V sign
✌ | |
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V sign | |
In Unicode | U+270C ✌ VICTORY HAND |
Different from | |
Different from | U+1F594 🖔 REVERSED VICTORY HAND |
Related | |
See also | U+262E ☮ PEACE SYMBOL U+01F54A 🕊 DOVE OF PEACE |
The V sign is a hand gesture in which the index and middle fingers are raised and parted to make a V shape while the other fingers are clenched. It has various meanings, depending on the circumstances and how it is presented.
When displayed with the palm inward toward the signer, it can be an offensive gesture in some Commonwealth nations (similar to showing the middle finger), dating back to at least 1900. When given with the palm outward, it is to be read as a victory sign ("V for Victory"); this usage was introduced in January 1941 as part of a campaign by the Allies of World War II,[1] and made more widely known by Winston Churchill. During the Vietnam War, in the 1960s, the "V sign" with palm outward was widely adopted by the counterculture as a symbol of peace and still today in the United States and worldwide as the "peace sign".
Usage
The meaning of the V sign is partially dependent on the manner in which the hand is positioned.
Where the palm of the hand is facing inward toward the signer (i.e. the back of the hand faces the observer), this is seen as insulting gesture in Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.[2][3]
With the palm outward toward the observer, it can mean "victory", in a setting of wartime or competition. This was first popularised in January 1941 by
In American Sign Language, the number 2 is signalled with two fingers raised and the palm towards the signer, the letter V with the palm away,[6] and the ordinal second with the sign palm forward before being turned (yawing) until the palm faces backward.[7] General finger-counting systems use either facing for the number 2.
The V shape is also used in a number of signs in many
V-signs in motion are used in air quotes, flexing the fingers, palm out, of one or both hands.[9]
As an insult
The insulting version of the gesture (with the palm inward U+1F594 🖔 REVERSED VICTORY HAND)[10] is often compared to the offensive gesture known as "the finger". The "two-fingered salute" (also "the forks" in Australia[11]) is commonly performed by flicking the V upwards from wrist or elbow. The V sign, when the palm is facing toward the person giving the sign, has long been an insulting gesture in the United Kingdom, and later in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.[2] It is frequently used to signify defiance (especially to authority), contempt, or derision.[12] It was known in Canada with the meaning "Up yours!" as late as to the generation which fought in World War II, perhaps because of their familiarity with the Victory sign throughout the war years. However, subsequent generations seldom use it, and its meaning in this sense is becoming increasingly unknown in Canada.[13][14]
As an example of the V sign (palm inward) as an insult, on 1 November 1990,
On 3 April 2009, Scottish association football players
Steve McQueen gives the sign in the closing scene of the 1971 motorsport film, Le Mans. A still picture of the gesture was recorded by photographer Nigel Snowdon and has become an icon of both McQueen and the film itself.[21][22]
For a time in the UK, "a Harvey (Smith)" became a way of describing the insulting version of the V sign, much as "
Sometimes overseas visitors to the countries mentioned above use the "two-fingered salute" without knowing it is offensive to the natives, for example when ordering two beers in a noisy pub, or in the case of the United States president George H. W. Bush, who, while touring Australia in 1992, attempted to give a "peace sign" to a group of farmers in Canberra—who were protesting about U.S. farm subsidies—and instead gave the insulting V sign.[25]
Origins
A commonly repeated legend claims that the two-fingered salute or V sign derives from a gesture made by
The first unambiguous evidence of the use of the insulting V sign in the United Kingdom dates to 1901, when a worker outside Parkgate Ironworks in Rotherham used the gesture (captured on the film) to indicate that he did not like being filmed.[29][30]
Between 1975 and 1977, a group of anthropologists including Desmond Morris studied the history and spread of European gestures and found the rude version of the V-sign to be basically unknown outside the British Isles. In his Gestures: Their Origins and Distribution, published in 1979, Morris discussed various possible origins of this sign but came to no definite conclusion:
Because of the strong taboo associated with the gesture (its public use has often been heavily penalised). As a result, there is a tendency to shy away from discussing it in detail. It is "known to be dirty" and is passed on from generation to generation by people who simply accept it as a recognised obscenity without bothering to analyse it... Several of the rival claims are equally appealing. The truth is that we will probably never know...[29]
Victory sign
Second World War: V for Victory campaign
On 18 May 1939, the French daily, Le Monde Quotidien had a headline of, 'V pour victoire'. On 14 January 1941,
In the BBC broadcast, de Laveleye said that "the occupier, by seeing this sign, always the same, infinitely repeated, [would] understand that he is surrounded, encircled by an immense crowd of citizens eagerly awaiting his first moment of weakness, watching for his first failure." Within weeks chalked up Vs began appearing on walls throughout Belgium, the Netherlands and Northern France.
