Insulting Gestures: France: Gesture 2 (Chin flick)

journeys.dartmouth.edu/…/IMG_4062-2g2zetb.mov

Folklore Form/Genre: French gesture                                Informant: Mitchell Tevis

Name: This gesture of flicking your chin is an insult!        Place of Discovery: Hanover, NH

Informant Data:  Mitch Tevis is a 22-year-old male born on December 23rd, 1995, in California, United States. While Mitch was born in the United States, he spent much of his young life in both the United Kingdom and Paris, France. Mitch has family out in France and frequently spends time in France when he is not at Dartmouth completing his undergraduate studies. Mitch studies romance languages at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural context: French gestures tend to be fairly expressive in nature.
  • Social context: French individuals will use this gesture to tell someone to “Get lost” and can even be a variant of “F*ck you.”

Item: The item presented here is a video of Mitch demonstrating the French gesture. I recorded this interview with an iPhone. All of the information provided in this write-up is an accurate depiction of the knowledge I obtained while speaking with Mitch.

Transcript: “The first time I remember seeing this gesture was when I was sitting in the back of a taxi in France. My taxi driver had cut someone off on the road and the other driver flicked his chin, which I knew was not a friendly gesture. At the time, I had no idea what it meant because I was so young. But I had seen it a few times since and developed an understanding for what the gesture signified.”

Informant’s Comments: Mitch does not typically see this gesture used because of its insulting nature. But this gesture is used in different European countries and is known to have a distinct negative connotation associated with its use.

Collector’s Comments: I would believe that this gesture is the equivalent of the middle finger in American culture.

Collector’s Name:

Jordan Siegal

HB 4020 Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH 03755

Dartmouth College

Tags/Keywords:

  • Gestures
  • France
  • Insulting
  • Chin
  • Flick

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