man shrugging: medium skin tone
Unicode: 1F937 1F3FD 200D 2642 FE0F
Description
A person shrugging, representing a lack of knowledge, indifference, or helplessness. This specific emoji includes a medium skin tone and is gendered as male.
Group:
People & Body > person-gesture
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically conveys uncertainty, indifference, confusion, resignation, or 'I don't know'. It can also express a casual 'whatever' attitude.
Backstory
The 'person shrugging' emoji (without skin tone or gender) was introduced in Unicode 9.0 (2016). The skin tone modifiers (like 1F3FD for medium skin tone) and gender variants (like 200D 2642 FE0F for male) were added subsequently to allow for more diverse representation. It quickly became a popular way to visually express a range of nuanced emotions related to uncertainty or indifference, evolving from the popular '¯\_(ツ)_/¯' emoticon.
Usage Examples
- When you don't know the answer: 'Where did I put my keys? 🤷♂️'
- Expressing indifference: 'Should we go out or stay in? 🤷♂️'
- Showing resignation: 'Well, it happened. What can you do? 🤷♂️'
- As a casual 'whatever': 'He can think what he wants, 🤷♂️'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Widely understood as 'I don't know,' 'who cares,' or 'it is what it is.' Often used in informal digital communication.
East Asian culture:
Similar meaning, but sometimes used with a slightly more playful or lighthearted nuance, especially if the situation is not serious.