Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law - Wired

2008] Digitus Impudicus 1415
the Dark Ages. 68 Nineteenth-century German anthropologist Carl Sittl
speculated that the temporary disappearance of the middle finger
reflects the far-reaching influence of the Catholic Church during the
Dark Ages. 69 The Church’s encouragement of conservative moral
values may have caused the middle finger gesture’s temporary
departure. 70 Nevertheless, the gesture survived. 71
Records indicate that Americans imported the gesture as early as
1886. 72 The first recorded appearance of the middle finger gesture on
American soil occurred in a professional baseball team photograph,
where a pitcher for the Boston Beaneaters gave the middle finger while
posing for a joint team picture with the New York Giants. 73 Perhaps
this photograph captured an early manifestation of one of the most
intense sports rivalries in American culture. 74
Since 1886, the middle finger has evolved into perhaps the most
commonly used insulting gesture in the United States. Known as the
finger, 75 the finger wave, 76 the bird, 77 the stork, 78 the bone, 79 the one-
68 See id. at 14 (stating that “the bird seemed to have flown the coop” during
Middle Ages, but noting other obscene gestures, such as the fig, may have replaced the
middle finger gesture during this time period).
69 Anderson, supra note 57, at 170-71 (noting Sittl speculated that “the prudish
attitude of the Catholic Church sent the bird into hiding”).
70 Id.
71 An eighteenth-century British account suggests that the middle finger gesture
existed in England. In 1712, a London newspaper explained, “The Prentice speaks his
Disrespect by an extended finger, and the Porter by sticking out his tongue.”
SPECTATOR (London), Apr. 16, 1712, quoted in Anderson, supra note 57, at 170.
72 See, e.g., LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 14-15 (describing first recorded use of
the middle finger gesture in United States); Anderson, supra note 57, at 168-201
(surveying use of the gesture in United States and elsewhere).
73 See, e.g., LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 15 (providing reproduction of picture);
Anderson, supra note 57, at 170 (noting that “ace pitcher” Charles Radbourn was first
athlete to use the gesture in team picture).
74 John Branch, Where Do Rivals Draw the Line?, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 18, 2006, at D1
(referring to “border between Red Sox Nation and Yankees Country, [as] a sort of
Mason-Dixon Line separating baseball’s fiercest rivals”).
75 AXTELL, supra note 58, at 30, 105 (explaining that the gesture consists of
“holding up the fist, knuckles facing outward, and extending the middle finger
upward stiffly”); see also LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 7-23 (discussing in great
detail meaning, history, and usage of the gesture).
76 AXTELL, supra note 58, at 105.
77 Coggin v. State, 123 S.W.3d 82, 85 n.1 (Tex. Ct. App. 2003) (referring to
defendant’s gesture as “the bird”); WEBSTER’S NINTH NEW COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY 153
(9th ed. 1990) (defining “bird” as “an obscene gesture of contempt made by pointing the
middle finger upward while keeping the other fingers down — usually used with the”).
78 LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 24 (noting that nineteenth-century