I can't stop making some
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: kind of an appropriate joke instead of being very like
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: responsive to exactly what they're trying to do.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Sure, and that's a good segue into our topic today
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: because we're combining both emojis and sexting, and we're talking
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: about the eggplant emoji, which I have to say, if
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I ever did get I think in the time I'm
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: thinking of where I was sexting, there was some mushroom
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: emojis happening, but no eggplant emoji.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: But it was the mushroom.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: It's also a dick.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I guess in certain situations it is, but
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: it's kind of goofy, like every time I've encountered it,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: if someone sent me an egg plant emoji, I would
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: automatically think it's funny.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Yes, right, So I think I'm too literal for things
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: like that because in my mind, I'm like, look, because
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: maybe I have a really bad sense of what eggplants
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: are in general that I'm like, if your dick looks
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: like an eggplant, you probably should see somebody like that's
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: the only thing I.
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: Can think of.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Well, it is a medical condition, and we will talk
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: about that more later. So yes, first of all, we
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: should probably say we are going to tackle this in
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: a mature way. But you know, if you have kids
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: that you don't want hearing the history of eggplant, the
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: eggplant emoji, it's sexting.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Here's your warning.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Here you go. This is it. Stop the podcast.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Now, Yes, after it's already probably too late, we thought
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: we would do a lighter episode to hopefully give you
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: some distraction from all of this bad news and frightening
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: news and anxiety that we're inundated with lately. So this
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: is inspired by an episode I did over on the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: other podcast I do savor about eggplant. Let me tell
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: you this podcast is all about the history of food
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: and drink, and having a segment and a food and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: drink podcast about a sexting emoji was quite fun and surprising.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: So you can go check out that episode if you
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: want to know more about the food and a little
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: bit about the sexting. But in this one, we're focusing
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: on the sexting and emoji part.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: I don't think we're gonna be talking about the food,
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: which is delicious, I agree.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Last night it was great.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's great and courage I love it.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Also possibly relevant now during our time of self quarantine,
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: because you know, I'm guessing there's more sex thing going on,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: especially if you're not with your significant other or the
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: person that you've been talking to so you can't make
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: physical contacts, so it would make sense sex thing may
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: be happening. Although we do have a lot of video
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: chats as well. But who doesn't love a good sext
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: apparently me me.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I do think it's an art and I really appreciate
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: when people are good at it. I've witnessed some of
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: my friends in action, and I always am impressed.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, maybe that's my problem because I don't I don't
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: know if my friends sexed, because that's not a thing
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: we necessarily talk about, so I don't know how good.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: They are some information, evanage all.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: I guess I would have to start doing a survey
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: of all my friends soon.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, an official survey for the podcast.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: Of course, for the podcast.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, So, as humans, we have been sexting pretty much forever,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: from cave paintings to Carry Your Pigeons, to old school
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: cameras to the pager to the first text. The words
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: sex first appeared in Our lexicon in two thousand and four,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: and you can see our past sexting episode for more
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: on the history of sexting.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: So all right, in case you don't know, and if so, wow,
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: that's impressive. The egg plant emoji or the aubergine emoji,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: is a well known Internet shorthand for penises yep, to
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: the point that in January twenty fifteen, Instagram banned the
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: egg plant emoji from its search function and Facebook apparently
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: banned it too, And when Instagram rolled out search capabilities
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: for emojis, the eggplant was the only emoji not included.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Things that were included the poop emoji, the banana emoji,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: the toilet emoji, which, by the way, I've not seen this,
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: the syringe emoji, and the cleft peach emoji for that ass.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Okay our Regina more on that second.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay, okay So Facebook and Instagram spoke people. When
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: asked about this, band said it was in an effort
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to combat the sexual harassment abuse women face online. Pictures
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: of nude women with their nipples, butts, and originitals covered
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: by emoji were also banned as a part of this
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and okay, dictionary dot com has an epic entry on it.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: We're going to have to read it.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: The eggplant emoji is a long purple eggplant, but it's
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: really just used to represent a penis.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: I'm liking the fight that They're very direct about what
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: is happening in the world. So the eggplant emoji first
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: debuted in twenty ten and quickly became again a symbol
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: for the penis your wall. According to Among the New Words,
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: a quarterly article in the journal American Speech, the egg
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: plan emoji was used on Twitter to mean penis as
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: early as twenty eleven, and in March of twenty fourteen,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: the video artist Jesse Hill translated Beyonce's head song Drunken
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Love into an emoji, using the eggplant to represent jay
