4 Finger Meaning

[Anjali Reyome]

InWestern culture, "the finger", or the middle finger (as in giving someone the (middle) finger, flipping the bird[1] or flipping someone off)[1] is an obscene hand gesture. The gesture communicates moderate to extreme contempt, and is roughly equivalent in meaning to "fuck you", "fuck me", "shove it up your ass/arse", "up yours", or "go fuck yourself". It is performed by showing the back of a hand that has only the middle finger extended upwards, though in some locales, the thumb is extended. Extending the finger is considered a symbol of contempt in several cultures, especially in the Western world. Many cultures use similar gestures to display their disrespect, although others use it to express pointing without intentional disrespect. The gesture is usually used to express contempt but can also be used humorously or playfully.

The gesture dates back to ancient Greece and it was also used in ancient Rome. Historically, it represented the phallus. In the early 1800s, it gained increasing recognition as a sign of disrespect and was used by music artists (notably more common among actors, celebrities, athletes and politicians; most still view the gesture as obscene). In more contemporary periods, the bent index and ring fingers on each side of the middle finger have been likened to represent the testes.[2]

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.[4] It also represented the phallus, with the fingers next to the middle finger representing testicles;[5] from its close association, the gesture may have assumed apotropaic potency.[6] In the 1st-century Mediterranean world, extending the finger was one of many methods used to divert the ever-present threat of the evil eye.[7]

In Latin, the middle finger was the digitus impudicus, meaning the "shameless, indecent or offensive finger".[5] In the 1st century AD, Persius had superstitious female relatives concoct a charm with the "infamous finger" (digitus infamis) and "purifying spit"[27][28] while in the Satyricon, an old woman uses dust, spit and her middle finger to mark the forehead before casting a spell.[29] The poet Martial has a character in good health extend "the indecent one" toward three doctors.[5][30] In another epigram, Martial wrote: "Laugh loud, Sextillus, at whoever calls you a cinaedus and extend your middle finger."[31][32] Juvenal, through synecdoche, has the "middle nail" cocked at threatening Fortuna.[33] The indecent finger features again in a mocking context in the Priapeia, a collection of poems relating to the phallic god Priapus.[6] In Late Antiquity, the term "shameless finger" is explained in the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville with reference to its frequent use when accusing someone of a "shameful action."[34]

Linguist Jesse Sheidlower traces the gesture's development in the United States to the 1890s. According to anthropologist Desmond Morris, the gesture probably came to the United States via Italian immigrants. The first documented appearance of the finger in the United States was in 1886, when Old Hoss Radbourn, a baseball pitcher for the Boston Beaneaters, was photographed giving it to a member of their rival the New York Giants.

Use of this gesture in public, while vulgar, is not unlawful, as it is considered expressive communication protected by the First Amendment. In some cases, offended police officers who have had the insulting gesture displayed to them have stopped, ticketed, or arrested people for doing so. However, it is neither a crime, nor even probable cause to stop a person, and a police officer who does so violates "a clearly established constitutional right," and does not have qualified immunity if they do so, which means they can be sued for monetary damages for the unlawful stop and/or arrest. Cruise-Gulyas v. Minard 918 F.3d 494 (2019).

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]

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.

The gesture has been involved in political events. During the USS Pueblo incident, in which an American ship was captured by North Korea, the captured American crewmembers often discreetly gave the finger in staged photo ops, undermining the North Koreans' use of the images in their propaganda. The North Koreans, ignorant of what the gesture meant, were at first told by the prisoners that it was a "Hawaiian good luck sign", similar to the shaka. When the guards finally figured things out, the crewmembers were subjected to extremely severe beatings.[37] Abbie Hoffman used the gesture at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.[4] Ronald Reagan, while serving as the Governor of California, gave the middle finger to counterculture protesters in Berkeley, California.[4] Nelson Rockefeller, then the Vice President of the United States, directed the gesture to hecklers at a 1976 campaign stop near Binghamton, New York, leading it to be called the "Rockefeller gesture".[4] In 1982, Pierre Trudeau, then the Prime Minister of Canada, gave the finger to protesters in Salmon Arm, British Columbia,[38] earning the incident the nickname the "Salmon Arm salute".[39] The gesture itself has also been nicknamed the "Trudeau salute".[40] Former president George W. Bush gave the finger to the camera at an Austin production facility during his term as governor of Texas, saying it was "just a one-finger victory salute."[41] Anthony Weiner gave the finger to reporters after leaving his election headquarters the night he lost the 2013 primary election for Mayor of New York City.[42] During the campaign for the 2013 German federal election, the leading candidate of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Peer Steinbrck controversially gave the finger in a photo interview with Sddeutsche Zeitung's Magazin supplement.[43]

During World War II, the 91st Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces referred to the gesture as the "rigid digit" salute. It was used in a more jocular manner, to suggest an airman had committed an error or infraction; the term was a reference to British slang terms for inattentiveness (i.e. "pull your finger out (of your bum)").[44] The "order of the rigid digit" continued after the war as a series of awards presented by the veteran's association of the 91st, marked by wooden statuettes of a hand giving the single finger gesture.[45] In 2005 during the war in Iraq, Gunnery Sergeant Michael Burghardt gained prominence when the Omaha World-Herald published a photo of Burghardt making the gesture towards Iraqi insurgents he believed to be watching after an improvised explosive device failed to kill him.[46]

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]

In 2017 Juli Briskman gave the finger to the motorcade of Donald Trump as it drove past her while bicycling, and a photograph that went viral forced her to resign from her job as a marketing executive. However, the notoriety may have been favorable in her 2019 election to the board of supervisors for Loudoun County, Virginia.[58]

On February 24, 2022, the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian missile cruiser Moskva[59] attacked Snake Island as part of the 2022 Snake Island campaign. The Ukrainian border guard Roman Hrybov's last communication with the warship was "Russian warship, go fuck yourself". This was memorialized on a set of Ukrainian commemorative postage stamps on April 12[60][61] with the text "Russian warship, fuck you!" and a drawing of a Ukrainian soldier presenting the middle finger to the Russian cruiser.[62]

The use of the middle finger has become pervasive in popular culture. The band Cobra Starship released a song called "Middle Finger", and released a music video that showed people giving the finger.[63] Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan installed a marble statue of a middle finger measuring 11 metres (36 ft), located directly in front of the Milan Stock Exchange.[64] A now-famous photograph of Johnny Cash shows him giving the middle finger to a photographer during a 1969 concert at San Quentin State Prison, released as At San Quentin.[65] However, the photo remained fairly obscure until 1998, when producer Rick Rubin made it the centerpiece of an ad in Billboard criticizing country radio for not giving airplay to Cash's Grammy-winning album Unchained. Cameron Diaz made the gesture during a photo shoot for Esquire.[66] Harold Lloyd shot the finger to his own reflection in a Coney Island funhouse after getting paint on his suit in Speedy, his final silent feature, from 1928.[67]

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