General Information about Item

• Gesture
• Genre: Insulting American Children’s Gesture
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Alejandro Cuan-Martinez
• Date Collected: October 28, 2018

Informant Data

Alejandro is a ’20 that attends Dartmouth College. He is from Los Angelas, California where he grew up for most of his childhood. He is of Chinese-Mexican decent and has an older brother. In high school he was on the swim team. He is interested in studio arts and is a member of the Alpha Theta gender-inclusive greek house.

Contextual Data

Social Context – I collected this folklore from Alejandro in Alpha Theta’s library. I recorded our conversation on an iPhone and asked him to tell me about insulting gestures he may remember from childhood. It was humorous the wide array of gestures he recalled from childhood that he would use to insult his friends in primary school. Many of the gestures were subtle variations of the middle finger, used in a manner to get away with giving someone the bird without actually doing the gesture but fully implying it with a similar one. Most of the gestures he showed me were ones targeted towards a specific person with the intention of being seen and received, with the ability to be quickly concealed if an adult was to look. 

Cultural Context – Alejandro learned flipping off with his thumb in between his middle and ring finger from a Filipino friend in early middle school. He learned it one day while waiting for his mom to pick him up and waiting with his friend.

Item

“Basically you put your thumb in between your ring finger and middle finger. And you make a fist and you have your thumb sticking up in between your ring finger and middle finger. And again, that’s like flipping someone off.”

Associated Image

Informant’s Comments

Alejandro noted that because it was so subtle, people barely noticed when he would do it and so he stopped using it because it wasn’t as effective. 

Collector’s Comments

This is probably a gesture best used for subtle rebellion for children, and not so much for insulting someone and making sure they see it. It appears to be someone one would do to feel as though they got away with doing something bad.

Collector’s Name: Cherie-Noelle Kaanana

Tags/Keywords

• Gestures
• American Children
• Insults