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?
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).
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’.
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?
I’m a Brit, always thought it meant “Fuck you.”
Welp, thats good enough for me, I believe you.
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).
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’.
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.