As someone who has covered sexuality and sexual health quite a bit down the years, the news this week regarding the new emoji list struck a chord.

While many of the 230 new emojis for 2019 should be applauded (including, for the first time, identity emojis for the disabled), the ‘pinching hand’ symbol – a hand with a thumb and index finger closing together – feels less sensitive.

Yes, the sign, which has been approved as part of Unicode Consortium's latest batch of emojis, could easily denote the term "so close" (a football not crossing the goal line by a matter of inches, for example); and it bears resemblance to the Italian hand gesture for "perfect". But to me, it is obvious that people will use the sign to mock men who have a small penis. And the Internet seems to agree.

Several years ago I interviewed a man called Marcus. Marcus had what is known as a micropenis; a penis that he described as “like an innie navel”. One of the many things he bravely revealed during our conversation was the sense of shame he had experienced throughout his entire life, from the very first moment he saw his father’s “dangling” genitalia and realised there was something different about his body.