By July 1941, the emblematic use of the letter V had spread through occupied Europe. On 19 July, Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred approvingly to the V for Victory campaign in a speech,[34] from which point he started using the V hand sign. Early on he sometimes gestured palm in (sometimes with a cigar between the fingers).[35] Later in the war, he used palm out.[36] After aides explained to the aristocratic Churchill what the palm in gesture meant to other classes, he made sure to use the appropriate sign.[24][37] Yet the double-entendre of the gesture might have contributed to its popularity, "for a simple twist of hand would have presented the dorsal side in a mocking snub to the common enemy".[38] Other allied leaders used the sign as well.
The Germans could not remove all the signs, so they adopted the V Sign as a German symbol, sometimes adding laurel leaves under it, painting their own V's on walls, vehicles and adding a massive V on the Eiffel Tower.
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Resistance graffiti on a Norwegian road, depicting the V-sign, "V" in Morse Code, and the royal cipher of King Haakon VII
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1941 postcard from the Independent State of Croatia, as part of the Axis attempt to appropriate the "V" for themselves
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The V-sign (and its Morse code equivalent) incorporated on an American propaganda poster for the War Production Board, 1942 or 1943
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A German V-sign and slogan on the Palais Bourbon in occupied Paris. The banner beneath the "V" reads "Germany is Victorious on All Fronts".
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During the German occupation of Jersey, a stonemason repairing the paving of the Royal Square incorporated a V for victory under the noses of the occupiers. This was later amended to refer to the Red Cross ship Vega. The addition of the date 1945 and a more recent frame has transformed it into a monument.
In 1942,
Vietnam War, victory, and peace
Protesters against the Vietnam War (and subsequent anti-war protests) and counterculture activists in the 1960s adopted the gesture as a sign of peace. Because the hippies of the day often flashed this sign (palm out) while saying "Peace", it became popularly known (through association) as "the peace sign".[40]
As a photography pose
Japan
The V sign, primarily palm-outward, is very commonly made by
In Japan, it is generally believed to have been influenced by
Elsewhere
In the United States, the usage of the V sign as a photography gesture is known but not widely used.[citation needed]
The original poster for the 2003 film What a Girl Wants showed star Amanda Bynes giving a V sign as an American girl visiting London. In the US, the poster was altered to instead show Bynes with both arms down, to avoid giving the perception that the film was criticizing the then-recently commenced Iraq War.[43]
Risks
In addition to the risks due to different interpretations of the V-sign in different cultures, it has been suggested that fairly close photographs of palm-out V-signs may be a security risk, as people's fingerprints can be clearly identified, allowing misuse. At a distance of 1.5m or less, 100% of a fingerprint can be captured, and 50% at up to 3m. Criminals could copy the fingerprint to use with door-access and payment systems. It is also possible for law enforcement to identify people this way; Carl Stewart was arrested in 2021 after police identified his fingerprints in an image he shared on EncroChat. Sufficiently detailed fingerprint information could only be harvested in "very demanding" conditions; to check that a V-sign photograph is not a security risk, it could be examined at high zoom.[44][45]
Specific uses
- In Argentina, the V sign, besides "victory", is linked to the political movement of Juan Domingo Perón to Argentina from exile in 1973.[44]
- In South Africa, after the Nationalist Party won the 1948 election with fewer voters than the opposition, Vs appeared as graffiti representing the word "Volkswil" (will of the people) and thereby questioning the results.[citation needed]
- In AIADMK.[citation needed]
- The Kendall Motor Oil brand logo has been using the V sign since 1928 to signify becoming the first Pennsylvania refiner to offer a highly refined product good for 2,000 miles.[46][non-primary source needed]
- The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and Villanova University students, alumni, and fans "throw their Vs up" by tradition and as a sign of pride in their university and its athletic teams. The V sign in this form frequently accompanies the motto "Fight On!" at USC.[47]
- The V sign, especially when printed in green, is a sign of the Iranian Green Movement.[citation needed]
- Following the first elections in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, a photo of a woman showing the V sign with one of her fingers dipped in purple ink became very well-known and was widely circulated.[citation needed] The ink is used to identify individuals who have already voted.
