Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law - Wired

1418 University of California, Davis [Vol. 41:1403
photographer asked the soldiers what the gesture meant, they
apparently explained that it was a “Hawaiian good luck sign.” 101 The
photograph received a great deal of publicity in the United States
because it signified that the sailors’ confessions had been forced. 102
When the North Korean captors learned the true meaning of the
gesture, they subjected the sailors to a week of particularly severe
beatings. 103
While the gesture’s meaning is understood in many parts of the
world today, it also has equivalents in other cultures. The forearm
jerk, for example, formed by raising the right arm and bending it in a
ninety-degree angle at the elbow while slapping the left hand onto the
right forearm, 104 is one common variation of the middle finger
gesture. 105 The gesture is seen not only in the United States (where it
is often combined with the middle finger gesture to add emphasis), 106
but also in Brazil, 107 England, France, 108 and southern Europe, where
men frequently use the forearm jerk to say “Fuck off!” or “Up yours!”
to other men. 109 In England, the forearm jerk is a “crude form of
sexual admiration,” 110 while in France it sometimes means “Go to
hell!” and is directed toward someone who is annoying the gesturer. 111
In the United States, the forearm jerk is another way of saying, “Up
101
LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 17; Kristof, supra note 98.
102
LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 17.
103 Id. (asserting that “the finger sent a coded message that godless communism
couldn’t control wily, red-blooded Americans who spoke softly, and carried big fleshsticks”).
104 See AXTELL, supra note 58, at 33 (stating that “the forearm jerk is done using
both arms in a clearly dynamic action: The right arm is bent at the elbow and the left
hand then comes chopping down into the crook of the elbow while the fist of the right
hand is jerked upward”); LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 82 (describing the forearm
jerk).
105
MORRIS ET AL., supra note 56, at 82 (noting that the forearm jerk serves as “a
complete replacement of the old, finger-sized symbol with the new, improved, armsized
symbol”).
106
LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 82.
107
AXTELL, supra note 58, at 32 (noting that Brazilians call forearm jerk “the
banana”).
108
MORRIS ET AL., supra note 56, at 82 (noting that French sometimes refer to the
gesture as “bras d’honneur,” or “arm of honor,” equating “male honour with male
virility”).
109 Id. at 84-85; see also LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 82.
110
DESMOND MORRIS, MANWATCHING: A FIELD GUIDE TO HUMAN BEHAVIOR 199-200
(Gredon Desebrock ed., 1977) (explaining that English men use the gesture to
indicate to their male friends that they have noticed attractive woman).
111 Id. at 199.