thumbs down: medium-light skin tone
Unicode: 1F44E 1F3FC
Description
A hand with its thumb pointing downwards, indicating disapproval or rejection, with a light skin tone.
Group:
People & Body > hand-fingers-closed
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents disapproval, dislike, rejection, failure, or negativity. Can be used to express dissatisfaction or to indicate that something is bad.
Backstory
The thumbs-down gesture has a long history, famously associated with Roman gladiatorial combat to signal a gladiator's fate. In modern times, it has been universally adopted as a sign of negative judgment or disapproval. The addition of skin tone modifiers (like 1F3FC for light skin tone) was introduced in Unicode 8.0 (2015) to allow for more diverse representation.
Usage Examples
- Expressing disapproval for an idea: 'That's a terrible idea. 👎🏼'
- Indicating something is bad or failed: 'The movie was a huge flop. 👎🏼'
- Rejecting an offer: 'No thanks, I'll pass. 👎🏼'
- Showing dislike for content: 'This post is not good. 👎🏼'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Widely understood as a sign of disapproval or failure, originating from ancient Roman gladiator games where it signaled death or defeat.
East Asian culture:
Generally understood as negative, but less commonly used in everyday informal communication compared to its Western counterpart.
Middle East and parts of Africa:
In some cultures (e.g., Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan), a thumbs-down can be offensive, equivalent to an insult or 'up yours' gesture.