Edward L. Platt

When my database threw an unexpected error, I looked up the cryptic code in the message, and fell down a bizarre click-hole about a surprisingly controversial cultural symbol: the "woman with bunny ears" emoji. That's the official title at least, but it has variously been interpreted as "ballerinas" or "Playboy bunnies" or "Kemonomimi" (a human character with animal features, common in Japanese media). Different visual representations have leaned towards evoking different interpretations. These interpretations are left up to implementors and not part of the Unicode standard. There can even be differences between implementation versions from the same vendors. For instance, in iOS 8.3, Apple increased the size of the bunny ears, which had previously looked more like barrettes. For many people, this shifted the meaning of the symbol from "dancers/dancing" to "porn stars," and undoubtedly led to some rather awkward miscommunications. It goes to show that we're still figuring out how to use emoji. And perhaps it's worth looking up your favorite emoji to make sure you're not sending mixed signals to your friends.