“If Gay thought that Barlow was mad at her when she got the text, opening the message assuming it would be passive-aggressive, I totally understand how Gay might feel offended by ‘□□.’ In the same way someone can sarcastically say ‘great job’ when you’ve just spilled red wine on a white couch, emoji can be used insincerely-and that’s really hard to be sure about.” Bramhill also recognizes the ways in which gestures can have different meanings across cultures. Bramhill, who has never seen a single episode of any Real Housewives (couldn’t be me □), has never heard of the single or double thumbs up being used as a fuck you, but he doesn’t dismiss the interpretation. Mark Bramhill, a podcast producer and host of Welcome to Macintosh, has devoted multiple episodes to uncovering where emojis come from, how they are designed, and how they come to have meaning. I also call up an emoji expert to weigh in. * Very Wendy Willams voice* she’s got a point. I think we should be talking about the characters of the emoji alphabet, what they really mean, and how they are used as weapons against us.” It’s become a language, and with every language, there’s double entendres, there’s nuances. “Where is the fun in that? I want to have a rainbow of communicative nuances and subtitles with my emojis. When I point to the existence of the middle finger emoji, she breezily shrugs it off. Okay, but what about the double emoji thumbs up? Is there a universality of understanding among ex-Mormons, Salt Lakers, and Real Housewives that my brain is not privy to? “In my heart and mind, and amongst my friends, there was a universal text code that if you sent two thumbs up, it was F and U, but a nonaggressive way of doing it versus an exclamation point on a message,” explains Gay. It was nebulous enough and passive-aggressive, and she was perceptive enough to pick up on that.” I think we should be talking about the characters of the emoji alphabet, what they really mean, and how they are used as weapons against us. ![]() “I meant for it to read as, ‘Message received and I’m done with this conversation’ … which, in hindsight, really did mean an eff you. “Listen, when I sent the thumbs up, I was not meaning it to be aggressive-aggressive,” she says. (I might have texted had I not feared the conversation devolving into uninterpretable emoji speak.) Have I been telling my friends, loved ones, even my therapist to go fuck themselves for years? Or am I in the clear, having not added the second thumbs up? Is there any basis to this whatsoever?Īt this point, feeling insane and in search of clarity, I decide to call up Heather Gay. Am I the crazy one? Here I thought the middle finger emoji was the clearest way to tell a person to go fuck themselves. Fuck you, ”- a reference to a text exchange between the two that ended with Gay sending a pair of thumbs up emojis, which, according to an insulted Barlow, is “universal text code” for fuck you.īut wait. And until you figure out what it is that I trigger in you, we can’t have a good solid conversation and move forward. Lisa Barlow (who considers herself “Mormon 2.0”) says to Heather Gay (a self-proclaimed “good Mormon gone bad”), “I have never done anything mean to you. Let’s set the scene: The ladies of Salt Lake City, the 10th American Housewives franchise, are seated at a dinner. And it’s all because of this: □, the thumbs-up emoji, that this debate's lived rent free in our minds for weeks. But it’s the latest fracas that has permeated the Housewives ether and ignited a larger, albeit no less tacky, cultural conversation. Cast members (and the show’s editors) have turned the ability to make the most mundane fights into extraordinary, multi-episode-long events, all for loyal viewers to devour week after week. Consider Luann de Lesseps and Dorinda Medley’s fight over the designer Jovani Teresa Giudice’s feud with her sister-in-law, Melissa Gorga, about sprinkle cookies the Sonja Morgan Tipsy Girl versus Bethenny Frankel Skinnygirl battle! Epic. ![]() If there’s one thing Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise is known for, it’s the ability to platform lowbrow discourse.
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