The finger
In
The gesture dates back to
Classical era
The middle finger gesture was used in ancient times as a symbol of sexual intercourse, in a manner meant to degrade, intimidate and threaten the individual receiving the gesture.
In
In
United States
Linguist
Canada
In 2023, in a ruling issued February 24 regarding a Canadian man who was accused of criminal harassment and uttering threats, Quebec court Judge Dennis Galiatsatos wrote, "To be abundantly clear, it is not a crime to give someone the finger," and, "Flipping the proverbial bird is a God-given, Charter-enshrined right that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian. It may not be civil, it may not be polite, it may not be gentlemanly. Nevertheless, it does not trigger criminal liability." The accused man, Neall Epstein, was acquitted.[36]
Early appearance in films
During a wedding sequence in one of Alfred Hitchcock's silent films, The Ring (1927), a misunderstanding results in the ringbearer giving the finger to another member of the wedding party, to comedic effect.
In the film Speedy (1928), Harold Lloyd's character gives himself the finger into a distorting mirror at Luna Park, about 25 minutes into the film.
Political and military use
The gesture has been involved in political events. During the
During
The middle finger has been involved in judicial hearings. An appellate court in Hartford, Connecticut ruled in 1976 that gesturing with the middle finger was offensive, but not obscene, after a police officer charged a 16-year-old with making an obscene gesture when the student gave the officer the middle finger.[47] The case was appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court,[48] which upheld the decision.[49] In March 2006, a federal lawsuit was filed regarding the free speech issue.[50]
Giving the finger has resulted in negative consequences. A Malaysian man was bludgeoned to death after giving the finger to a motorist following a car chase.[51] A Pakistani man was deported by the United Arab Emirates for the gesture, which violates indecency codes.[52]
People have given the finger as a method of
In 2017, while bicycling, Juli Briskman gave the finger to the motorcade of Donald Trump as it drove past her, and a photograph that went viral forced her to resign from her job. She was elected to the board of supervisors for Loudoun County, Virginia, in the 2019 Virginia elections.[58]
In popular culture
The use of the middle finger has become pervasive in popular culture. The band
Athletes, including
The
In automobile driving culture, giving the finger to a fellow motorist communicates displeasure at another person's reckless driving habits and/or their disregard for common courtesy.[79]
The finger is included in Unicode as U+1F595 🖕 REVERSED HAND WITH MIDDLE FINGER EXTENDED,[80] part of the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block.
The media sometimes refers to the gesture as being mistaken for an indication of "we're number one", typically indicated with a raised index finger.[69][81][82] Sometimes, though, the "mistake" is actually an intentional euphemism meant to indirectly convey the gesture in a medium where a direct description would be inappropriate. For example, Don Meredith is famously noted in a 1972 Monday Night Football game describing the finger of a dejected Houston Oilers fan as, "He thinks they're number one in the nation."[83] Ira Robbins, a law professor, believes the finger is no longer an obscene gesture.[5] Psychologist David Walsh, founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family, sees the growing acceptance of the middle finger as a sign of the growth of a "culture of disrespect".[62]
Google Street View's picture of the area around the Wisconsin Governor's Mansion, taken in 2011 during the tenure of Scott Walker, shows a jogger giving the finger in the direction of the mansion.[84]
Similar gestures
In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the V sign, "two-fingered salute" or "the fingers", when given with back of the hand towards the recipient, serves a similar purpose. According to a Royal Shakespeare Company synopsis of the play Henry V, a "two-fingered salute" appeared in the Macclesfield Psalter of c. 1330 (in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), "being made by a glove in the psalter's marginalia". George H. W. Bush, former President of the United States, accidentally made the gesture while on a diplomatic trip to Australia.[85]
In countries where Spanish, Portuguese or French are spoken, and especially in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and France, the gesture involving raising a fist and slapping the biceps on the same arm as the fist used, sometimes called the bras d'honneur (French), corte de mangas (Spanish), manguito (Portugal), dar uma banana (Brazil), or Iberian slap, is equivalent to the finger.
Italy, Poland and countries under the influence of Russian culture,[citation needed] such as Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, also see it as equivalent to the finger, but the majority of young people in these countries use the finger as an insult, which is associated with the Western culture.[5]
More commonly in Turkish or Slavic regions, the fig sign (also known as nah or shish) serves as the equivalent to the finger, meaning "you won't get it" or "in your dreams". The gesture is typically made with the hand and fingers curled and the thumb thrust between the middle and index fingers. This gesture is also used similarly in Indonesia, Turkey and China.[86]
In Japanese Sign Language, this same gesture (with all fingers curled inward except the middle one) means the following: elder brother (hand moving up), younger brother (hand moving down), and siblings in general (one hand moving up, one moving down).[87][88] This comes from a childish name of the middle finger, o-nii-san-yubi ("big-brother finger"), as opposed to o-tō-san-yubi ("dad finger", the thumb), o-kā-san-yubi ("mom finger", the index), o-nee-san-yubi ("big-sister finger", the ring finger) and aka-chan-yubi ("baby finger", the pinky).[89] The equivalent words for sisters are expressed with the pinky. In the Japanese manual syllabary, the middle finger (with the front of the hand facing forward) stands for the kana せ (which, incidentally, is also an archaic word for "brother").
See also
- Articulatory gestures
- Dulya(Fig sign)
- List of gestures
- List of sign languages
- Manual communication
- Mooning
- Mountza
- Non verbal communication
- Obscene gesture
- OK (gesture)
- Shaka sign
- Shocker (gesture)
- Sign of the Horns
- V sign or "the fingers"
- Wanker
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Further reading
- ISBN 978-1572487116.
- Loheed, M. J.; Patterson, Matt; Schmidt, Eddie (1998). The Finger: A Comprehensive Guide to Flipping Off. Acid Test. ISBN 1888358122.
- Wagner, Melissa; Armstrong, Nancy (2003). Field Guide to Gestures: How to Identify and Interpret Virtually Every Gesture Known to Man. ISBN 1931686203.
External links
- Robbins, Ira P. (2008). "Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law" (pdf). UC Davis Law Review. 41. SSRN 982405.
- "Finger Gesture Guide". Simply Body Language. SteNet Services B.V.
- "Pluck Yew". Snopes.com. July 9, 2007.