The rude version of the V-sign
© Ally Ireson

The public V-sign is dying out

When first asked about the V-sign, everyone we talked to assumed we meant the "insulting" V-sign. Most people said that they hardly ever saw it any more – Colin, 69, even went as far as to say that "it died out in the late 1960s", describing how when he was a child "nearly everyone used it".

There was almost total agreement with the suggestion that this version of the V-sign no longer played a very visible role in English public life – Julie, 39, said that "people now just use words instead". Everyone said that they rarely or never used the gesture – either because they weren't in the habit of doing so, or because they thought of using it in public was "uncouth" (Sally, 44) or "juvenile" (Jenny, 63).

After a bit of prodding, most respondents realised that they did still see the palm-in form of the V-sign used publicly, but only in two particular contexts. The first was among children: Christine, 59, said "It's the kind of thing you see kids sniggering about when someone gets their fingers mixed up: 'You did the wrong one!' "; and lots of people said that children they know enjoyed "flicking a V", and remembered the illicit thrill of doing so themselves when they were young. It seems that the power of this V-sign, with its jabbing-upwards or backwards-flicking motion, is in expressing an aggressive emotion in a very immediate and emphatic way. A number of respondents described the sense of release they got from using it – making it perfect for use in the second context in which people said they sometimes spot the gesture in public use: in traffic.

The V-sign has been superseded by "the Finger"

Over half the people we spoke to mentioned minor conflicts on the road as a reliable source of the palm-in V-sign – although everyone said this usage seemed to be becoming increasingly rare as "the Finger" takes over as the dominant form of silent insult. Although a few respondents explained that they thought the V-sign and "the Finger" (in which only the middle finger is raised) were interchangeable – Anne, 33, said she uses "whatever pops up" – most said that they thought of the Finger as far more aggressive, and would either never use it, or choose very carefully who they aimed the gesture at, even when using it ironically.

Laura, 35, a regular cyclist, confirmed the aggressive charge of the Finger, explaining that when she needed to express annoyance with drivers,"the V-sign seems a bit feeble... one finger says it much better, although I think it's a horrible gesture – I'd never use it to a stranger in any other context". John, 65, said he thought of the Finger as very un-English, arguing it is "an American import, like all that whooping and cheering you get people doing nowadays".

Most people described how they saw the V-sign as quite a dilute form of confrontational gesture – more "sod you" than "f*** you". Colin, 69, explained that when he was growing up, the gesture had a certain flexibility: the V-sign "could start a fight between two blokes in a pub" but was often used in a slightly humorous way between strangers, "like when the person in front of you in the queue got the last space on a crowded bus and you'd flick them a V as it drove off".

The modern V-sign is generally either ironic or unseen

As with all forms of communication, context is all – and it seems that as we become increasingly afraid to create even fleeting connections with strangers, the context for the "insulting" V-sign is becoming almost exclusively private, and almost exclusively ironic – Liam, 41, described it as "a physical exclamation mark".

Nearly all the younger (under-45) people we spoke to said that they used the V-sign as a pretend insult with friends, either in the form of a straight fake or a comical attempt to "slip a V" into routine movements – the trick of "scratching your cheek" with two fingers was mentioned by a number of respondents, and one: Nick, 36, described going to the lengths of sending a colleague a photocopied "V-ing hand" in the office's internal mail system to "win a tit-for-tat competition we kept going for about a year"!

The exception to the "private and ironic" rule is when people use the V-sign aggressively, but when there is no risk of being caught. Sally, 44, said she quite often "flicks a frustrated V behind the back of work colleagues", or aims a V-sign (sometimes using both hands for emphasis) at the phone when she has just put it down on someone who has been unpleasant. A number of respondents reported similar behaviour, and two admitted they quite enjoyed the childish sense of revenge they got out of using the gesture in this way – Anne, 33, described it as "sort of a safety valve".

The V for Victory belongs to history

Not one of the people we spoke to mentioned the "V for Victory" V-sign without being prompted, and a number of them said that they felt the palm-out version was more an American than an English gesture. In a historical context, nearly everyone associated the gesture with Churchill and a few mentioned its link with the peace movement and hippie culture.

Unlike their comments on the palm-in version of the V-sign, everyone stuck to their initial statement that they never saw this particular gesture used today, and only John, 65, described a particular context in which he saw it used in the past: "when I was a kid, on the football pitch, when someone scored a goal".

It seems that the power of the palm-out V-sign almost exclusively relies on iconic pictures of Winston Churchill taken during the second world war. Two respondents showed an awareness of the power of the gesture as a metaphor for English defiance in the "we stand alone" period of the war, but neither thought that the V-sign had the same emotional charge today.