Interesting history of 'middle finger' culture

It can be said that middle finger culture is no longer strange to all of us today. Whether it's from a friend as a joke, or on the road from an angry driver. It's one of the oldest and most notorious insults in human history. We can be extremely angry when we receive it, but also feel delighted when we give it to someone else. Without a doubt, 'flip someone' is the strongest insult. It's very simple but very effective, just the perfect way, without any words, to say (actively passive): "I don't like you."

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This gesture has existed for at least two thousand years since the time of the ancient Romans and Greeks. Throughout history, 'salutation with one finger' rapidly developed and we humans have given it great power. So much so that this finger has caused a lot of controversy (for whatever reason especially in the world of sports), and even deaths (possibly in road rage incidents). .

Then, sometime in history, the finger received another meaning, which is what we know today: displeasure towards someone or something. When it happened, however, is unclear and is debated by historians.

This gesture is believed to have come to America around the 1800s along with Italian immigrants.

Charles Radbourn, pitcher for the Boston Braves, points his middle finger in 1886. The first person to do it on camera.

Since then, the middle finger has only grown in popularity in Western pop culture, and is sometimes the center of some pretty cool headlines. For example, in 1968, when North Korea captured the USS Pueblo and its crew, sailors began posing with their middle fingers in photographs, tricking the North into thinking it was just a sign of good luck. In the end, when the North Koreans found out what this act really meant, they punished the crew severely.

Then in 1982, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (father of incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) gave a middle finger to a group of protesters while on a train in western Canada. The event became a nationally recognized event, as from then on the middle finger was known as the 'Trudeau salute' in Canada. Even now, it still works: in 2017, a male student asked his son Justin Trudeau why his father did this (you can find a video of this on YouTube, where Justin cleverly did it. dodge the question).

Adele shows her middle finger at the Brit Awards

Overall, the middle finger is definitely one of the more interesting aspects of our society. It is something that is undeniably familiar to all Westerners and will likely continue for generations to come. Its appearance in history and popular culture is quite humorous and just looking at the overall evolution of the gesture is interesting.

However, it is we humans who give our fingers such influence and power. Hence, it may then lose meaning in the future (probably not). Ultimately that will depend on society, but it will be interesting to see how the 'middle finger' culture continues to evolve in the future.