woman facepalming: medium skin tone
Unicode: 1F926 1F3FD 200D 2640
Description
A person, typically depicted with hands on their face, indicating disbelief or dismay. This specific sequence includes skin tone and gender modifier, showing a woman with dark skin gesturing facepalming.
Group:
People & Body > person-gesture
Status:
minimally-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents embarrassment, disbelief, frustration, exasperation, or shame. It signifies a feeling of 'I can't believe this is happening' or 'This is so stupid'.
Backstory
The 'Face with hand over mouth' (U+1F926) was introduced in Unicode 9.0 in 2016. Its expanded usage, especially with skin tones and gender modifiers, allows for more specific representation of various characters performing the facepalm gesture. The 'facepalm' gesture itself was popularized online prior to the emoji's existence, particularly with images of Captain Picard from Star Trek.
Usage Examples
- Reacting to a bad pun: 'Oh, for goodness sake... 🤦🏾♀️'
- After someone says something obvious: 'Did you just say water is wet? 🤦🏾♀️'
- In response to a frustrating situation: 'My internet just went out again. 🤦🏾♀️'
- Witnessing an embarrassing moment: 'Did he seriously just trip over nothing? 🤦🏾♀️'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Widely understood as a gesture of exasperated disbelief or disappointment in response to something foolish or illogical.
East Asian culture:
Similar meaning of embarrassment or frustration, often used when someone says or does something particularly silly or embarrassing.