Talk:The finger

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The finger was one of the Social sciences and society good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
October 15, 2012	Good article nominee	Listed
November 13, 2025	Good article reassessment	Delisted

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on August 2, 2012.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that the Connecticut Supreme Court found that giving the finger (pictured) was offensive, but not obscene?

Current status: Delisted good article

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It is requested that one or more video files be included in this article to improve its quality.

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Lack of other European output

The gesture is also used to say "piss off" which is a alternative to the "fuck you" gesture, moreso in meaning "get lost".

Battle of Agincourt story

Should we address the commonly told story about the battle of agincourt and the chopping off of fingers of the archers? It's a common enough story to address and point out that it's apocryphal EdwinAmi (talk) 02:08, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

But like, what does it mean? 2600:8807:8825:700:CD51:BA92:F8B5:8F5A (talk) 16:18, 3 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"not unlawful"

what does "not unlawful" mean? it is a double negative equals positive one? taken from: "Use of this gesture in public, while vulgar, is not unlawful...[sic]" @Tollens 182.253.54.119 (talk) 11:03, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am not certain why I was pinged here, but yes, "not unlawful" means it is not a crime. Negating an adjective that already contains a negative prefix is quite common and typically accepted as correct - it is generally used to soften the adjective. See https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/double-negatives-and-usage. Tollens (talk) 23:27, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 1 January 2025

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

{The attribution of middle finger gesture with meaning of fuck me is inaccurate because} 121.52.149.93 (talk) 14:12, 1 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. LizardJr8 (talk) 21:35, 1 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

GA Reassessment

The finger

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • Most recent review

Result: Delisted. Bgsu98 (Talk) 22:13, 13 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This article is a quick fail under the good article criteria due to the valid cleanup tags. It is not fairly broad and the sections are all over the place, such as sections for the US and Canada (which can definitely be expanded, and the US section has uncited and badly formatted parts).

The Canada section only includes the one court case, which is definitely not enough for an entire section. The first citation is cited multiple times in the lead, and "Early appearance in films" doesn't warrant an entire section. HurricaneZeta (T) (C) 15:40, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wow I got this to GA 13 years ago. I will see what I can do to keep it there. – Muboshgu (talk) 16:53, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted version here. – Muboshgu (talk) 16:55, 22 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm...well that version's United States section looks much better. First thing to be addressed though is that cleanup banner, as the page has 5 citation needed tags. I would suggest that the United States and Canada pages get rewritten, cited, and moved into the "In popular culture" section. HurricaneZeta (T) (C) 13:09, 23 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Oops, forgot about this. – Muboshgu (talk) 22:18, 13 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]