Apparently, a change was made to the Facebook Icon. A change that you needed, but never knew you needed, because your privilege is showing.

You may have been too busy being a grown-up and having a life to notice, but not only has it been changed…it’s also a “huge difference for gender equality.” Granted it’s only a huge difference if you have no idea what those words mean, but that is neither here nor logical.

The symbolism is everywhere, man. I mean, woman. I mean, is it womyn? Damn, I’m getting sued.

From the [place genderless descriptor] who led the charge…

“As a woman, educated at a women’s college, it was hard not to read into the symbolism of the current icon; the woman was quite literally in the shadow of the man, she was not in a position to lean in…”

Much to my dismay, not long into my tenure as a Facebook designer I found something in the company glyph kit worth getting upset about. There in the middle of the photoshop file were two vectors that represented people. The iconic man was symmetrical except for his spiked hairdo but the lady had a chip in her shoulder. After a little sleuthing I determined that the chip was positioned exactly where the man icon would be placed in front of her, as in the ‘friends’ icon, above. I assumed no ill intentions, just a lack of consideration but as a lady with two robust shoulders, the chip offended me.

This is the best part…

As a result of this project, I’m on high alert for symbolism.

Clearly.

How about this: instead of being on “high alert” for symbolism, for sexism, for racism for cis-gender-white-privilege-ism… we just tone it down and stop being a bunch of obnoxious, Social Justice Warrior jackasses. Can we do that instead? Is that still an option?