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- This article is about offensive/peace gesture. For the formal salute, see Two-fingers salute
In some areas the gesture is considered vulgar. In the UK, if the hand is held out with the palm towards the person performing the gesture (a peace sign reversed), this is considered to be insulting, similar in severity to the insulting gesture commonly known as 'the finger'.
In United States culture, it is now probably most frequently seen as a gesture of peace, a connotation that became popular during the peace movement of the 1960s. The gesture is also used in a manner similar to the corna, by serruptitiously holding it behind a person's head. This use of the gesture, often called "bunny ears", is usually regarded as a meaningless prank without the corna's implied cuckoldry.
UK and the insulting sign
The UK insulting version of the gesture (with the palm inwards) performs a similar social function to "the finger". The "two fingered salute", or "bowfinger", as it is also known, is commonly performed by flicking the V upwards from wrist or elbow. "The finger" is traceable to Roman times needed, but may be unrelated in origin, as the insulting V sign is largely restricted to the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and Spain, where it is popular among taxi drivers in Madrid. The insulting V sign is not widely recognized in the United States.
Snopes has dealt at great length with a recent re-working of this myth which also related the phrase "fuck you" to the same origin, which is certainly untrue. referring to the idea that the raised fingers were those used for archery by English longbowmen during the Hundred Years' War, and the gesture indicated that they had not been captured and had the fingers removed by the French. A far more likely reason for the gesture is that it arose as a more comfortable way of raising the middle finger in line with the arm [citation needed. This etymology has also given rise to an alternative name for the gesture, which can also be known as flicking an "Archers Salute" or just "Archers" as in "He just flicked me an Archers!"
A major problem with all of these ideas is that the first definitive known reference to the V-sign is in the work of Rabelais, the French satirist of the 1500s. * It is not clear that it relates directly the use of the middle finger as an obscenity, which itself dates at least to ancient Rome and certainly symbolizes a penis.
On November 1, 1990, The Sun, a popular British tabloid, ran an article on its front page with the headline "Up Yours, Delors" next to a large hand making a V sign protruding from a Union flag cuff. The Sun urged its readers to stick two fingers up at then-President of the European Commission Jacques Delors, who had suggested that more European integration might be a good thing. The article attracted a number of complaints about its alleged racism, but the now defunct Press Council rejected the complaints after the editor of the Sun stated that the paper reserved the right to use vulgar abuse in the interests of Britain.**
For a time in the UK "a Harvey (Smith)" became a way of describing the insulting version of the V-sign, much as the word of Cambronne is used in France, or "the Trudeau salute" is used to describe the one-fingered salute in Canada. This happened because in 1971, show-jumper Harvey Smith was disqualified for making a televised V-sign to the judges after winning the British Show Jumping Derby at Hickstead (Smith's win was reinstated two days later).
Bowfinger is also the title of a Steve Martin comedy film that stars himself and Eddie Murphy. The film lampoons the people and institutions of the film industry. In this context, the title is generally interpreted as a friendly "screw you" to Hollywood and the movie industry.
In Australia, the gesture is known as "the forks", as in "he gave me the forks", being an obvious reference to the resemblance of a fork by the protruding fingers. "The forks" also alludes to the verbal insult "get forked" (the polite version of "get fucked") which the palm-in V-sign is also taken to mean. It is also occasionally known, as in the UK, as "the two fingers" or just "the fingers". Also in the UK, but specifically in Scotland (where this gesture is known commonly as the 'Vicky'), the fingers have come to mean the highly insulting, "Go take a flying fuck." The UK usage is such that "V sign" is almost uniquely reserved for the insulting gesture, "peace sign" or "victory sign" being used for its alternative meanings.
The gesture can be made more offensive by combining it with the Italian elbow gesture.