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Z's penis.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: I still say he needs to go to a doctor.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: The dictionary entry continues, because again this is all from
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: dictionary dot com quote. Later that year, the emoji inspired
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: a trend on Instagram and other social media sites called
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: hashtag eggplant Friday, a hashtag that was linked to post
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: where men posted explicit images of their quote eggplants. But
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen, Instagram actually blocked the egg plan emoji
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: in references to it eg hashtag eggplant from its search functionality.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Instagram's band resulted in a campaign called hashtag Free the Eggplant,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: modeled after the similar campaign hashtag Free the Nipple in
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: twenty twelve for gender equality. And underneath this is a
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: picture of an eggplant with a sad face on it,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: captioned when You're a sweet and innocent eggplant, but people
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: keep using you as an emoji for a.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: Dick And yes, I will be posting this on our
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: social media before the episode releases, so we'll put it
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: up in the story. So if you want to see
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: the sad face eggplant, if you haven't already, just tune in.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: It's pretty good.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: It's pretty so good. So yes.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: This band was specifically to combat something called hashtag eggplant Friday.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: That was dudes posting outlines of their junk on Friday
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: and then tagging it with hashtag eggplant Friday. The association
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: between eggplanet dicks is so semented that rather pivoting the
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: similar shaped emojis like the banana or a husk of
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: a corn, people have instead started using eggplant adjacent things
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: like eggplant barm and Instadium might have shut it down,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: but the eggplant emoji is still.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: Going strong on Twitter and Tumblr.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Were you aware of eggplant Friday when it was happening, Samantha,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I wasn't.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: I still am not aware of it, and I'm very
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: glad to have missed it.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Oh oh, there's a lot of documentation. I'm good as
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: a brief sexting primer for those who don't know, like me,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: this was all news to me. Eggplant emogi plus mouth
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: emoji means oral sex, x plan emogi plus peach emoji
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: means vaginal or anal sex, and egg plant emogi plus
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: water droplets means ejaculation.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I did know that one.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Okay, the last one is what I've seen the most
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: of and everything else makes me just sad.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Or you know, I maintain as long as people are
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: having a good time.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: That's fair. That's fair.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Again, this is why I'm not good at sex thing
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: because I'm like, what.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: Is happening to this full poor peach?
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: A you feel sorrow for the beach, for the digital peach.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: I'm just saying so.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Egg plan emoji has even made an appearance in court.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: Yes again, but that would be the Daytime show divorce court.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: So in twenty fourteen, while.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Presenting his case that had significant other was cheating, a
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: man testified, we both have iPhones, we both have emojis. Now,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: I feel like certain emojis shouldn't just get sent to anybody.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: And I'm referring to the mojis with the hard eyes,
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: blowing a heart kiss, and even the eggplant that some
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: people refer to as mel genitalia, in which the judge asked, wait,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: I haven't heard about the eggplant. There's an eggplant and
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: the main responds, uh, yeah, an eggplant emoji, but it's
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: referred to as a mel genitalia. Uh. In conversations, I
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: love you had to explain the egg plant emoji to
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: a judge on camera.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: So good, So good.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen, Diplo named the egg plant emoji his
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: favorite emoji because, quote, it's code for stuff.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: I like that they had to be really obvious about that.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: It's code for stuff. Aren't all emoji's code for stuff?
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I guess there's an extra layer.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: I guess, I mean to be fair.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: I think everybody was really confused by the poop EMOCHI too,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: because it was, like I said, ice cream, is that poop?
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: Why was it that eyes?
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Mm hm. Canada is the biggest user of the poop emoji,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: by the.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Way, and we have more facts around that, but first
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: we have a quick break for word from our sponsor.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: And we're back, Thank you sponsor.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: So prior to emoji's, before they were a thing, the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: banana was the food most usually associated with the penis
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: here in the United States, in part because of the
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: use of a banana in sex egg classes to demonstrate
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: how to properly put on a condom.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: No one in the US would have.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Thought of the eggplant as a symbol for a penis,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: unless in the context of something you really didn't want.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Here's that medical condition egg plant penis.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: So this is a pnile fracture that causes discoloration and swelling.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Sounds painful, don't want it.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Eggplant wasn't a super well known food in the United
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: States outside of being fried or just covered in parmesan cheese.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: I don't know how I feel about the inner changing
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: this conversation for eggplant.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: So, then in nineteen ninety eight, a telecom company introduced
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: the emoji keyboard as a marketing tactic targeted towards Japanese
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: teenagers so that they would buy more pagers.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Well, I will.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Say because it was in my heyday, the pagers and such,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: it definitely was the beginning of hookups. You got a
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: specific text or if you got a specific like icon
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: or number set, it was like, oh come over.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Really yeah yeah, so interested in this?
