Of all of the emojis in the texting lexicon today, few are as multi-faceted (and potentially confusing) as the 🤷♀️, 🤷 or 🤷♂️emoji.
The 🤷♀️🤷🤷♂️ Symbol
The shrug emoji, like many of the customizable people emojis, comes in many forms thanks to different genders, skin tones and hair colors. At the most basic level, it shows a person—a woman, a non-binary person or a man—wearing a purple, white or blue sweater with their arms raised in an uncertain shrug.
What the 🤷♀️🤷🤷♂️ Emojis Mean in Texting
Depicting a person with their arms raised in confusion, the “shrug” emoji can be used for various thoughts, sentiments and emotions, including:
- Indifference (“whatever”)
- Passive aggression
- Ignorance
- Confusion
- Annoyance
- Giving up
Also read about: What Does the 🔥 Emoji Mean?
Receiving a 🤷♀️🤷🤷♂️ Text
Knowing the exact meaning of these shrugging emojis will depend on how they’re used. For example, you might see it used in place of an “IDK” text, but it could also be used to show genuine indifference. You might get it in response to asking your friend what she wants to get for lunch or what her crush meant by their latest message.
They can also be used quite passive-aggressively, so if you keep getting this emoji from your crush in response to pretty benign messages, they may be essentially telling you that they don’t care and you’re bothering them, which may be a sign to simply leave them be.
Does It Matter Which Version You Use?
Technically, there are three versions of this emoji floating around: the gender-neutral 🤷, the 🤷♀️ with a woman, and the 🤷♂️ with a man. In practice, most people use whichever one shows up first in their keyboard’s search results or just happens to match their own gender, and the meaning behind the message doesn’t really change based on which one gets sent.
So if you’re overanalyzing why your crush used the “female” version instead of the neutral one, you can probably let that one go.
🤷♀️🤷🤷♂️ From a Guy
When a guy sends this one, it’s usually pretty literal. He genuinely doesn’t have an opinion, doesn’t know the answer or hasn’t thought that far ahead.
If you ask him what he wants to do this weekend or where he wants to eat and get this emoji back, he’s not hiding some deeper meaning. He’s just going with the flow and leaving the decision up to you.
🤷♀️🤷🤷♂️ From a Girl
From a girl, this emoji can carry a little more nuance. Sometimes it really is just genuine uncertainty, but it can also be her way of playing it cool about something she actually does have feelings about, whether that’s a crush, a group chat drama situation or plans she doesn’t want to commit to just yet.
Context clues, like what was said right before it, usually make the real meaning pretty clear.
🤷♀️🤷🤷♂️ From a Friend
Between friends, the shrug emoji is about as low-stakes as texting gets. It’s the go-to response for “I have no idea” moments, whether that’s about what to watch tonight, who said what in the group chat or what a mutual’s cryptic Instagram story actually meant.
If a friend sends it, they’re probably not trying to send a message beyond exactly what it looks like: they simply don’t know or don’t have a strong opinion either way.
Like a lot of emojis, the meaning behind the shrug really comes down to context. It can be a totally harmless way to say “I don’t know” or “either way works for me,” but it can also be a subtle hint that someone’s checked out of the conversation.
Paying attention to the conversation leading up to it, and the person sending it, is really the only way to know for sure which version of “I don’t know” you’re actually getting.
If you want to learn about how emojis can be used, click HERE to read about what different emojis mean when sent by your crush.