Japan and the V sign
During the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, figure skater Janet Lynn stumbled into Japanese pop culture when she fell during a free-skate period—but continued to smile even as she sat on the ice. Though she placed only 3rd in the actual competition, her cheerful diligence and indefatigability resonated with many Japanese viewers, making her an overnight celebrity in Japan. Afterwards, Lynn (a peace activist) was repeatedly seen flashing the V sign in the Japanese media. Though the V sign was known of in Japan prior to Lynn's use of it there (from the post-WWII Allied occupation of Japan), she is credited by some Japanese for having popularized its use in amateur photographs.
Through the 1970s and 1980s in Japan, the V sign was often accompanied by a vocalization: "piisu!" This gairaigo exclamation, which stood for "peace", has since fallen into disuse, though the V sign itself remains steadfastly popular.
Perhaps due to Japanese cultural influence, the V sign in photographs has become popular with young Koreans, Hong Kongers, and Taiwanese as well. The sign is ubiquitous in Taiwan and is closely associated with the English word, "happy". Print and television advertisements read "happy" with hands waving while displaying the V sign, and the average Taiwanese person will invariably give that word as the meaning of the sign.
Discordianism and the Occult
Discordians also consider the V sign a holy symbol due to their belief in the Law of Fives and the sign's similarity to the Roman numeral five. They claim that their use of the salute predates that of the peace movement, although because of Discordianism's apparent penchant for mischief, people usually consider their claims satirical. They also, more facetiously, claim that Churchill's use of the symbol was due to his involvement in the Bavarian Illuminati. Similar suppositions regarding Churchill, the mystical significance of the V-sign, and Aleister Crowley have also independently cropped up. See also peace sign antagonism.
Mythic origins
It has long been told that the famous "two-fingers salute" and/or "V sign" derives from the gestures of Welsh archers who used the English longbow, fighting alongside the English at the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War. The myth claims that the French cut off two fingers on the right hand of captured archers and that the gesture was a sign of defiance by those who were not mutilated.
This is, however, almost certainly untrue, as the first definitive known reference to the "V-sign" is in the works of Rabelais, the French satirist of the 1500s. * This suggests, ironically, a French origin.
The same story has circulated in the US as a supposed explanation for the use of the middle finger as an obscenity, with the added flourish of saying the slang term for the sign, "flipping/giving the bird," has something to do with feathers on arrows. This is absolutely untrue, as the middle-finger sign dates at least to ancient Rome and definitely symbolizes a penis; "giving the bird" dates to 1800s British theatrical slang, meaning to be driven off stage by goose-like hisses, and was apparently connected to the middle-finger sign by US military pilots in the 1960s. *
The general idea of the V-sign originating among archers has one piece of possible evidence in the work of Jean Froissart (circa 1337-circa 1404). Froissart, a historian, was the author of "The Chronicle," a primary document that is essential to an understanding of Europe in the fourteenth century and to the twists and turns taken by the Hundred Years' War. The story of the English waving their fingers at the French is told in a first-person account by Froissart; however, the description is not of an incident at the Battle of Agincourt, but rather at the siege of a castle in another incident during the Hundred Years' War. It is unclear if this is a direct reference to the V-sign. Also, Froissart is known to have died before the Battle of Agincourt. Like many social memes it is difficult to ever know for sure where the V-sign originated, but this story has become a part of British myth.
Other
- Eve Ensler's feminist V-Day movement uses this handshape.
- In Unicode, the V sign "Victory Hand" symbol is U+270C (✌).
- At the University of Southern California the V-sign is used to promote school spirit, representing the chant Fight On!.
References
- Desmond Morris with Peter Collett, Peter Marsh and Marie O'Shaughnessy. Gestures: Their Origins and Distribution. London: Jonathan Cape, 1979. ISBN 0-224-01570-2; NY: Stein and Day, ISBN 0812826078
External links
- Photos of the V-sign:
- The V-sign in the news:
- Urban Legends Reference Pages: pluck yew
- Desmond Morris book list
"V sign"