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: So it's definitely like a code, like if there's certain
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: type of numbers it's nine, one, one or whatever. Typically
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: you know, use it to have them call back, but
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: they use different things in order or to represent different
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: things to be like, hey, this is the moment you
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: need to come over.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: My husband's not here or my wife's not here.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: You know, the cheating level, as well as if you're
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: a teenager like I was, we would use it to
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: spell boob somehow.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what they showed in the article the history
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: of sexing, and I was like, oh my gosh, children.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: I mean, we did that in calculators too, but the
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: page was even more fun.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: You're right, You're right.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: So these first emojis were mostly tame manga inspired smiley
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: faces and hand gestures, and then a Minute came up
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: with them as a way to help shy teenagers clarify
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: the meaning and emotion behind their texts. I will say
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: a lot of the times, if I feel like I'm
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: being too mean or harsh, I use an emoji, which
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: is interesting. Of the two hundred and eighty two emojis
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: included in the first release of emojis, there were a
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: handful of food items, including the banana, but no eggplant.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Other companies got in on the emoji game by offering
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: up competing sets of different, quote better emojis. Apple got
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: in on it in two thousand and eight, officially choosing
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: their favorite set of emojis to be their debut emoji
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: keyboard for the iPhone. Eggplant was not included. Nope, the
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: egg plan emogi was born in the United States and
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: twenty ten thanks to the Unicode Consortium.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that sounds like a secret club, Well it kind
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: of is.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: The Unicode Consortium dictates the computer coding specs of things,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: including emojis, so that they work across multiple platforms and devices,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: and that includes the egg plan emoji. By twenty eleven,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the unicodes emojis were up and running on the iPhone
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and in no time at all, Americans rallied behind the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: sexting potential of the egg plant emoji.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Within three years.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: In December twenty fourteen, hashtag eggplant Friday was a movement
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and within months Instagram shut it down. And
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: apparently this is a very iPhone specific thing. That's what
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of articles I read said. The egg plant
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: emoji on androids is shorter and plumper. And so I
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: did a little sleep thing because I have an Android,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: and I guess so it still looks pretty phallic to me.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: But and.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: But I like you into with a butt. But we should.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Say it's not just used for sexual situations, but also
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: in a non threatening way to communicate arousal, sort of
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: in a joking manner. And again I still hold to
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: if your penis looks like this eggplant, I'm going to
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: tell you to go see a damn doctor. And also
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: stat I don't want an eggplant near me.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: I don't need these thoughts you're putting in my head.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I have seen it in a lot of
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: like you know, if somebody post a sheet pan of
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: cookies and then I'll see egg plant emoji, like you
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: know that kind of joking, Oh I'm so turned cookies again.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna have to take another survey because my friends
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: and I don't ever use that in context of like, oh,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: I'm so into these cookies.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: So type up an official survey, get back to me.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: Okay, you know what this is going to go out,
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: quarantining Live, hashtag quarantine life. Do the survey about penises,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Thank you and.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Egg plant emoji. Your responses are much appreciated.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: Despite this all for education, Okay it is.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: We're just trying to do a service for everybody.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: I'm going to specifically send it to my female friends
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: and be like how many times do you get an
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: egg plant emoji?
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: And if you're talking or flirting?
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Also, listeners, please weigh in on this.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Weigh in on this very important matter.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: I need to know how many of you use the
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: egg plan emoji and it's all how many of you
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: get sent egg plant emojis on the regular?
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Spenty needs to know. Spenty needs to know.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Despite the food world being packed with phallic items, just packed, somehow,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: we haven't applied them to men in the same way
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: we've applied food items to women. I mean, if you
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: can think about melonszams, peaches, pineapples, so many things.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: Wait, what's the pineapples for? I?
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: You know, I would love someone to write in but
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I saw this in reference to a lot of things.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: I have my suspicions, but.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, someone needs to explain to me what the pineapple,
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: the peaches even kind of the yams and the melons.
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: I get it when you cut it, but huh.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, huh. But why did we settle on the eggplants?
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Why didn't Americans in particular latch onto the eggplant as
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a euphemism for dix. Well we'll get into that after
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: we're back, Thank you, sponsor.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: So surveys show the eggplant as a sex is particularly
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: American thing, although Canada UK and Australia are up there too.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: There are a couple of theories as to why, and
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: one of the main ones is here in the US,
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: we really don't have a lot of familiarity with eggplant,
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: especially not the longer, thinner Japanese variety as opposed to
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: the shorter, squadier Italian type.
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, just saying these words.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Whereas we associate corn with teeth and maybe wholesomeness, do
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: we I am bananas like America.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: You know, you're in the Midwest and you got the
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: little corn on the cop things and you're eating it.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: Maybe that's just me, maybe that maybe I'm just not
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: as imaginative. So and bananas with awkward sex edged classes,
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: which makes sense, and we don't we didn't really have
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: any cultural ideas attached to eggplants.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Others say that the reason Americans latched onto this is
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: down to the shape and the color, which isn't exactly correct,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: but is more on point than yellow maybe or that's
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: how the argument goes. And I've also heard arguments about
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the eggplant's size. So the banana doesn't suggest the big
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: now that the thunder wants to suggest.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Because we're all children, we're children.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: There's so many things.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: So in twenty thirteen, it was officially recommended for innu
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: window purposes by Fred Bennison.
