It’s been more than 24 hours since Facebook designer Caitlin Winner announced that she had changed some of the icons depicting friends and groups on the social network.
Viva La Revolucion?
Maybe not.
Winner took to Medium to announce her process:
As a woman, educated at a women’s college, it was hard 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.
With the change (pictured above to the right), which should be visible to all by next week, a silhouette of a woman is now next to the outline of a man in the “friends” icon.
Likewise, for the “groups” icon, a woman, rather than a man, is at the front center, flanked by two outlines of what looks to be men. Previously, a larger man was in the middle of a group of three, with one appearing to be a woman.
NPR called the change a “visual nod to gender equality.”
And Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote a post as well, reminding us that “symbols matter – and a small image can carry a giant message.”
Many of the 1,800 comments on Sandberg’s post said that Facebook was making too much of something small. This isn’t a “victory for equality,” one commenter posted.
Another, Tushar Swarnkar, wrote:
The old version did not in any way reflect gender non-neutrality. Pointing it out openly creates that image which was never perceived in that sense before.
But others, such as Melissa Muirhead, argued that small things like tweaking icons make a difference:
Many point out that with the new “friends” icon, it looks like the woman is out front, leaning in a little too much. That prompted Viraj Dave to comment, I presume tongue in cheek:
Above: To the left, Facebook’s old icon for “friends.” To the right, the new one.