- In the 2022 presidential elections.
- In Poland, during the Solidarity movement, protesters showed the V sign meaning they would defeat Communism.[48] After partially free elections, when Tadeusz Mazowiecki was chosen as prime minister (24 August 1989), he went to the MPs with the V sign, which was transmitted on TV.[49] It is sometimes shown during debates about the fall of Communism.
- In Romania, the sign represents victory and has been used as an extension of the Romanian Television after the revolutionaries occupied it, shouting "We won!" and flashing the victory sign.[citation needed]
- During the Yugoslav Wars, Croatian and Bosnian troops and paramilitary militia used the sign as a greeting or an informal salute. U.S. and NATO peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia were forbidden from using the V-sign (victory symbol) to avoid upsetting or offending Serbs they might encounter.[50]
- In Vietnam, the V sign means "hello" since the Vietnamese word for the number "2" (hai) sounds like the English pronunciation of the greeting "hi".[citation needed]
- Beatles uses the V sign extensively while using the phrase "Peace and Love" as a sort of catchphrase.
- A vulgar gesture signifying cunnilingus is to put the V sign with the fingers on either side of the mouth (usually with the knuckles facing the observer) and to stick the tongue out. Most of the time the tongue is wriggled around.[citation needed]
- A partially obscured V sign can be added to someone else's head to produce devil's horns or "bunny ears" for an amusing photo. In September 2013, British and Irish Lions squad to Downing Street.[51]
- In Indonesia, candidate of the 2014 Indonesian presidential election Joko Widodo used the sign for a political campaign. The V sign in Indonesia is called "Salam Dua Jari".[52]
- In Belgium, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) political party uses it as a rallying gesture. During the taking the oath of the actual Belgian federal government, three N-VA ministers used the V sign instead of the formal three-fingers sign.[53]
- In Turkey, using the Victory sign can lead to a prosecution and conviction if it is shown, because in Turkey the sign is associated with the PKK if used by Kurds.[54][55][56]
- On the six-month anniversary of the
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Lech Wałęsa and George H. W. Bush, July 1989
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Singer Rihanna using the V sign, 2011
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An investigator flashes V-for-victory signs upon the 2006 arrival of material gathered by the Stardust spacecraft at the Johnson Space Center in Texas.
See also
- The finger – another insulting hand gesture where only the middle finger is raised
References
Notes
- ^ Cosgrove, Ben (4 July 2014). "V for Victory: Celebrating a Gesture of Solidarity and Defiance". Time (magazine).
