man shrugging: medium-dark skin tone
Unicode: 1F937 1F3FE 200D 2642
Description
A man shrugging, with medium-dark skin tone. He has both hands raised, palms up, indicating uncertainty or indifference. The male sign is appended to specify the gender of the individual.
Group:
People & Body > person-gesture
Status:
minimally-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents uncertainty, confusion, ignorance, nonchalance, 'I don't know,' or 'who cares.'
Backstory
The basic 'person shrugging' emoji (🤷) was introduced in Unicode 9.0 (2016). The male variant (🤷♂️) and various skin tones were introduced at the same time to allow for more specific gender and skin tone representation. It visually represents the popular shrugging gesture with the hands raised and shoulders hunched.
Usage Examples
- When asked a question you don't know the answer to: 'Where did they go? 🤷♂️'
- Expressing indifference: 'Which movie should we watch? 🤷♂️ I'm fine with anything.'
- Admitting confusion: 'I tried to fix it, but 🤷♂️ it's still broken.'
- Casual resignation: 'Traffic was terrible today. 🤷♂️ What can you do?'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Widely understood and used to express a lack of knowledge, indifference, or a playful dismissal of a question.
East Asian culture:
Also understood, often used in similar contexts for conveying 'don't know' or 'can't help.' Sometimes used for playful expressions of 'whatever.'