Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Do Guys In Anime Raise A Pinky Finger When Talking About Girls?
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2442 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Glad you mentioned the Sound Euphonium ED as an example of this. This season’s Bloom Into You is doing the same thing in its ED.
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Crabtree1
 Posts: 106 Location: Aberdeenshire |
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Not completely unrelated, but... in the UK (and some other countries I'd imagine) when a woman is talking about a guy and she has her pinky up it usually has the rather unromantic connotations of a guy having... a wee one...
I think I'd rather stick to Japan's version |
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belvadeer
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The whole idea of the red string of fate seems charmingly romantic the first few times, but I think I've seen it mentioned or used a bit too often lately. The charm has kind of worn off at this point.
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Yune Amagiri
 Posts: 929 Location: France |
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Here in France, it is an old habit used by the nobility while drinking which is still considered as a good behavior, my grandmother was always telling us, my cousins, siblings and me to never touch the cup with the pinky, doing so was frowned upon. However, depending of the region, having the pinky up when you aren't drinking has the same meaning that it has in Japan, it's usually considered as vulgar. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I honestly never noticed the gesture! I've heard of the "Red String of Fate" before, but not the "Pinky Swear" connection. It's really cute.
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Shiflan
 Posts: 418 |
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Same here! I knew about "pinky swearing", the red string of fate, and the little finger gesture being discussed here, but I had no idea that there was any relationship between any of them, nevermind the fact that they are all related. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13550 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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So, when talking about the girl, the guy will be fingering her so to speak.
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harminia
 Posts: 1997 Location: australia |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqWO7fzwSLM Australia too |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11340 |
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I always assumed that had yakuza origins. You break faith with your gang and you have to cut off your pinky to atone. But maybe that goes back to the red sting too. In the US, a raised pinky, especially if you waggle your hand a little, is a derogatory insinuation that someone is gay. I think that evolved from the pinky-out manners of British tea drinking, which, like having any manners at all, to some people is seen as effeminate. See Austin Powers' Dr. Evil. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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In Brazil raising the pinky means while drinking is interpreted as proof of homosexuality.  Its probably influence from European countries since Brazilians who have the means to go to these countries are cultured and hence "effeminate". We have a rather crude and homophobic culture indeed.
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JustStopPlz
Posts: 48 |
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Reading all these thing that the pinky up gesture means really changes my perception of that one Spongebob episode.
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earthisthering
Posts: 3 |
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Huh. In my experience the pinky doesn't represent "love and sex in general" -- it refers exclusively to women, and the equivalent signal for "husband/boyfriend" is in fact the thumb.
According to most Japanese sources, the pinky came to represent a female lover due to the practitioners of literal yubikiri, i.e. Edo period prostitutes (which brings us right back to crass, I suppose). As you say, that in turn probably has its origins in the idea of the pinky as representing important connections. The thumb is a bit more opaque; it could be that the general "male head of household" connotations from 親指 eventually mutated into "important man in one's life", but that's a mere guess by a layperson. Incidentally, in the modern day, the pinky and thumb are the respective words for "woman" and "man" in Japanese Sign Language. I thought that was kind of cool. |
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gridsleep
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So, that's why Yakuza expect their made men to cut off their little finger as an initiation. It both symbolically and literally represents severing your ties to those dear to you and dedicating your life to the Yakuza clan.
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Shiflan
Posts: 418 |
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I'm quite sure the Yakuza finger cutting is a different thing entirely: When you hold a sword in the Japanese martial arts, most of the grip is done with the smaller fingers (pinky and ring finger) while the index finger is held more loosely. Thus if you cut off part of your pinky or ring finger it becomes much more difficult to properly grasp a sword. That has the effect, both symbolic and practical, of making someone more dependent on their Yakuza clan for protection than they otherwise would with intact fingers. Cutting off one's finger was not a method of being initiated into the Yakuza. Rather it was an atonement for screwing up in some way. Each time you screwed up you cut off another joint, thereby becoming more and more dependent on the clan for protection since you were less able to fight with a sword. |
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Scalfin
Posts: 249 |
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This particular conception of fate also explains why the idea Stand users are drawn to each other was treated as logical in JoJo's.
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