I only see politicians do this. Clinton is the first one I saw doing this. Its a gesture you make to add emphasis to what you’re saying. The gesture is sort of like a fist, turned on its side, thumb side up, with the thumb sticking out just a little bit.
I’ve seen several politicians doing this. Where does it come from? Did Clinton start it?
I was practicing it in order to figure out how to describe it, and found it feels much better as a hand gesture than either pointing with the forefinger or simply gesticulating with the hand. It seems forceful and pointed, without being too “in your face.” It seems like an effective gesture. Was it literally invented by someone, or is it just something people have been doing and I just didn’t notice before I saw Clinton doing it?
Didn’t you get the memo? It is impolite to point. Evidently, even the open hand gesturing is so offensive we now get the fist.
Interestingly, a child learning to point signifies its understanding of separation. It is a milestone when children learn to point. It takes a while for them to understand when you are pointing at something, they shouldn’t look at your finger.
But no, we have to be so freakin’ politically correct, we can’t do something that very, very few animals can do. And since politicians have to be so very, very careful, they have to be two steps ahead of what someone might possibly consider offensive.
Why yes, I have a job where I have to indicate a particular person in a small circle, who’s name I do not typically know. Yes, I’ve been told not to point, we haven’t gone so far as me throwing my firsts out, thumbs akimbo, but I’m sure it’s not far away. FTR, I’ve never had anyone get offended when I point at them to indicate it is their turn.
Did have a guy get mad I told him it was his turn, he told me it was impolite to interrupt him. Why sure fella, let 9 other people wait on your sorry, drunk ass.
Some cultures consider it rude to point (I pretty sure Japan is one), therefore politicians adapt one form of gesturing for all speeches, so as to not get confused and point in the wrong speech, just always use the thumb thing. I remember George Sr. using an open hand (half a clap?) type gesture
Akimbo is a posture. It means with hands on hips and the elbows bowed outward.
I know that it is often used to mean merely “at a sharp angle” (the original sense), as in with arms and legs akimbo, or even “at all angles.” These new meanings are starting to appear dictionaries, and may even take over from the original. Like the use of “politically correct” to mean what somebody else does that I don’t approve of.
I guess that brings up the other question: Why is finger-pointing considered impolite? I was told that when I was a kid, too. I generally ignored it, and still do, because it’s always struck me as a bit of an absurd rule.
I am pointing at you SIR! You have just fought ignorance and won!
In my defense, I was trying to make the silly gesture sound silly. I can’t fathom how sticking a fist out could be less threatening than a general pointing gesture or even the open handed gesture.
But at what point (heh) did it become a de facto gesture of aggression? It seems to me that pointing must have started out as a pretty basic way to indicate something or someone out of arm’s reach, or to specify one out of a number of items that are in the general vicinity. At some point, there must have been some prig who said of someone pointing, “How rude!” and thus Miss Manners’ ultimate ancestor was born.
Sure, I can see how pointing at someone for the purpose of calling them out for a bit of pugilism could be aggressive by association, but it’s a bit ridiculous to blame the gesture instead of its intent.
Well, we can be sure that pointing was considered impolite by arbiters of etiquette at least as early as 1887, when Gilbert and Sullivan mentioned it in an operetta aria:
And in fact, the editor says that “[t]hese maxims originated in the late sixteenth century in France”. So the customary prohibition against pointing has to be at least that old.
It’s an accent. Not that I agree with it, but when the speaker is at a podium and the crowd is down below, the gesture looks like a “hand of determination,” or if you’re speaking to a bunch of Objectivists, a “fist-full of good intentions.”
They didn’t even *have * TV when John Kennedy was a child!
The gesture is usually pretty aggressive if you point directly at someone while talking to them, because you are getting into their personal space.
I think the rude context for pointing is if you are discussing someone who is not part of your conversation, and you point towards them to indicate about whom you are talking. I think the “no pointing” rule came to be recklessly applied to any and all pointing. However, an etiquette historian would have to comment.
That’s the part I’m having trouble with. In context, some types of pointing are rude, but there are plenty of legitimate, non-rude types of pointing, too. I just couldn’t understand where the idea that any form of pointing is rude came from.
You need to do something with your hands other than the fig leaf or reverse fig leaf. It’s a way to emphasize a point. Another mannerism is holding your hand, fingers together, on the side. Kinda like a karate chop but just just moving a few inches.
