"Emoji Feminism": Why Investigate And Create When You Can Just Whine About How Awful Things Are For Women?
You can create your own emojis. Easily. With imoji, a free app for iOS and Android, that lets you turn any picture -- including a photo you've taken -- into an emoji.

Somebody who wasn't satisfied with the current crop of emojis figured that out.

Meanwhile, in The New York Times, we've got an op-ed-length whine by a woman who feels, uh, oppressed by the standard crop of emojis on her phone.

This imagination-lacking lady is Amy Butcher, an assistant professor of English at Ohio Wesleyan University, and she writes:

I began to scroll through the emojis on my phone. Yes, there were women's faces, and tiny women's bodies. But for the women actually engaged in an activity or profession, there were only archetypes: the flamenco dancer in her red gown, the bride in her flowing veil, the princess in her gold tiara. There was a set of ballet dancers complete with bunny ears and black leotards, their smiles indicating that, gosh, they were so grateful to God and everyone, really, for this opportunity to pose for Playboy. There was a woman getting her hair cut, and another with her arm out, Valley Girl, osmosis ditz, as if to say, Tenure? What is tenure? That sounds like an injury! Ow-i!

Where, I wanted to know, was the fierce professor working her way to tenure?

Where was the lawyer? The accountant? The surgeon? How was there space for both a bento box and a single fried coconut shrimp, and yet women were restricted to a smattering of tired, beauty-centric roles?

This was not a problem for our male emoji brethren. Men were serving on the police force, working construction and being Santa. Meanwhile, on our phones, it was Saturday at the Mall of America -- women shopping while men wrote the checks.

We are told we are the new generation of American women; no longer a minority, we are, in fact, the majority of breadwinners in American homes. And yet the best we can get is the flamenco.

Indeed, it's the flamenco dancer I find I send most often when a friend has achieved greatness. Her one arm in the air, she suggests an attitude of self-assurance, of cool-minded confidence.

Flamenco! I sent recently when a friend sold her book for $50,000.

Flamenco! I sent when another secured a grant to conduct research in Ireland.

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Flamenco! I sent when another broke up with her boyfriend who had, for months, been eating all her food.

Flamenco! Flamenco! Flamenco! You are impressive and you are kicking butt!

If, instead of identifying as victimized, your orientation is "How can I make what I want happen?" maybe you're more likely to search for, discover, or even create solutions -- instead of whining about how you're discriminated against.

I don't deny that there's discrimination -- sexual, racial, and other kinds -- but I've never found whining about it to be anything more than depressing.

Life is too short to just sit around complaining instead of working to make change.