🤦🏼
person facepalming: medium-light skin tone
Unicode: 1F926 1F3FC
Description
A person shrugging, indicating uncertainty or disbelief.
Group:
People & Body > person-gesture
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Commonly expresses confusion, indifference, resignation, or a 'I don't know' attitude.
Backstory
The shrug gesture has been a universal sign of uncertainty for centuries. This emoji was introduced in Unicode 9.0 (2016) as part of a significant expansion of emoji that included more human gestures and expressions. The addition of skin tone modifiers allows for greater representation.
Usage Examples
- When you don't know the answer: 'Where did I leave my keys? 🤷🏽♀️'
- Expressing indifference: 'Dinner tonight? 🤷🏽♀️ Whatever you want.'
- Feeling helpless or resigned: 'The traffic is terrible. 🤷🏽♀️'
- As a playful 'whoops': 'I accidentally sent that email to everyone. 🤷🏽♀️'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Widely understood as 'I don't know' or 'whatever.'
East Asian culture:
Similar meaning, but might be used less frequently than in Western digital communication or could be interpreted as a more subtle form of 'no comment'.