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: And this guy would know.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: He edited Emoji Dick, an emoji reimagining of Herman Melville's
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: classic Oh Dear God.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: That same year, it was mentioned in.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: A slide show by The Complex about what emojis were
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: best to use for sexting.
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: I'm really glad we have guidelines.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we need those guidelines, But I did find this
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: slideshow quite like. It starts off with a warning that
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: you make sure the girl or woman you are sexing
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: is at least eighteen, which yes, but also.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: And it had a lot of like.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: If you're sexting two women at once, how to get
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: off twice without one of them knowing? And I'm not
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: opposed to consensual, polyamorous relationships or open relationships. It was
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: just the vibe of trickery manipulation that turned me off.
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: But oh, yeah, that's bad.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, perhaps a conversation for another day. That twenty fourteen
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Jesse Hill video played a huge part in proliferating the
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: eggplant's reputation in This Realm too. Bob was an early
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: adopter of eggplant Friday.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: That makes sense.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: Early in twenty fifteen, a co author of the Unicode
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Consortium sent out an email with the subject line sex
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: Emoji to their public listeners to bring attention to the
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: whole eggplant situation, and then a study that same year
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: from match dot com found a correlation between the sending
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: of emojis and higher rates of sex among its almost
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: fifty seven hundred single respondents, by margin about twenty percent
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: for both men and women. Academics believe this might be
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: because emojis do help clarify emotions and tones of digital interactions. Apparently,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: frequent emoji users are also twice as likely to get married.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: Oh is that what I've been doing wrong?
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's your emoji lack of emoji use. That's definitely
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: what it is. Hashtag free the eggplant has so far
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: been unsuccessful. Eggplant Emoji Vibrator was released in twenty sixteen,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: So there is that at least two companies have come
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: out of this whole thing too, Eggplant in the Mail
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: and Eggplant Mail, which both send eggplants in the mail
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: as joke gifts. I have done something similar with potatoes
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: and it was a huge hit.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: So is a potato sexual too.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: No, well, probably for some people, but it's just that,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: like you're opening up a box and you think, oh,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: what could this gift be, and it's a potato.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: Something you can give single potato.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yes, yes, So that's kind of the history
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: of the eggplant emoji. There's some brief other things we
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: wanted to touch on other emoji news.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: I suppose yes, diverse emojis, I say, and hashtag free
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: the nipple and missectoy patients and breastfeeding mothers was successful also, however.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a twenty fifteen study on worldwide emoji use found
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: that the US used more LGBTQ plus emojis than anywhere else.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: We also use more quote female or oriented emoji and
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: that I think that's the females. Well until recently, no,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: because there weren't that many. But speaking of you can
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: talk about that, Samantha.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: So the introduction of more diverse again in twenty fifteen,
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: the first modifier codes for changing skin tones where emojis
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: were introduced.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: And then there was a little bit of mixed reviews
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: for that.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Then in twenty twenty, another release included things like gender
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: neutral Santa Claus a man in a wedding dress, women
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: in tuxedos, and the transgender flag. This after a twenty
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: nineteen batch came with same sex couples and a twenty
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: seventeen push for non binary options, and this after a
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen push to have less sexist female emojis, because
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: no joke, the only options for women at first were bride, Princess,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: flamenco dancer, and playboy bunny. As compared to all the
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: male emojis in occupations doing things, the new female emojis
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: ranged from scientists, welder's code, mechanics, farmers, business people, and chefs.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: On top of that, female versions for a lot of
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the male emojis were introduced, and there was also a
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: woman wearing a hit job.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: So the introduction of new emoji is big business. By
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: the way, big companies pay upwards of an annual eighteen
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars to vote on them, and you've probably seen
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: companies petition for them like Taco Bell and Tagos come
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: to mind. Yeah, and about ninety percent of us use
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: them and on Facebook Messenger five billion or cent a day.
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: So this stuff actually matters.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: It really does, and we should return return to the
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: world of emoji for a future episode, and did want
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: to say before we completely close out. We back when
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Bridget and I were hosting together, we did an episode
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: on exhibitionism and why dick pics are a thing. So
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: if you want a more serious look at why women
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: receive unsolicited dick pics, which is not don't do it,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: you can check out that episode. I would love again
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: for listeners to write in about their experience with the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: eggplant emoji and sexting and if they were around and
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: remember eggplant Friday.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Is it good that it's shut down? Is it sad?
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Just your experiences with it?
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Right? You can send those experiences to our email at
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: stuff Media, Momstuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can also
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcasts or on
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks as always
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: to our super producer Andrew Howard, Thank you, and thanks
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to you for listening Stuff I'm Never Told You the
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: protection of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: your favorite shows.