"the finger" in 1932 Hollywood epic (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Victor Steinbok]

This has largely been my experience as well. I don't know specifically
about Italians, but most Continental Europe did not acquire the gesture
/at least/ until the late 1980s, possibly 1990s--and that through
domination of Hollywood productions, including on TV. Plenty of other
gestures--the up-folded arm being one of them, but also "throwing"
fingers (particularly in Greece), kind of like the motion of casting
sand, and several others, not all used for the same purpose. But a bird?
Not until recently (i.e., 20 years or so). Four years ago, I noticed
that many younger Europeans were doing it (2007-8 I was basically
surrounded by 20-30 year old Europeans and by Dutch of all ages). And
some of them were still doing it quite clumsily and somewhat
apologetically. But even in the early 80s, my friends and I used to
laugh at Tony LaRoussa's motion to call up relief pitchers during the
game, as it resembled what we perceived as the traditional insult (other
baseball managers used more of a motion where one would touch the arm
near the elbow with fingers from the opposite hand--LaRoussa was the
only one who would actually bend the forearm upward while doing it).

     VS-)

On 5/14/2012 2:44 PM, David A. Daniel wrote:
> Wiki claims the finger goes back to ancient Rome where it was called
> "digitus impudicus." Dunno. However, interesting to note its spread since
> the 1980's or so. Used to be, here in Brazil, the finger was unknown. The
> equivalent sign was what Americans might think of as a reverse OK sign. That
> is, circle made with thumb and index finger, other three fingers straight
> out, but with the back of the hand turned toward the target individual
> (usually - it was also occasionally seen turned the other way too). The OK
> sign in American movies and TV was occasion here for lots of giggles. Not so
> anymore. Now, the "reverse OK" is virtually unknown among younger
> generations, the American-style finger being the signal of choice. Likewise
> in the UK. Used to be their hand-delivered insult was a backwards V sign,
> made with the index and middle fingers. Now they seem to use the middle
> finger pretty much exclusively too. I've also seen the finger on the
> Continent in recent years, in places where the upward-folded-arm used to
> hold sway. The first time (off the top of my head) that I remember seeing a
> finger in a movie was in Easy Rider. From then on it became prevalent, and
> my WAG is that it was movies that unified the world behind the finger.
> DAD

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