The finger
In Western culture, "the finger", or the middle finger (as in giving someone the (middle) finger, flipping the bird[1] or flipping someone off)[1] also represented as "🖕" 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.
For fingers in general, see Finger. For other uses, see Finger (disambiguation).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]
United States
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.
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 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 Steinbrück controversially gave the finger in a photo interview with Süddeutsche 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]
People have given the finger as a method of political protest. At a concert, Ricky Martin gave a picture of George W. Bush the finger to protest the War in Iraq.[53] Serbian protesters gave the finger to the Russian embassy regarding their support of Slobodan Milošević.[54] Artist Ai Weiwei has used the finger in photographs and sculptures as a political statement.[55] As a political message to the Czech President Miloš Zeman, Czech artist David Černý floated an outsize, purple statue of a hand on the River Vltava in Prague; its middle finger extended towards Prague Castle, the Presidential seat.[56] Černý had also mounted a middle finger on a pink former Soviet tank from the Monument to Soviet Tank Crews in 1991.[57]
In 2011–2012, the pink tank with the finger was displayed again on a barge on the Vltava.
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]