- ^ a b V sign as an insult:
- UK: Staff. [1]Workforce of Parkgate Iron and Steel Co., Rotherham (1901) BFI1901
- UK: Staff. No ban for speeding V-sign biker BBC 14 March 2008
- UK: Staff. Two fingers Prescott BBC, 22 May 2001
- IE: Staff. Shambolic Irish give two fingers to the past Irish Independent
- AU: Keim, Tony (18 November 2008). "Long tradition of flipping the bird". Courier Mail. Archived from the original on 10 September 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- AU: Karl S. Kruszelnicki. Arrow Up Yours & Plague 1 www.abc.net.au. Accessed 23 April 2008
- NZ: Glyn Harper Just the Answer Archived 19 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine Alumni Magazine [Massey University] November 2002.
- ZA: Greenaway, Mike (2 July 2022). "The day that Wales' JPR Williams was almost lynched in Durban". IOL. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
- UK: Staff. [1]Workforce of Parkgate Iron and Steel Co., Rotherham (1901)
- ISBN 9780203962114.
- ^ "20th July 1941: 'V for Victory' widespread across Europe". ww2today.com.
- Washington Post. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
- ^ Staff. American Manual Alphabet Chart Archived 3 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine Center for Disability Information & Referral (CeDIR), Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University
- ^ ""numbers" ASL American Sign Language". lifeprint.com.
- ^ ""see" American Sign Language (ASL)". lifeprint.com.
- ^ Gary Martin. "Air quotes". phrases.org.uk.
- ^ "The Unicode Standard, Version 8.0, range 2700–27BF" (PDF). unicode.org.
- ^ Tony Keim "Long tradition of flipping the bird" Archived 10 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Courier Mail, 18 November 2008, accessed 14 April 2011.
- ^ Defiance, contempt or derision:
- Staff, V-sign, encyclopedia.com cites The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2008 "Brit. a similar sign made with the first two fingers pointing up and the back of the hand facing outward, used as a gesture of abuse or contempt." Accessed 9 May 2008.
- Staff. Hooligan grandson of legend, Daily Mirror, 20 December 2007
- Staff. V-sign led to assault on school bus teens The Press (York), 1 March 2008
- ^ "Thorn Tree – Meaning of gestures in the USA and Canada".
- ^ "Thorn Tree – Meaning of gestures in the USA and Canada".
- ^ Williams, Philip (1 November 1990). "Tabloid Sun opens campaign against European union". UPI. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- ^ Ponsford, Dominic (4 April 2017). "Sun reprises 1990 classic front with 'UP YOURS SENORS' message to Spain over Gibraltar". Press Gazette. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- ^ Wheeler, Brian (24 June 2005). "From two jags to two finger". BBC News. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- ^ Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor banned for life by Scotland, The Guardian, Friday 3 April 2009
- ^ "Scots end Gers pair's cap career". BBC News. 3 April 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
- ^ "Sweden 3–0 Scotland". BBC. 11 August 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ Young, Eoin (5 September 2014). "From the archives - Eoin Young's first and last Autocar columns". Autocar.
- ^ Garratt, Sheryl (7 November 2015). "In the driving seat with Steve McQueen". The Telegraph.
- ^ Staff On this Day 15 August 1971: 'V-sign' costs rider victory "BBC The infamous gesture won him an entry in the Chambers dictionary which defined 'a Harvey Smith' as 'a V-sign with the palm inwards, signifying derision and contempt'". Accessed 23 April 2008
- ^ a b Staff. The V sign, www.icons.org.uk. Accessed 23 April 2008
- Washington Post, 3 January 1992.
- ISBN 978-0-19-537557-2.
- ^ a b "Two fingers up to English history…". The BS Historian. 2 July 2007. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
- ^ Wavrin, Jean de. A collection of the chronicles and ancient histories of Great Britain, now called England. 2. From A.D. 1399 to A.D. 1422 / by John de Wavrin, lord of Forestel; transl. by William Hardy,... and Edward L. C. P. Hardy,... London: Longman. p. 203.
- ^ a b c Staff. The V sign, www.icons.org.uk web.archive.org
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Parkgate Iron and Steel Co., Rotherham (1901)". YouTube. British Film Institute. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
- ^ a b The V-campaign, Virtual Radiomuseum
- ISBN 9780203484289.
