Monsoon Wedding gesture

[Dennis R. Preston]

In Louisville in the 1940s and early 50s we never jabbed our
popsicles into the air, although we both said up your ass and had at
least the left hand on inner side of elbow with right lower arm
up-lifted which clearly had that meaning. I'm sure we would have
adopted the popsicle insult if only someone had introduced it. We
were precursors of iconicity.

dInIs



>In the movie "Monsoon Wedding", which takes place in India (I think it is New
>Delhi) there is a brief scene in which a woman who is holding a popsicle gets
>annoyed by something someone else says, so she responds by holding her
>popsicle vertically and jerking it in an upwards direction.
>
>In this context the gesture can easily be interpreted as "up your ass!".
>
>Does anyone know whether this is a common gesture, in India or anywhere else,
>and if so what is it usually interpreted as?
>
>Also, at one point the subtitle writers use a word I don't recall ever having
>encountered before: "sisterfucker".
>
>                - James A. Landau

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
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