Miao
Miao is a minimalist drawing of a yellow cat. Their name means "mapness is an orientation". They have been actively used as a symbol of minor attraction on Twitter in 2020.
Origins
The image
Initially nameless and apolitical, Miao was drawn by Lecter on the first of July, 2020. This drawing was meant to function as a custom cat emoji on nnia.space and in a map discord server, and it was inspired by several existing minimalist cat face emojis[1][2]. Later that month Lecter used this image as an avatar on Twitter. It briefly became an inside joke on map Twitter, and several other people also set it as their avatar, which caught antis' attention.
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The original drawing of Miao
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A Miao in minor map flag colors, made by a collective of minor maps
An anti's post featuring Miao
This created a larger trend of minimalist paraphilia mascots[3].
The name
The cat remained nameless till October 2020, when Twitter updated their terms of service to outlaw "promoting or normalizing sexual attraction to minors as a form of identity or sexual orientation"[4]. The cat's name, an abbreviation from "mapness is an orientation", was meant to oppose this new policy. "Miao" is also how cats' meowing is written down in some languages, such as Italian[5].
There also appeared a slogan "miao with me", but it did not gain wide popularity.
References
- ↑ Blob cat emojis via Slack.
- ↑ Cute Cat Emojis by Royyan Wijaya.
- ↑ Category:Emoji mascot, Paraphilia+ Flags Wiki.
- ↑ Twitter’s pedo-populism is a setback for prevention, Prostasia.
- ↑ Meow, Wikipedia.
