Thursday, April 2, 2009

“The Middle Finger Insult”


The middle finger has different meaning although sometimes the meaning differs from culture to culture. For example, in Italy believe that raising the middle finger is saying “You are the number one.” In the United States, the middle finger is regarded as an obscene gesture or insult.
I was sitting in my car at the red light; the girl that was behind me started honking and hitting the car’s wheel with her hands. I knew she was doing this because she wanted me to go. After five seconds, she saw that I was watching at her and she showed me her middle finger. The only finger that always come up when you are mad at somebody and you want to insult the person. James as usual was with me, he started laughing and said “Is she expecting you to go? Can’t she see the red light?”

I admit that I showed the same finger back. When the light turn to green I drove, I was expecting her to pass me, I even moved from the line to let her pass me. I knew she was in a hurry for what she did while we were at the red light. But she never passed me; she actually was driving really slowly. Then, I turned in my apartment exit and I looked at her, she once again took her hand out of her window and I could see her long middle finger again.

Apparently, the middle finger has long been considered a phallic symbol in many cultures, possibly because it is the longest of the digits. Displaying it to someone is an insult of the first degree, though the gesture seems to be one of aggression rather than sexuality.