Sexist Emojis?

I totally just stole the title from a "stuff your mom never told you" episode. This was this podcast's first episode I listened to, and I chose it because I immediately had an association to a thought I had recently, when responding to a friend's text about how she had kicked ass at work with emojis. But more on that in a moment. 

When it comes to using emojis, I consider myself pretty conservative. I have my moments where I'll throw some random ones in there, but for the most part, there are only a few basic ones I use, and typically only in specific contexts.
Mostly, I use them in a whatsapp group I have with my mom and sisters. Laughing with tears, hearts, kisses, and the occasional thumbs up are probably the ones I use most often, but we do get creative from time to time. Interestingly, in a similar group I have with my dad and sisters, emojis aren't used as often, by anyone in the group. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that my dad is skeptical when it comes to using anything else but actual words to express ourselves, or at least that's what we (or I) think of him. This, combined with the fact that when he does use them every once in a while, you can almost awkwardly feel his lack of confidence in choosing the right emoji for what he is trying to say, or, interpreted a bit more positively, the adorable playfulness of a grandpa using the latest trend in technology. (he he)

I wonder if changing it up like this depending on who I'm talking to is something that I do similar to how I know I adjust the way I speak to my audience. I have often noticed that I change my tone, choice of words, and sentence structure depending on who I talk to, and not just on the high level such as friends vs work, but on an individual level. And I text the same way. Some people get emojis, others don't, depending on how they write to me. Do other people do this? Adapt to how others communicate via text? Or is that just me? I'm actually curious. 

Anyway, I'm rambling. What I wanted to discuss and talk about is the thought I had when responding to my friend's message in which she shared that she had had a successful week at work. Thoughts that came to mind were: "yay! power! women! congrats! you rock!". The emojis I decided to send were: 

And the conflict I found myself in for a moment was that what I wanted to convey was "women's power", but then the symbol that I found most appropriate were bright red pumps. While so clearly female and therefore perfect for me to get the message across, it also bothered me, that I chose a shoe to represent "female". I sent it anyway, and I was good with it. I know what feminism means to me and my friend I was addressing; it most certainly isn't a pair of probably very uncomfortable shoes. In that context, and with the level of confidence that we have in who were are as women in our work life, I found it more than appropriate to send, but couldn't help but wonder how young boys and girls who see much of their world through the lens of emojis are impacted by the fact that emoji women are a princesses and brides, care about lipstick and their nails, while men are police officers, construction workers, detectives, and apparently great at any kind of sport. Seriously, what's up with that? 

I'm not the only one who thinks there's something fundamentally wrong with this. Check out the following articles if you're interested: 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/02/health/female-emojis-stereotypes-likeagirl/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/23/emoji-women-google-suggestions
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/10/female-emojis-google-equality

And here's the powerful always clip on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3BjUvjOUMc