SALON

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2012 5:15 PM UTC

The obscene power of the middle finger

After M.I.A. shocked at the Super Bowl, Adele flips off the host of the Brit Awards. Let the phony outrage begin VIDEO

By

Topics: Adele,

The obscene power of the middle fingerAdele (Credit: Reuters/Dylan Martinez)

The middle finger is making a comeback. I know what you’re thinking. Who knew it ever went away?

But the bird — specifically the flipping of it — has managed to make worldwide headlines twice now in the past month. First, there was M.I.A.’s apparently unscheduled additional choreography during her appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show, a move that occasional finger-giver Madonna “wasn’t happy about.” M.I.A.’s off-book version of double dream hands swiftly proved the power of a gesture to shock, as NBC – the same network that features “penis cleavage” gags on “Are You There, Chelsea?” — hastily issued an apology and lamented that “Our system was late to obscure the inappropriate gesture.” The NFL similarly decreed that “The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing and we apologize to our fans.”

And now, just as the world has begun to recover from the shock and horror of seeing the longest finger of a woman’s hand standing apart from its fellow digits, along comes Adele.

After cleaning up with six Grammy awards and making a triumphant comeback after vocal chord surgery, the British chanteuse and object of Karl Lagerfeld’s derision came back to the U.K. a hero, picking up album of the year and best British female solo artist at Tuesday’s Brit Awards. But in the midst of her emotional speech, just as she was declaring that  she was “so, so proud to be British and to be flying our flag and I’m so proud to be in the room with all of you,” the show’s mortified-looking host, actor James Corden, appeared onstage to whimper, “I’m so sorry…”

“Are you about to cut me off?” she replied, “Can I just say then, goodbye and I’ll see you next time round?” Then she gave him the one-finger salute to thunderous applause. Seriously, Brits, you were in that big a hurry to bring out Blur? What, was this the 1998 awards? You’ve got the biggest singer in the world right now, basking in the glow of hometown glory. Blur can freaking wait.

The finger is a powerful gesture – its origins go all the way back to a throwdown between Greek philosopher Diogenes and that punkass hater Demosthenes. The finger says, succinctly, “My penis!” and with it, all the power it wields and all the things that you, the object of said gesture, can do with it. Actual penis not required. The bird has been famously flipped by almost every public figure you can think of who doesn’t have the words “His Holiness” in front of his name – by everyone from George W. Bush to Katy Perry and Rihanna to most iconically, Johnny Cash. It is, in short, the most “obscene” a person can get without removing pants.

And in flipping off James Corden and all he stands for, Adele, who devoted a portion of her Grammy acceptance speech to a bit of rogue snot, achieved something that M.I.A. and her Super Bowl shenanigans could not. She gave the gesture context and meaning, proving yet again that under all that hair and eyeliner and singular cool is an artist who can really rage. Later Tuesday evening, she explained, “I flung the middle finger. That was for the suits at the Brit Awards, not my fans. I’m sorry if I offended anyone but the suits offended me.” Adele’s finger wasn’t a random moment of naughty provocation, calculated to get attention. It was, as a good flip-off should be, a wordless expression of genuine irritation, a thoroughly rock ‘n’ roll gesture that predates rock ‘n’ roll itself. Amazingly, one finger can still stun the world. And sometimes, the suits need to be reminded of that.

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 47 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
296 points297 points | 259 comments
vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
256 points257 points | 21 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
223 points224 points | 31 comments
vote
Austerity Kills: Brian McArdle, a 57-year-old man who had had two strokes and could barely walk, was found "fit for work" by a government subcontractor, and had his benefits stopped. He died the next day.
98 points99 points | 11 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
79 points80 points | 16 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations