# Pointing Fingers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 23, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665 "2017-10-23T23:41:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/21 "2017-10-25T15:00:15Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > with kids they’re often being taught that “pointing your finger at people is rude”. That is my problem, I was never taught this as a child, so I am puzzled by it as an adult. To me, it fits in that category of curious foreign cultural manners that I have to check myself on. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/22 "2017-10-25T15:35:24Z")
Wow. Another way to offend people that I didn’t know about. _\_ I was raised in a barn, so was never taught this. I often use this gesture when I’m in conversation with someone and they say something that I enthusiastically agree with. I’ll point to them (as if to the statement they just made) and say, “You are so right about that!” or something. Guess I’d better mend my ways. :dubious: Maybe I should just slam my hand down on the table and shout my assent while making the dishes and tableware jump. Emphasis added below. > [@araminty](#): > > I worked for Disney for a short time; during my training course, it was made clear the Disney Point ( **two fingers** or whole hand extended) is non-optional, and that a single-finger point was, for whatever reason, frowned upon. I still do it today, many years later, not from any desire to be inoffensive, it’s just ingrained now. Is that why flight attendants use two fingers to point at the exit doors? So no passenger on a hair trigger might think s/he is pointing at them, which could lead to a plane being taken down? ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/23 "2017-10-25T17:25:24Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Wow. Another way to offend people that I didn’t know about. _\_ I was raised in a barn, so was never taught this. I often use this gesture when I’m in conversation with someone and they say something that I enthusiastically agree with. I’ll point to them (as if to the statement they just made) and say, “You are so right about that!” or something. Guess I’d better mend my ways. :dubious: Maybe I should just slam my hand down on the table and shout my assent while making the dishes and tableware jump. > > Emphasis added below. Is that why flight attendants use two fingers to point at the exit doors? So no passenger on a hair trigger might think s/he is pointing at them, which could lead to a plane being taken down? isn’t using two fingers a rude gesture in England? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/24 "2017-10-25T20:15:49Z")
I remember being taught from early childhood that pointing is rude, but what I _don’t_ remember is it ever being taken all that seriously by anybody. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/25 "2017-10-25T20:46:00Z")
If pointing by a soccer referee was to be considered rude the league would have said so and instructed referees how to point out a particular player in a non-rude manner. And I really don’t believe the problem the soccer/coach dad had was with the pointing, he just had no way to defend his son’s clear and unjustified fouling. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/26 "2017-10-25T20:49:15Z")
Pointing at people is generally considered rude if you’re pointing out something about them. A child pointing at an overweight person is likely pointing out “Mommy look at that fat person over there!” That should be discouraged. Why pointing with an index finger is rude, but pointing with two fingers or a full hand isn’t doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. A child shouldn’t be using either gesture to point out the overweight person. But there are times when you do need to indicate some particular individual, and if we aren’t wearing numbers on our back, we may need to point. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/27 "2017-10-26T03:51:47Z")
> [@adhemar](#): > > isn’t using two fingers a rude gesture in England? Two _upraised_ fingers. The flight attendants’ fingers are oriented horizontally or, when pointing overhead, diagonally. Never vertically. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/28 "2017-10-27T05:19:08Z")
[This guy](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQk6MFb6c6DMM8HLdWgLUcDZdtnKfvL5OB9Dd-T5LPS6onDYa6H8w) didn’t get the memo. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/29 "2017-10-27T21:12:42Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > I worked for Disney for a short time; during my training course, it was made clear the Disney Point (two fingers or whole hand extended) is non-optional, and that a single-finger point was, for whatever reason, frowned upon. I still do it today, many years later, not from any desire to be inoffensive, it’s just ingrained now. Yes. I usher for Off-Broadway & Broadway shows as well as work various entertainment industry events and I was told when directing someone where to go to point with either two finger together flight attendant style, or with all fingers together and thumb against the palm, not with one finger. I have no idea why, I suspect it’s something cranky old people would notice and complain about and management just doesn’t want to deal with it, but it’s now been ingrained in me and I just do it that way automatically. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665/30 "2017-10-27T21:25:51Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I remember being taught from early childhood that pointing is rude, but what I _don’t_ remember is it ever being taken all that seriously by anybody. “Don’t point that thing at me! It’s got a nail in it!” -something I remember my Grandpa saying [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pointing-fingers/799665.md?page=1)