#MiddleFinger #OffensiveGesture #SocialEtiquette
Hey there! Ever wondered why sticking out the middle finger is considered offensive? 🤔 Let’s dive into it a bit!
First off, the origin of this gesture traces back to ancient times. Here are some key points:
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Ancient Greece and Rome: The middle finger has been used as an obscene gesture for centuries. It was known as "the finger" and was meant to insult and provoke.
- Symbolism: The middle finger represents a rejection or a challenge. When you show it, you’re essentially saying you’re not adhering to social norms!
Now, why is this seen as inappropriate in most social settings?
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Cultural meaning: In many cultures, the middle finger is recognized universally as an offensive sign—it’s like a big "no thanks!" 👎.
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Provocative gesture: It can escalate conflicts or instigate confrontations. When someone sees someone else stick up their middle finger, it can lead to misunderstandings or fights.
- Social norms: We have these unspoken rules on how to interact politely. The middle finger isn’t on the guest list for that party! 🎉
So, sticking out your middle finger is more than just a simple action; it’s layered with cultural history and social implications. Want to hear something interesting? It’s not just humans! Some primates also use gestures to express annoyance or aggression.
Now, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Have you ever experienced a situation where someone showed the middle finger, or perhaps, you’ve done it? What was the reaction?
💬 Share your experiences or tips on how you navigate situations where gestures like these might come up! Let’s chat about it!
English longbowmen. Back during the hundred’s years war between France and England, the story goes that French forces used to cut the middle/middle an pointer fingers off of captured longbow men, because this would prevent them from ever being able to properly pull a longbow again.
This lead to English soldiers waving their (un-cut-off) fingers at defeated French forces as a sort of “fuck you we won you didn’t get these fingers”.
Which then just eventually lead to showing someone your middle finger being taken as offensive (or in the UK, doing a backwards peace sign to someone is also offensive, to the point that the the creators of left for dead ✌🏼(2) intentionally changed the cover at of the European release.
I mean, the longest finger on your hand, which forms a very phallic shape when the other fingers are clenched and the middle finger is pointed upward… It’s not a particularly complicated origin story, and it’s likely about as old as walking erect.
Apparently this gesture goes as far back as Ancient Greece where it was understood to represent a penis. As for why that particular finger was chosen it is likely lost to time, but we can speculate the flanking fingers were taking the place of legs.
Sexual organs have long been considered vulgar so it is no surprise that many insults and foul language centers on them.
Edit: Evidently the balls have it.
I heard it was a gesture used by English long bow men to the French during thier many wars to show that they could still shoot. The French would sever those fingers on captured soldiers. So it was, indeed, a Fuck You.
the middle finger is like the ultimate “nope” signal. it’s been around since ancient greece when it was used to insult someone. now it’s kinda like waving an angry flag at someone. not exactly polite but always gets the point across
so the middle finger is kinda like an ancient way to say “i don’t like you” without words. it’s just a rude gesture man like some people think it’s a way to show disrespect. it probably became a big deal cause it’s easy to do and gets attention. but hey it sure shows someone’s feelings clearly
Other cultures have other gestures too – my understanding is showing someone the palm of your hand like you’re telling them to stop is similar in modern Greece
Others have explained how it may have originated, but all language and gestures are arbitrary. There’s no reason we chose the middle finger as an insult and a thumb up as a postive, other than that’s what someone started doing and others followed until it became the norm.
To explain, let’s assume the opposite, that you went to a foreign land where it’s the opposite. An angry person holds their thumb up at you in anger, while another person puts up their middle finger while congratulating you.
It’s the other context clues that tell you what the gesture means, their anger and yelling tells you that this gesture is a pejorative insult, their congratulations tell you the other is a postive affirmation.
Words and gestures don’t have any meaning on their own, and that meaning can change depending on context.
In the same vein, any word can be an insult if it’s clear there’s hate behind it, or conversely, some groups have even had success taking back a slang word by using it positively (e.g., queer).
Words and gestures are just a vehicle for us to communicate. It’s arbitrary because it’s up to us what we find acceptable or offensive.
It’s actually an ancient gesture, dating back to at least as far as ancient Greece. The general connotation, even if normally no longer spoken, is that you’ll sodomise them with that finger, the longest of the bunch. Alternatively it can symbolise a penis, so the gesture effectively means something along the lines of “fuck you” and “shove it up your ass”
It’s probably mythology, but I was always partial to the story of English archers waving their middle fingers to French soldiers to boast that they could still draw a bow. The French allegedly cut off the middle and index finger of any captured archers. Quite the “fuck you” if true.
Sweet baby Jesus. Can I be I the only person who thinks the middle finger is the finger you use to digitally penetrate ie finger-f’ck and thus means fuck?!?!?!
Seeing lots of people here saying it’s meant to suggest an erect dick and means, pretty literally, “Fuck you.” Might be true, but I’ll chime in with another story I’ve heard, though I’m not sure if this is historically vetted or a folk origin story.
In medieval warfare, prisoners of war were often released (killing them might have created more of an uproar than the country wanted to deal with) but might be marked or punished in ways to make them unfit to fight again. So a swordsman might have his right arm broken and poorly set so it would never be strong enough to wield a sword in battle again. Similarly, an archer might have their middle finger or fingers cut off so they’d be ruined as archers. In either case, the released prisoner would be able to take up common labor in the future but never be an effective soldier again — a reasonably fair punishment, as standards of the day went.
So, an upraised middle finger might then signal: “Ha! I’ve never been captured and am still totally capable of grabbing a weapon and fucking you up!”
the middle finger is like the ultimate “nope” sign like saying back off or go away. its roots go way back to ancient greece so its kinda historic. but society just kinda agreed to it being rude so now its like a classic way of showing bluntness. sometimes it makes people laugh tho so it’s not all bad
I’m not sure how true this is, but from what I was told, the insult dates back to one of medieval, or earlier wars, between the British and the French. Instead of out right killing the captured, they would send them back to their respective camps missing the index, and middel finger. So not only an injured solider, but a useless solider because they can no longer fire their bow and arrow or crossbow. To rub it in the released prisoner the camp would wave their index and middle finger, or just the one
ELI5? Because it looks like a PP.
So from what I understand it’s daring back to english longbow archers that used their middle finger to pluck the strings of their “yew” bows. The enemy would capture them and sever their middle finger, so those with them intact would flip off those same enemies saying something along the lines of “I can still pluck yew”. Which became “fuck you”.
That sounds totally inaccurate now that I say it. But a teacher in like middle school showed me a video (before YouTube was really big) about this and treated it like a fact. I’m almost sure it’s wrong. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Or where this notion came from? Again, I’m very certain this is probably bullshit. It was from one of those “little known facts” shows that sprung up around when mythbusters was still big.
Robert whul explaining the finger.