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Americans Send More LGBT Emojis Than Anyone Else

by Oscar Raymundo

Real Housewife Brandi Glanville may not be the biggest fan of sending and receiving emojis, but the rest of America respectfully disagrees. Especially when it comes to sending "female-oriented" and LGBT emoji. A recent study compiled SwiftKey, a third party keyboard app for smartphones, revealed the most popular emojis in each country. Canadians liked sending the poop emoji, while Australians overwhelmingly sent the beer, cocktails, and wine emoji. Talk about lushes. As for American emoji-senders, the study found that their use of the lipsticks, nail polish, rainbows, and two men holding hands emojis was disproportionately higher compared to the rest of the world.

The study lumped the emojis depicting lipsticks, high heels, pink bows, and manicures under the category of stereotypically "female-oriented" and found that Americans sent these girly emojis at a higher rate, or 0.29 percent of the time to be exact. By comparison the global average of "female-oriented" emojis being sent is 0.20 percent. In the U.S. the favorite female emoji to send is the woman raising her hand.

The study did not specify as to whether this was caused by the popularity of Katniss Evergreen's "I volunteer as tribute!" line, mixed with Sheryl Sandberg's "lean in" message. Or maybe these emoji senders just all felt they had been personalized victimized by Regina George.

Another note-worthy finding that Americans use LGBT emoji 30 percent more than the average, with 0.13 percent of all emojis sent being either a rainbow, men holding hands, or women holding hands. The global average for sending gay-themed emojis is just 0.10 percent.

Apple's latest emoji update for the iPhone was praised for being not only racially diverse, but also LGBT-inclusive. The update included more emoji depictions of same-sex couples and families, however mixed race couples and families of color were notably absent.

Image: Fotolia