The middle finger was in the news this week as M.I.A. flipped the bird during a US Super Bowl halftime performance.
What is it about this gesture that makes it obscene? How long has it been around? And what else does it mean?
Linguist Daniel Midgley goes digital on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Someone asked which t-shirt I was wearing, and since it’s been so long, I’ve forgotten. But I’ve got it narrowed down to two. If you haven’t heard of the second, it’s from the Broadway Musical “The Book of Mormon”. Search for it, but beware: Extreme blasphemy and language warning.
http://imgur.com/3dQyhEQ
The story: M.I.A. flips the bird
Short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8ceqCRO-gohttp://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/07/super-bowl-2012-mia-fine?newsfeed=true
http://au.eonline.com/news/ask_the_answer_bitch/mia_in_trouble_super_bowl_bird_flip/292432?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories
NBC and NFL apologise
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678571/mia-super-bowl-halftime-show-apology.jhtml
Madonna was unhappy about it
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/10/us-madonna-mia-idUSTRE8191PX20120210
but she seemed to have no problem with profanity on Letterman in 1994.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_pxJtG4D4g
The dubious “pluck yew” etymology. Did I mention that this is wrong?
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-pluck-yew.htm
Diogenes and Demosthenes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16916263
The epigrammist Martial wrote about the gesture around 86 CE.
http://www.well.com/~aquarius/martial.htm
The actor Pylades, banished from Rome for this gesture
http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question32139.html
Caligula (and a good rundown of the above).
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1279/whats-the-origin-of-the-finger
The middle finger has other meanings in Algonquian languages.
What about ‘flipping the bird’?
http://www.yaelf.com/questions.shtml