- ^ "The V sign at BBC's H2G2 website". Bbc.co.uk. 1 November 1990. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
- ^ "Newswatch 1940s". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
- ^ "Churchill outside Downing Street". Number-10.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 2 December 2007. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
- ^ "Churchill's famous victory sign". Number-10.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
- ^ Staff. "The V Sign". The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA). Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ James Jerman, Anthony Weir, Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches London: Routledge, 2013, page 145.
- ^ Kaczynski, Richard. Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley. North Atlantic Books, 2010, p. 511.
- ^ a b Staff. The Japanese Version (the Sign of Peace) ICONS. A portrait of England. Accessed 1 June 2008
- ^ "雑誌に載ったわたし。". 日刊「きのこ」 skipのブログ.
- ^ 1971's buzzwords[permanent dead link]
- ^ Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca (11 April 2003). "Sign of the Times". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 3 March 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
- ^ a b "Por qué el símbolo más famoso del peronismo podría dejar de utilizarse" [Why the most famous Peronist symbol may stop being used]. El Tribuno (in Spanish). 20 September 2019.
- ^ Yan, Alice (17 September 2019). "China's scissor-hand selfie-takers warned of cybersecurity threat". South China Morning Post.
- ^ "135 Years of Delivering the Good Stuff" (History) – Kendall Motor Oil. Retrieved 2 August 2020
- ^ "USC "Fight On" Gesture". USC Digital Folklore Archives. 21 March 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-4419-1475-0.
Subtle gestures, noise, and artwork are additional symbolic signs that dissidents use in coercive countries. Poland's Solidarity's signal was two fingers held up in the form of the letter V. This gesture diffused widely in Eastern Europe and now it is used in Palestine as a symbol of unity and nationalism.
- ^ "End to 45 years of Red rule". New Straits Times. 13 September 1989. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
Tadeusz Mazowlecki, who nearly fainted during his opening speech, flashed a V-for-victory sign as deputies voted his Cabinet into office by 402–0 with 13 abstentions.
- ^ "A Soldier's Guide: Bosnia-Herzegovina". Dtic.mil. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
- ^ Mairs, Gavin (17 September 2013). "Manu Tuilagi forced to apologise for playing prank on Prime Minister David Cameron in No 10 visit". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
- ^ "Slank: Salam 2 Jari, Konser Kemanusiaan Terbesar". Tempo. 7 July 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
- ^ "Prestation de serment: trois N-VA font le 'V', signe de la victoire et de ralliement de leur parti (vidéo)". RTL Newmedia. 11 October 2014.
- ^ SCF (1 March 2017). "Lawsuit against Leyla Zana demands prison sentence up to 21 years". Stockholm Center for Freedom. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Turkey Condemned by ECtHR for Sentencing Işıkırık to Prison Over Victory Sign". Bianet.
- ISBN 9781317106159.
- ^ "Outsized hand gives 'up yours' to Russian embassy in Prague". BBC News. 24 August 2022. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
Bibliography
- Armstrong, Nancy; Wagner, Melissa (2003). "The 'V'". Field Guide to Gestures: How to Identify and Interpret Virtually Every Gesture Known to Man. Philadelphia: Quirk Books. pp. 227–30. ISBN 978-1-931686-20-4.
- Lefevre, Romana (2011). "V". Rude Hand Gestures of the World: A Guide to Offending Without Words. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. pp. 122–3. ISBN 978-0-8118-7807-4.
- ISBN 0-8128-2607-8
Further reading
- Burnett, Stephanie (4 August 2014). "Have You Ever Wondered Why East Asians Spontaneously Make V-Signs in Photos?". Time. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- Solani, Dhvani (31 March 2021). "Why Does Basically Everyone Do This V-Finger Peace Thing in Photos?". Vice. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
External links
- Photos of the V sign:
- The V sign in the news: