[Linganth] Middle finger as informal greeting

[Alexander King]

I also don't have real data, but I'm pretty sure
that "negatives" have long been used as
"positives" in slang, especially Afro-American
slang. Use of "bad" to mean "good" was already
well established when I noticed it anecdotally in
the 1980s. Also I have hearsay evidence (someone
told me about reading a thing ...) of "bad
motherfucker" used as the highest compliment
among Afro-American blues/jazz musicians in the
1950s. Middle-fingered greetings would seem to
parallel this usage.

If Leila's students are mostly white (?), this
would follow a pattern of whites eventually
adopting slang innovated by blacks a generation
earlier.

Alex

At 11:15 -0500 30/1/05, Gaudio, Rudolf wrote:
>Leila,
>
>I don't have any real data on this, but my
>surmise is that you & your students are onto
>something. 
>An example from pop. culture that comes to mind
>is Eminem's movie _8 Mile_, in which a few of the
>characters use the middle finger to greet each
>other in a way that (to me) suggests affection
>and
>hostility at the same time.  I'd be curious to
>know how you & your students read it.
>
>Rudi
>
>Rudolf P. Gaudio
>Assistant Professor of Anthropology
>School of Natural and Social Sciences
>Purchase College, State University of New York
>Purchase, NY 10577
>rudolf.gaudio at purchase.edu
>

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