The finger
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 ancient Greek comedy, the finger was a gesture of insult toward another person, with the term katapugon also referring to "a male who submits to anal penetration"[12] or katapygaina to a female.
[13] In Aristophanes's comedy The Clouds (423 BC),[14] when the character Socrates is quizzing his student on poetic meters, Strepsiades declares that he knows quite well what a dactyl is, and gives the finger.
[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.
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.
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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
[citation needed] 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.
[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.
[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.
[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] Athletes, including Stefan Effenberg, Ron Artest, Luis Suárez, Virat Kohli, Juan Pablo Montoya, Iván Rodríguez, Danny Graves, Jack McDowell, Natasha Zvereva, Josh Smith, Bryan Cox, and Johnny Manziel have been suspended or fined for making the gesture.
[5][66][68][69][70][71][72] José Paniagua was released by the Chicago White Sox after giving the middle finger to an umpire; he never played in the majors again.
[68][73] Bud Adams, owner of the National Football League's Tennessee Titans, was fined US$250,000 for giving both middle fingers to the fans of the Buffalo Bills during a game.
[77] Many musical artists, including Madonna, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, and Adele have publicly made the gesture.
For example, Don Meredith famously noted in a 1972 Monday Night Football game describing the finger of a dejected Houston Oilers fan: "He thinks they're number one in the nation.
[5] Psychologist David Walsh, founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family, sees the growing acceptance of the middle finger as a sign of the growth of a "culture of disrespect".
[88] In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the V sign, "two-fingered salute" or "the fingers", when given with back of the hand towards the recipient, serves a similar purpose.
[89] In countries where Spanish, Portuguese or French are spoken, and especially in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and France, the gesture involving raising a fist and slapping the biceps on the same arm as the fist used, sometimes called the bras d'honneur (French), corte de mangas (Spanish), manguito (Portugal), dar uma banana (Brazil), or Iberian slap, is equivalent to the finger.
More commonly in Turkish or Slavic regions, the fig sign (also known as nah or shish) serves as the equivalent to the finger, meaning "you won't get it" or "in your dreams".
In the Japanese manual syllabary, the middle finger (with the front of the hand facing forward) stands for the kana せ (which, incidentally, is also an archaic word for "brother").
