In The Blogs

National Fist Bump Day, 2009

| Wed May. 27, 2009 1:41 PM PDT

— Image by Flikr user echobase_2000

Nearly a year ago (June 3, 2008) in ~~Minneapolis~~ Denver, Illinois junior senator Barack Obama captured the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America. Obama celebrated the event by bumping knuckles with his wife, a brief physical gesture whose public discussion would quickly become overwhelming. Well, it's time to celebrate that gesture again: next Wednesday, June 3, will be National Fist Bump Day. According to organizers of the event:

A group of like-minded people have gotten together to commemorate Obama's grand gesture, but also to take the fist bump to a higher level, one above partisan politics and social divides. For one day we are calling for Americans, and perhaps even all global citizens, to put aside their differences -- be they class, race, religion or values -- and show their respect with a little bump.

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The Obama fist bump became a major topic after the nomination when Fox News host E.D. Hill referenced the Obamas' gesture, saying:

A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently. We’ll show you some interesting body communication and find out what it really says.

It's unknown that anyone before Hill called it a terrorist fist jab (nor is it clear how law-abiding Americans would know what greeting gestures the world's freedom fighters prefer). And after all that the Fox segment failed to make good on its promise to explain what the first bump "really says." But there it was: the fist bump heard 'round the world.

The gesture is hardly new. Fist bumping (the right hands of two people making contact via knuckle touching) as a gesture of greeting or affection has been around since at least the 1970s. We don't know whether the motion evolved from the handshake or the high five but since it's an imaginative urban/adolescent gesture, I suspect it's a bit of both.

Thomas Jefferson is said to be the first U.S. president to shake hands; before that, bowing was standard etiquette. While it's somewhat unlikely Obama will usher in a new standard for polite salutation, the organizers of next Wednesday's event aim to ensure that the fist bump stays with us... at least for the duration of the Obama administration.

Comments

so excited for International Chest Bump Day!

Submitted by Lauren R Rice on Wed May. 27, 2009 3:11 PM PDT.

And a day when all alternative-physical gestures of enthusiasm are celebrated.

So when do we celebrate

Submitted by mr. gentleman (not verified) on Thu May. 28, 2009 10:59 AM PDT.

So when do we celebrate National A$$-Pat Day? I know a few girls I'd love to celebrate with... :)

Mother Jones? Try Mother

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu May. 28, 2009 11:05 AM PDT.

Mother Jones? Try Mother Joke. This is a waste of time.

Get over yourself

Submitted by Godless Heathen on Thu May. 28, 2009 12:17 PM PDT.

tagged as:

solution

You are in the Media & Culture blog of the online edition of MJ. "She" still takes on the real stories in the three other blogs on the site as well as the magazine articles which are posted in their entirety. I mean, if this pissed you off, I'm just dying to know how you feel about the story on Oprah and KFC.

Oprah and KFC?!? Forgive my going off on a tangent, but ...

Submitted by Suki (not verified) on Fri May. 29, 2009 4:12 AM PDT.

tagged as:

result

If the media would stop paying attention to that woman's every pronouncement and objection, she would become a non-issue. For heaven's sake, she is a talk-show host, not God's second-in-command (despite her attitude to the contrary, such as it is). It has gotten to the point where if she told women to bathe in pure hydrochloric acid three times a day, a large percentage would probably do it just because she said to.