Survival Arts

“Here are my two fingers - come and get them, if you can.”

Some years ago, very shortly after having moved to London, I was walking down Charing Cross Road late at night when an obviously drunk old man felt compelled to issue me what I thought was a friendly salute: the V-sign, knuckles-out. I returned the salute with gusto, earning surprised grumbles from the geezer as he continued his post-pub stumble down the sidewalk ("pavement" to my Brit friends).

Of course, I learned quickly the meaning of this little gesture, and am reminded of it in an interesting post on Samizdata:

The US gesture of extending the middle finger is clearly just a phallic reference (i.e. "f**k you"), but the English V-sign, which has some similar connotations (i.e. it is not a sign of endearment), has historical roots dating back to the 1400's. If the middle finger is a gesture of anger, the V-sign is a gesture of defiance and above all, a threat. "It is with these two fingers that I use my longbow!"... Up yours, with an arrow!

It is here that I am reminded that we as Americans inherit much of our culture of defiance - such as it still exits - from the Brits. Some of them, at least, still maintain that culture.

Posted by Russell Whitaker at November 17, 2002 1:42 PM | TrackBack