Nathaniel Zelinsky:
As coalition planes began enforcing a no-fly zone in Libya, rebels in the streets of Benghazi celebrated by cheering and extending their index and middle fingers in the air in the V symbol — a ubiquitous and unmistakable sign of . . . what? Victory? Peace? Celebration? All of the above?
The story of the V symbol spans cultures, time zones and decades. From World War II through the Arab spring of 2011, it has been used by the powerful and the powerless, by young and old, by warriors and peacemakers. Its meaning has evolved, yet it is understood around the world as a symbol of resistance. A brief history:
In a series of BBC broadcasts in 1941, Douglas Ritchie, better known as the radio figure “Colonel Britton,” urged resisters in German-occupied lands to take up a V sign as “the symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories.” Soon, underground movements started chalking V’s onto Nazi tanks all over the continent.
Winston Churchill started using the newly minted “V for victory” symbol, and it became a well-known gesture on the home front, symbolizing the battle against an ultimate evil. The British propaganda campaign linked the V not only to the French word for victory, “victoire,” but also to the Dutch word for freedom, “vrijheid.”
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The origins go back centuries to the
Battle of Agincourt where the French out numbered the English and threatened to cut off the fingers used by the English archers to pull back the strings of their long bows. After the English victory the archers wagged the two fingers in the V sign as a way of taunting the losers.
Image via Wikipedia
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