The finger

The Middle Finger gesture (possibly offensive)

The finger, known variously as the one-finger salute, the highway salute, flipping (someone) off, flipping the bird or the Trudeau salute (in Canada). It is a hand gesture made by extending the center finger of the hand while bending the other fingers at the second knuckle. It has an offensive meaning in some cultures, comparable to "fuck you".

Table of contents

1 Origin
2 Interpretation
3 V-sign

Origin

The origins of this gesture is highly speculative. It is identified as the "impudent finger" in Ancient Roman writings. It was defined there as a gesture intended to insult another. It has been noted that the gesture resembles an erect penis. Ancient Romans considered an image of an erect phallus as a talisman against evil spells. As a consequence, displaying this gesture to another may not have been a pseudo-sexual insult but rather a insulting statement along the lines of – "I'm going to protect myself against your witchcraft, before you even start."

Interpretation

The gesture is generally considered offensive in the United States, where the FCC has banned it from broadcast television. As a result the gesture is often censored, and airbrushed out or replaced with large-pixel blocks. This gesture occurs frequently on television shows like The Jerry Springer Show or on music videos shown on MTV or VH1.

In some Mediterranean countries, and much of Asia, it is permissible to use the middle finger to point to something (on a written page for example) and Western cultures often do recognize the use of the middle finger to point to things. However, in North America it is considered more polite to use the index finger to point to something.

V-sign

In the U.K a similar but slightly different gesture is more common and is known as the V-sign.