# A handful of gestures

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-handful-of-gestures/168776>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 15, 2003, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-handful-of-gestures/168776 "2003-04-15T00:59:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f0a364/32.png) [@dman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dman)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-handful-of-gestures/168776/1 "2003-04-15T00:59:36Z")

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I’ve been wondering a bit about hand gestures, specifically the ‘V’ sign.  
Aetc

We’ve been seeing it all over the media recently, captioned as both the ‘ **Victory Sign** ’ and the ‘ **Peace Sign** ’ - depending basically on interpretation. :dubious:

While some folk will say that the classic Churchill ‘V for Victory’ is fingers inwards - I think it’s become clear in the following half century that **the masses don’t care**. The fingers-outwards version turns up everywhere people get on camera, and doesn’t seem to mean ‘peace’ as much as ‘ **yay, I’m here** ’.

Then there is the Japanese **bunny-ears** version. Other folk do it too, but nowhere near as much as Japanese girls on camera. They sometimes leave fingers together looking like ‘ **scouts honor** ’ (and then there’s ‘toilet-posture’ :eek: which is even odder)

When stuck behind a friends (or enemys) head, this to me has echoes of the ‘ **cuckold** ’ horns gesture as found in most old European cultures - but obviously this classical interpretation has no bearing on what the giver means these days.

So please folk, if you have some input, take into account that **a signal means what the _user thinks_ it means** - and the kids waving V’s around on TV _might not know either interpretation_. So don’t hack at the photo-editors for ‘getting it wrong’ - you might as well complain that the people in the picture were ‘getting it wrong’ by your interpretation - which would be churlish.

Anyway, the cuckold horns brings me to the ‘ **Sign of the devil** ’ - which I’ve always thought looked too similar to the ‘ **Hang Loose** ’ surfer wave to be really evil 😕 Is it all just a neo-satanist/heavy-metal thing or was it used in ancient times? (the devil-horns, not ‘hang loose’ - although the background on that one would be nice too)

… oh yeah, and when I was growing up, the Churchill ‘V’ flipped in the playground meant ‘ **Up Yours** ’ (your nostrils, I guessed) and ‘ **giving the** (one) **finger** ’ was much worse. Where did the odd phrase ‘ **flipping the bird** ’ come from? I have heard _that_ graphic gesture dates back to Ancient Rome!

Phew! OK, plenty of food for thought there - not exactly a single question, but can anyone add background or more examples to this little lot? 😕