Body Part Symbolism: What Emoji Depicts the Vulva? - Image query: Which graphic illustrates the female external genitalia?
In the digital age, where small pictographs and symbols have become the universal language of the internet and smartphone era, one area that remains largely unrepresented is female desire. This is the challenge that the Venus Erotic Fair in Berlin is aiming to address, by seeking a suitable emoji to represent the vulva.
As of August 2025, there is no widely recognized or standardized universal emoji specifically representing the vulva comparable to how the eggplant emoji is popularly used to symbolize the penis. In sexual or relationship communication contexts, people often rely on creative use of existing emojis to express related concepts, with the cat emoji or other suggestive faces being commonly employed. However, none precisely convey the vulva as a universal icon.
The eggplant emoji, which gained popular symbolic use informally, remains the most recognized universal emoji symbol for the penis. In contrast, female desire has been digitally invisible in chat emojis, with women often resorting to descriptive language or metaphorical emojis to express their sexual intentions.
Efforts to create or propose a vulva emoji for formal adoption by Unicode (the governing body for emoji standards) have existed in the past, but none have yet been officially accepted or broadly adopted to the same degree as the eggplant emoji. The ongoing cultural discussion and some artistic or activist calls for more inclusive and representative emojis for female genitalia have not yet resulted in an official emoji.
The organizers of the Venus Erotic Fair want an emoji that doesn't require a Google search to understand, aiming to make the representation of female desire more straightforward and accessible in digital communication. As of now, progress toward a universal symbol equivalent to the eggplant is still pending.
If you are interested in following developments in this area, monitoring Unicode Consortium proposals or communities focused on emoji representation in sexuality and gender might provide updates. However, as of now, no such emoji has been officially adopted or universally embraced.
It is worth noting that users often use these pictographs suggestively or ambiguously in chat, including in sexting. The eggplant emoji is often interpreted as a penis, and the peach as a butt, in the context of sexting. This ambiguity highlights the need for a universally recognized emoji to represent the vulva, providing a more explicit and less ambiguous means of communication in digital sexual and relationship contexts.
- In an attempt to bridge the digital gap in sexuality representation, the organizers of the Venus Erotic Fair in Berlin seek a universally understood emoji that symbolizes the vulva, moving beyond the ambiguity of the eggplant emoji representing the penis and the peach representing a butt.
- A comprehensive female lifestyle platform could potentially fill the gap by including a specialized category on fashion-and-beauty, advocating for the need of a universally recognized emoji representing the vulva in modern technology and digital communication, reflecting the diversity of lifestyles and empowering women in their digital expression.
