• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    4 months ago

    Can a non US anglosphere person comment on the V gesture?

    I’ve known several brits and australians and asked them about the weird little differences that would include this and I have never heard of this being used like… offensively, as in ‘I am going to win a war with you!’

    I always just thought it was developed during world war two as a shorthand way of saying ‘we will win this’, not as a way to like disparage someone?

    • Deebster@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      4 months ago

      It’s understood the same as a middle finger would be, except more Britishly.

      Growing up, the story was that it came from when longbows were peak weaponry and the French were chopping the fingers off of captured English archers - the V sign was saying something like “fuck you, I can still shoot you”. There’s insult/defiance/threat in there but it’s not like throwing down the gauntlet (to be clear, we don’t do that gesture any more).

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        4 months ago

        See, I had heard a different version of that story which was that this is where the middle finger expression came from, that a bunch of bowmen drew with their middle finger, thus the French would chop those off, and raising a single middle finger was a sign of ‘fuck you, i can still send hate downrange’.

    • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      V for Victory or the Peace sign is knuckles facing back. V for “Eat my entire arse” is knuckles forward.

      I’ve never seen or heard of any Aussies or Kiwis doing this, and they don’t hold back on their feelings.