WHAT IF YOU CAN TAKE A NEGATIVE AND TURN IT INTO A POSITIVE? THINK ABOUT IT! PERHAPS YOU SEE A MIDDLE FINGER. PERHAPS YOU'RE OFFENDED BY IT?
Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore [soldiers would] be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!"
Over the years some "folk etymologies" have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since "pluck yew" is rather difficult to say, like "pheasant mother plucker," which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative "f," and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the gesture is known as "giving the bird."
Giving someone "the finger" is one of the biggest violations in modern culture, but its origins date back over 2500 years. The first written record of the insult occurred in ancient Greece, where the playwright Aristophanes (the Adam Sandler of his day) made a crude joke mixing up the middle finger and the penis. Even back then, the bird was considered an aggressive, phallic put-down.
It has been argued by anthropologists that the finger is a a variant of a classic "phallic aggressive" gesture used by primates. By jabbing a threatening phallus at your enemy like a wild animal, you aren't just belittling him, but also making him your sexual inferior. Instead of using a real penis, civilized Janes and Platos called upon the substitute wieners within their own hands to mock, threaten, and humiliate opponents.
And boy, did it. When the Romans imported the art, music, and culture of the Greeks, the finger came along, too. Roman Emperor Caligula, a pioneer in perversity, frequently shocked his citizens by forcing them to kiss his middle finger instead of his hand. One of his subjects, Cassius, who Caligula often taunted as being too effeminate, finally had enough humiliation and assassinated him. Clearly, the bird was not to be taken lightly.
During the Middle Ages, the finger went underground. It was still known, but the Catholic Church frowned upon its use, as the middle finger was supposed to be holy in the Mass. The unholy insult lurked deep within the hearts of filthy-minded folks everywhere, hiding from sight until the 19th century when it began to crop up again thanks to a new invention - photography.
Astronomer Galileo's meticulously preserved middle finger can be seen today in Italy's Museo di Storia del Scienza.
The famous astronomer's appendage was plucked from his dead body by a souvenir-seeking Anton Francesco Gori in 1737.
Gori detached this prize while moving the body from an undignified storage closet to a nearby chapel.
Isn't it fitting that Galileo is still giving 'the finger' to all those who doubted his proofs of Copernicus' theory that the sun was the center of the galaxy?
After reading all of that, you're either intrigued, tired of reading or waiting for the point. The point is, after you've made your own assumptions, this particular gesture, this word, these meanings and the entire intention of the word, are minimized to almost nothing.... We believe we can change the world with GOMFU. The GOMFU takeover is about taking negatives, turning them into positives and adapting based on knowledge and understanding.