Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law - Wired

2008] Digitus Impudicus 1419
yours!” 112 In Afghanistan, Australia, Iran, Nigeria, and parts of Italy,
Israel, and Greece, the thumbs-up sign roughly translates into, “Sit on
my phallus, asshole,” and is considered an obscene and highly
offensive equivalent of the middle finger gesture. 113 England’s closest
relative of the middle finger gesture is formed by holding the index
and second fingers up with the palm facing the gesturer, similar to a
peace sign. 114 Anti-war protesters used this form of the gesture on
unsuspecting American police officers during the 1960s. 115 More
recently, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia demonstrated the
Sicilian version of the middle finger gesture by “flicking his right hand
out from under his chin” when a reporter asked what he thought
about “critics who might question his impartiality as a judge given his
public worship” at a mass at Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross. 116
The incident triggered a vigorous debate over the meaning of the chinflicking
gesture, with some claiming that it was a “gesture of
contempt, somewhat less rude than giving a person the finger,” and
others arguing that it was identical to giving someone the finger. 117
112 See AXTELL, supra note 58, at 32 (arguing that the forearm jerk sends strong,
sexual, and insulting message).
113
LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 79; see, e.g., Karen De Young, The Pentagon Gets
a Lesson From Madison Avenue, WASH. POST, July 21, 2007, at A01 (reporting that, due
to “cultural confusion,” President George W. Bush’s use of “hook ’em horns” gesture
at University of Texas parade had capacity to shock some who view that gesture as
‘sign of the devil’ and others who use it as sign of infidelity); see also AXTELL, supra
note 58, at 38 (noting that “casual, innocent gestures in one society can actually be
crude and insulting in another”).
114 See LOHEED ET AL., supra note 33, at 77.
115 Id.
116 Marie Szaniszlo, Photographer: Herald Got it Right, BOSTON HERALD, Mar. 30,
2006, at 6; see Laurel J. Sweet, Judicial Intemperance — Scalia Flips Message to Doubting
Thomases, BOSTON HERALD, Mar. 27, 2006, at 4 (reporting that Justice Scalia made
“obscene gesture under his chin” in response to reporter’s question); see also Dahlia
Lithwick, How Do You Solve the Problem of Scalia? The Razor-Thin Line Between
Obscenity and Bad Judgment, SLATE, Mar. 30, 2006, http://www.slate.com/id/2138117
(explaining differences in opinion regarding offensiveness of Justice Scalia’s gesture).
But see Szaniszlo, supra, at 6 (noting that Justice Scalia later claimed that gesture was
not offensive and that it merely means, “I couldn’t care less. It’s no business of mine.
Count me out.”); see also 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner (C-SPAN television
broadcast Apr. 29, 2006), available at http://tinyurl.com/lnjpz (mocking Justice
Scalia’s gesture and media controversy surrounding it). While giving the keynote
address at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, comedian and satirist
Stephen Colbert directed a portion of his speech at Justice Scalia, who was in
attendance, mimicking Justice Scalia’s hand gesture and then explaining to the crowd
that he was “[j]ust talking some Sicilian with my paisan.” Id.
117 See Lithwick, supra note 116.