「豎中指」是近些年的產物嗎？「豎中指」代表的是什麼？然而「豎中指」到底是怎麼來的？英國人為什麼覺得「反V」也是有侮辱性的？「反V」到底代表的是什麼？一切都會在這篇文章中揭曉。
「豎中指」可以說是全世界通用的侮辱性手語，上到99，下到剛會走，基本上所有人都知道用這個手勢表示自己的不滿。（我們第一張圖片裡的小男孩Mikey Wilson就因為他五歲時在2002年的一場比賽裡用「豎中指」的方法來宣洩自己的不滿情緒而紅透了全世界）
中指從什麼時候開始豎起——「豎中指」詳解 + 年表
「豎中指」其實由來已久，經歷史學家考證，這一手勢實際上已經有超過兩千年的歷史！
——「豎中指」很形象的代表了男性的生殖器，中間豎起的中指代表了陰莖，而其他四個手指則代表了睪丸。
世界上有明確記載的「豎中指」名人可以追溯到公元前419年，古希臘著名劇作家、詩人阿里斯多芬尼斯。
1886年義大利新移民把「豎中指」這一手勢帶到了美國。
在英國人們把「反V」這一手勢當作侮辱性手勢要追溯到公元1415年。著名的阿金庫爾戰役（又譯：阿讓庫爾戰役）開始前，法國人曾經揚言要砍掉所有俘虜的英格蘭弓箭手的食指和中指，讓他們以後再也不能拉弓。可是沒想英軍在亨利五世的率領下，以少勝多戰勝了法國人。戰後，英格蘭是弓箭手自豪的向著落敗的法國人反向揮舞著「V」型的手指，意思是說：「嘿！Loser，當初不是你們說要砍了我們的這兩個手指嗎？」
現在無論是「豎中指」還是「反V」作為發洩不滿情緒的手勢，被全世界廣泛應用。使用它們的既有政客，也有超級明星。
An American television network has apologised after pop star M.I.A. extended her middle finger during Sunday night's Super Bowl halftime show. What does the gesture mean, and when did it become offensive?
A public intellectual, expressing his contempt for a gas-bag politician, reaches for a familiar gesture. He extends his middle finger and declares: "This is the great demagogue".
The episode occurred not on a chat show nor in the salons of New York or London, but in Fourth Century BC Athens, when the philosopher Diogenes told a group of visitors exactly what he thought about the orator Demosthenes, according to a later Greek historian.
The middle finger, extended with the other fingers held beneath the thumb, is thus documented to have expressed insult and belittlement for more than two millennia.
'Phallic gesture'
Ancient Greek philosophers, Latin poets hoping to sell copies of their works, soldiers, athletes and pop stars, school children, peevish policemen and skittish network executives have all been aware of the gesture's particular power to insult and enflame.
"It's one of the most ancient insult gestures known," says anthropologist Desmond Morris.
"The middle finger is the penis and the curled fingers on either side are the testicles. By doing it, you are offering someone a phallic gesture. It is saying, 'this is a phallus' that you're offering to people, which is a very primeval display."
During Sunday night's broadcast of the Super Bowl, America's most-watched television programme of the year, British singer M.I.A. extended the finger during a performance of Madonna's Give Me All Your Luvin'.
The NFL and NBC television, which broadcast the game and the halftime show, apologised.
"The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate," said Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the NFL.
The gesture is widely known to Americans as flipping the bird, or just giving someone the finger.
The Romans had their own name for it: digitus impudicus - the shameless, indecent or offensive finger.
In the Epigrammata of First Century AD by the Latin poet Martial, a character who has always enjoyed good health extends a finger, "the indecent one", at three doctors.