Boom, what d'ya think of that then, hah?
That's a picture of me giving you the middle finger, or as Americans might say, "flipping
the bird".
This gesture is considered offensive or demeaning to the receiver across the Western world,
and its usage actually dates back to ancient Greece and Rome, where the shape formed by
the hand was meant to represent a phallus and testicles.
Bang, how'd you like that?
That's a picture of me giving you the V-sign, or as Americans might say...
well, actually they probably wouldn't have much to say about it, because it doesn't have
the same meaning over there as it does here.
Yes, in the UK, and countries such as here in Ireland, or Australia, this gesture is
as offensive and as commonly-used as the middle-finger.
To help understand the connection between these countries and why this gesture might
be shared between them, allow me to illustrate the history from Britain's point of view;
mhm, that looks nice, I'll be having that hey what's this shithole in the arse end of
nowhere?
I have an idea, why don't we take all the people we don't like from here, and also here,
and throw them over there and just sort of see what happens?
Now, only people we really don't like, the dregs of society, the criminals.
I'm talking murderers, rapists, people who stole bread to feed their families.
Just throw them all in there.
actually there's already people living there.
Fuck them.
If you're not familiar with this as being an offensive gesture, allow me to provide
some humorous examples.
Box art and promotional posters for movies and games sometimes have to be changed across
regions for certain reasons, for instance, the 2006 game "Bully", which is made by Rockstar
and is similar to their Grand Theft Auto games but the main character is in boarding school
caused outrage in the UK, because it was seen as promoting bullying.
The game was still released in the UK, but under the name "Canis Canem Edit", which is
Latin for "Dog Eat Dog".
The 2008 game Left 4 Dead features a zombie's hand on the cover.
The hand is holding up four fingers, which makes sense, Left FOUR Dead.
The problem was the 2009 sequel, Left 4 Dead 2.
Same idea for the box art, only this time the zombie's holding up two fingers, once
again it makes sense.
Only there are two covers for this game, because when it was released in the UK, they had to
flip the hand around so it wasn't making the offensive gesture.
During World War II, the Allies adopted the V-sign to signal "victory".
British Leader Winston Churchill was often photographed giving the sign, but initially,
the upper-class aristocrat would display it with the palm inward, unaware that this was
offensive.
Eventually his aides explained what this meant to the lower classes, and he promptly stopped
doing it like that.
So what makes this offensive?
Where did it come from?
And this is where things get interesting.
You see, it's commonly believed that the V-sign gained its offensive reputation in medieval
times.
During the Hundred-Years War between England and France, that raged from 1337 to 1453,
the English were famed and feared for their longbowmen.
The longbow was 6ft long and could deliver an incredibly powerful shot to pierce through
the improving armours of the time.
The downside of the longbow, was that it required a great deal of strength and stamina to draw.
The estimated draw weight of the medieval longbow was at least 81 pounds of force, and
could've even been more than 130 pounds.
To be able to quickly and effectively fire arrow after arrow would have required extensive
physical conditioning.
So much so that archeologists can actually identify the skeletons of these men because
they have enlarged left arms.
Their left wrists, left shoulders and right fingers would also often feature osteophytes
- aka bone spurs.
But even the most experienced longbowman would only fire about six arrows a minute - a faster
rate of fire would simply exhaust the man.
So the longbow is a pretty impressive weapon that required extensive training to use effectively,
but resulted in an elite fighting force.
You'd think then that these archers would've been in fairly short supply, I mean how much
does it cost to train such a man?
Well, for the English these archers were actually pretty cheap, and they were mostly low-born
commoners.
The thing was, the average English man of the time would've already had experience with
the longbow, because it was legally required.
Dating back to at least the 13th century, there were laws that promoted the training
of longbow.
Different types of sports were also prohibited, so if a man wanted to use his free time for
games, he'd better be shooting arrows.
In 1511, Henry VIII even passed a law requiring all men under the age of 60 own a longbow
and practice shooting regularly.
So the English had a whole population of longbowmen.
This might explain the widespread use of the V-sign among the English.
So feared were the longbowmen that it was believed that, if taken prisoner, they could
expect to lose two fingers at the hands of captors, so that they may never operate a
longbow again.
It's thought then that under this belief, archers would taunt oncoming armies by giving
them the v-sign, basically saying "I've still got 'em you motherfucker", and then letting
loose some arrows, just in case the message wasn't understood.
Really, they were displaying that they could still "pluck yew", and maybe that's where
the meaning of the gesture comes from.
It's a fascinating story, but well, it's just a legend unfortunately.
There's no evidence that confirms this is where the V-sign's offensiveness comes from.
Here's an archer in an old manuscript who appears to be making the gesture but, it seems
more likely he's just instructing these fellows to shoot the target.
Another knock against this story is that a longbow is best used with three fingers, not
two.
So if that's not the origin of gesture, why did I waste your time telling you?
Well, first of all, if you think learning about medieval warriors is a waste of your
time, well, maybe you're right but I pity you.
But the real reason I told you, is because we actually don't know where it comes from,
the archer story might be our best guess, even if it's not confirmed.
The first confirmed use of the gesture dates back to 1901, when an English iron worker
can be seen giving a cameraman the fingers to indicate his disapproval of being filmed.
So it's at least a hundred years old.
Another theory about the gesture suggests it originated in English playgrounds, evolving
from the gesture of thumbing one's nose, or cocking a snook, where the thumb is placed
on the nose and the fingers are waggled.
If this evolution occured just a few generations before the filmed 1901 usage, this might explain
why the gesture is used in the countries its used in - as the British would have still
had influence over them during this time, but not countries like the US, as they'd been
kicked out by then.
The truth is we'll probably never know for sure how it started or why.
Isn't that funny?
The users of the V-sign all agree that it's offensive but we don't know why.
I don't know why I'm using it other than to offend you and you don't know why it's offensive
but it is.
Now we must fight about it.
To Americans it's just a backwards peace sign, not offensive at all, until you lick your
tongue between the two fingers, but at least we know what that means.
So my American audience can rest easy, you don't know what the V-sign means, but niether
do we, really.
But thanks to this video, you can now avoid accidentally getting yourself in trouble when
you're abroad, or you could surprise some locals by showing them you're well-versed
in the "English technique", I bet they'd be even more surprised if you're able to remember
this video and tell them the backstory to their own insult.
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