round the world?
We all know about the middle finger so popular in the U.S., the slide of the hand beneath an Italian’s chin, and the European’s formation of a circle with thumb and forefinger to call someone an asshole.
What else is out there? Picture links welcome. 
(Cupping one’s balls, or maybe even one’s pudendum to express contempt, etc., isn’t obscure.)
Desmond Morris put out a book – a picture book, no less – that illustrated gestures from around the world and showed where they were used. It’s called Bodytalk
See als his book Gestures:
Not obscene, but certainly insulting: In Germany, if you do something stupid while driving, another driver is likely to tap his head with his forefinger, as in “you fucking moron”. It’s insulting enough to where you can be reported to the cops for doing it.
I think holding up the first two fingers (like a backwards peace sign) in the U.K. is obscene, but perhaps a Board Brit can clarify.
When I was in Vietnam, my workers would hook the middle finger over the top of the first finger, causing the middle finger to bow upwards and thus creating a likeness of a vagina.
Thanks, Cal. I bought Body Talk at amazon.
Good one!
I would say backwards peace sign isn’t as rude as middle finger ‘up yours’ sign, and I don’t think I would class it as ‘obscene’, but perhaps that’s the company I keep.
In Iraq and Iran, the “thumbs up” is traditionally interpreted as their version of the middle finger.
It’s traditionally a gesture of defiance - ‘fuck you’ as opposed to ‘fuck off’, perhaps.
Legend has it that the two-finger V gesture arose when English archers taunted French soldiers (it allegedly being the case that the French would cut off those two fingers from any captured archer, then allow him to go) - so sticking up the fingers would visibly demonstrate that the person was able to fight. It’s true that you need those two fingers to draw a bowstring, but It all sounds a bit :dubious: to me.
I’ve seen a bunch of oddball signs in the Italian-American community, mainly a bunch of bastardized variants on the evil eye - pulling down the lower eyelid, prying an eye open with the thumb and index finger of one hand while pointing to it with another, and so on. There’s also a common sign that starts with a hand positioned like one is scratching the bottom of their chin, followed by a sudden push forward; it’s the equivalent of “fuck off”.
The same legend is also quoted for the origin of the middle finger gesture. Also, it is often embellished with the detail that the origins of “Fuck you” are in a corruption of a phrase like “See, we can still ‘pluck yew’”; i.e., we can still draw a bowstring. It’s all false, of course.
This was debunked on Stephen Fry’s QI but I can’t remember exactly what they said it really meant. I seem to think it was something about being cuckolded.
Dunno if this one is of any interest or relevance here, but in ancient Rome, biting or sucking the thumb (at someone) was a rude gesture.
There are lots of good ones in this New York Times article.
My favorite is the West African one where you hold out an open palm (like the stop signal): "You could have five fathers!" Which I guess is a polite way of saying your mother's a whore.
I’ve always known of holding an open hand palm up, bringing the fingers together, and then pulling down to mean pussy, but I rarely see it used.
I’ve heard that in some Middle Eastern cultures, it’s insulting to show someone the sole of your foot (like when sitting down or something). Wikipedia confirms this, but it could be incorrect.
I saw a cowboy press the tips of his thumbs and tips of his index fingers in front of his crotch to indicate ‘Pussy’ to another rider. The idea was to get the other guy to sit on this bull that sent him to the hospital. :eek:
I’m not sure how trustworthy that article is. Among other things, it credulously repeats that Battle of Agincourt bullshit, and that business about patting children on the head being “shocking and offensive” in south Asia doesn’t ring true, in my experience.
The “finger” has pretty much replaced the old “knuckles of one hand against the palm of the other, knuckle hand’ palm up and moved upwards” gesture in South Korea.
Last year when I returned from my vacation to the US, I went to church and all the Primary children were assembled in the foyer for a class photo. They were all holding their hands up with the “V” sign, but with their palms towards themselves. I laughed because that’s not the “Peace” or “Victory” sign for me. When the Bishop’s 2nd Counselor asked me why I was laughing, I explained to him that the particular sign the children were using meant the one I described in the preceding paragraph. Poor guy couldn’t stop laughing for quite some time!
So is that what the Sergeant in Aliens is doing when he grumbles “Look into my eye” at Hicks for mouthing off? I could never tell why that was threatening.
My little brother spent time in Turkey during a stint in the army, and he told me about a number of bar fights started inadvertently when a drunken soldier would forget and cross his legs, thus showing the bottom of his foot to someone.