Fw: [USA-L News] British Deaf Association in controversial posterdrive

[Trevor Jenkins]

On Saturday, 14 October, 2000 12:20:10, Bencie Woll <b.woll at CITY.AC.UK>
wrote:

> Since the advert is British, I thought I'd better enter the discussion.
> ... the handshape with extended middle finger ... It should
> also be noted that the extendedmiddle finger 'rude' gesture is new
> and rare in Britain (and is certainly imported from the USA).

I'm not so convinced that this gesture is "new and rare". I can recall it
being used as an abusive (schoolboy) action some 35 years ago whilst at
grammar school.

The offensive meaning possibly originates from the USA but it's my
recollection from 35 years ago that it was Italian.

Bencie's oberservation in "The Linguistics of BSL" that this sign is not in
ASL (sic) to my mind suggests that the crudity of the gesture was well known
to American signers for decades. They have therefore avoided it. With the
increasing hegenomy of general US culture certain four letter sequences,
which appear in innouxous English words, are now seen as unacceptable. (I'm
told AOL has objections to certain towns in the English east coast.) The
importation of the gesture into non-signed usage has brougt with it the same
general distate. Of course, the sign's use in the ad only works because of
this hegenomy. ;-)

Perhaps I ought to say that I'm not a native user of BSL having only
recently achieved Stage 1. And during the period I was at grammar school I
was uninterested in signed languages; it being a hearing school with to my
knowledge no Deaf students present.

> the advert is therefore much weaker than it would be in the USA.

I suspect that it's impact (on the non-signing population) could be much
stronger than Bencie suggests. Alternatively it will be consigned to the
same bin as the offensive "Bennetton" ads that ran a few years ago that
merely desensitized the observer to the underlying truth.

Regards, Trevor

British Sign Language is not inarticulate handwaving; it's a living
language. So recognise it now.

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