Facebook allows you to let the world know just how you're feeling: excited, happy, sad, annoyed, sick. Each feeling comes with its own emoticon.

But one of those emoticons doesn't sit well with body-positive activists. This is the emoticon, "Feeling fat," that's round-faced and pink-cheeked with a double chin.

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A group called Endangered Bodies has launched a campaign to persuade Facebook to remove the "feeling fat" option. According to the activists, "fat" is not a feeling and added the status option normalizes body-shaming, which can be especially harmful to people with eating disorders.

They've asked Change.org to post the petition asking Facebook to remove "fat" from its list of preloaded feelings.

The U.S. version of the petition, which currently has more than 13,000 signatures, was launched by Catherine Weingarten, a 24-year-old student at Ohio University in Athens.

"I think it was supposed to be funny, but seeing this status made me feel angry. When Facebook users set their status to 'feeling fat,' they are making fun of people who consider themselves to be overweight, which can include many people with eating disorders. That is not OK," Weingarten wrote on the petition page.

The significance these miniature cartoons have gained in Internet lexicon is only underscored by the fervor and occasional outrage with which the public debates their meaning.

Take, for example, the emoji symbol of two hands pressed together, which made the evening news last summer amid dispute over whether it represented a high-five or two hands clasped in prayer.

"It's not surprising that Facebook came up with an emoji to capture what so many women were already saying in words. When women publicly disparage their own bodies, it sends a message to others that this type of behavior is fair game - that women's bodies exist to be evaluated publicly by other people, that women's bodies are never, ever good enough," said Renee Engeln, a researcher who studies body image at Northwestern University.

The petitions were launched during National Eating Disorders Awareness Week at the end of February.

Facebook said it doesn't have any plans to change the emotion options, but company representatives have been communicating with the activists about their concerns.

"This study demonstrates the importance of evaluating patients for depression, not only in terms of improving their mood, but reducing their risk for heart disease," said lead author, Heidi May PhD, a public health scientist.

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