man shrugging: dark skin tone
Unicode: 1F937 1F3FF 200D 2642
Description
A man shrugging, combining a person shrugging emoji with a dark skin tone modifier and a male sign.
Group:
People & Body > person-gesture
Status:
minimally-qualified
Emotion:
Conveys uncertainty, indifference, confusion, or a lack of knowledge/solution.
Backstory
The basic 'person shrugging' emoji (1F937) was introduced in Unicode 9.0 (2016). The skin tone modifiers (like 1F3FF for dark skin tone) and the gender sign (2642 for male) are zero-width joiner (ZWJ) sequences that allow for customization of base emojis, creating specific representations like 'man shrugging: dark skin tone'. This combination reflects the increasing demand for diverse and inclusive emoji representations.
Usage Examples
- When asked a difficult question: 'Where did I put my keys? 🤷🏿♂️'
- Expressing helplessness: 'Traffic's terrible, nothing we can do 🤷🏿♂️'
- Indicating confusion: 'Why did he say that? 🤷🏿♂️'
- Showing indifference: 'Whatever, I don't care 🤷🏿♂️'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Widely understood to express 'I don't know' or 'What can you do?' Often used humorously or to disclaim responsibility.
East Asian culture:
Similar meaning, but perhaps used less frequently than in Western contexts where direct verbal shrugs are common. Often understood as a general sign of resignation or helplessness.