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Th Mar 30 -

THE GESTURE -

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia denied that he made an obscene gesture Sunday...

*The extended fingers of one hand moving slowly back and forth under the raised chin means: I couldn't care less. It's no business of mine. Count me out.*

I really don't want to get into an argument with a Sicilian, but the explanation given here is a bit coy. The gesture, as it was explained to me, means: "The hair on the pig's chin to you!"

I wouldn't characterize it as obscene. Among friends in an informal situation, it would be brushed off as trivial. But it was rude under the circumstances because it connotes contempt and derision. The entire dispute about the "meaning" of the gesture involves the ambiguities inherent in "double consciousness."

This term refers to Americans who have a cultural mainstream social identity and a subcultural minority social identity. The margin between these two is ambiguous and is worked out in process by each individual in his or her own unique way. Actually we all can have multiple social identities. But it looks like Justice Scalia just bumped into the mainstream furniture a bit with an ambiguous faux-pas :-)

:: Howard Kurtz ::
-- Media Notes Extra --
-- WashPost [RegReq'd]

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