Folklore Form/Genre: French gesture                                Informant: Emily Pommier

Name: Raising your index finger below your eye and pulling slightly to say “you’re lying”

Place of Discovery: Hanover, NH

Informant Data: Emily Pommier is a half-French Dartmouth College freshman. Her father’s side of the family is french, and her grandparents live in Lyon, France.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural context: French gestures tend to be fairly expressive in nature.
• Social context: French individuals will use this hand gesture to call Bullshit on something someone is saying.

Item: The item presented here is a picture of Emily demonstrating the French gesture. I talked to Emily about the gesture as well as snapped a photo of her executing it. All of the information provided in this write-up is an accurate depiction of the knowledge I obtained while speaking with Emily.

Transcript: Emily was with her grandparents in Lyon. Her grandparents had begun to banter with each other about how neither of them do their fair share of work in the house. Emily’s grandmother had quipped that her grandfather never takes out the garbage, and the grandfather retorted that he had taken it out that day. The grandmother turned to him and gave the gesture displayed to indicate she didn’t believe him.

Informant’s Comments: This gesture is often accompanied with the phrase “Mon Oiel” (My eye), as if to say that their eyes are open, they are paying attention, and they can’t be fooled. This gesture is common in France and is known by almost all in the country.

Collector’s Comments: It is an interesting gesture because there is no immediate similar one in the U.S. that comes to mind. It is also interesting because I would have had no idea what the gesture meant if it hadn’t been explained to me.

Collector’s Name:

Carson Spahr

HB 4105 Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH 03755

Dartmouth College

Tags/Keywords:

• Gestures
• France
• Insulting
• Hand
• Finger