Author Archives: ntrost

“I broke your ankles” and “I put you on skates”

Text:

“I broke your ankles.”

“I put you on skates.”

Context:

LP is an adult male college graduate who grew up in Beverly Hills, CA attending the public schools in the area.

LP shared with me a traditional insult he would hear in his games growing up in Beverly Hills, CA while playing lacrosse. Both of these phrases are used when an athlete has outmaneuvered his competitor. They refer to a falling motion caused from having to quickly change direction (either the collapse that would come from one breaking their own ankles or if they were using roller skates and subsequently fell). He shared that these are phrases learned from fellow athletes while in high school. These phrases are used as a celebration for beating out an opponent and a way of sharing this success both with your own team and the opposing. LP also reported that these phrases were not considered unsportsmanlike by parents and coaches, but rather were encouraged.

Analysis:

The fact that these phrases were learned from fellow athletes during high school highlights the transmission of folk speech within the social context. The shared experience of playing lacrosse contributes to the perpetuation of these types of insults and expressions, creating a unique cultural marker. It was interesting to hear that the surrounding adults did not condemn the usage of these insults. This suggests that such expressions of triumph and competitive banter are deemed acceptable and even embraced by the larger community of Beverly Hills.

Secret Finger Jutsu

Text:

LP reports that in elementary and middle school it was popular to prank fellow classmates with the “secret finger jutsu,” typically learned from the anime, “Naruto.” This involves folding both hands together with the index and middle finger out, sneaking up behind someone, and stabbing their buttocks with the extended fingers.

Context:

LP is a college graduate who grew up in Beverly Hills, CA, attending the public schools in the area.

Here, LP was describing what pranks he would witness in elementary and middle school. He recalls that after one boy, who had watched “Naruto” and learned the behavior from the show, started doing it, the prank was adapted several other members of the group, even those who had not watched the show and did not know its origin. This was practiced exclusively by boys to other boys, LP reports. While he did not take part in the prank itself, he says that he was wary of situations where he might be vulnerable to those who do, especially climbing stairways.

Analysis:

The “secret finger jutsu” is directly linked to the influence of the anime, “Naruto,” meaning it comes from an official source. However, its implementation into the social dynamic of American school children was largely unstructured. Its spread and adoption by other members of the group underscores the rapid transmission of folk behaviors within a peer group and the pressure to be aware of these fluid changes. The gender specificity of this prank suggests certain expectations within this community about which behaviors are acceptable among boys and which may cross the line when it comes to girls. In accordance to Freud’s theory of repression and sublimation, boys in this peer group were using the shared humor learned by this TV program to act on aggressive urges in a way that simultaneously relieved them of said urges and affirmed their standing in the social order.

Paper Airplane

Text:

How to fold a paper airplane, supplied by CM:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xLNDt71f5DRvRmpA5kBTc1iRDXzPeEse/view?usp=sharing

Context:

CM is a male college student at USC. His relationship to the paper airplane is that he learned how to fold one when he was an elementary school, around second or third grade, from a fellow classmate. He reports that paper airplanes were used typically among boys in competitive games to see who could design a paper airplane that could travel the furthest. These types of games were usually played during the day at school, either during class or at recess.

Analysis:

This folk object, as an item of children’s folklore, serves as an emblem of social status, one constructed entirely within the social dynamic of school children, particularly of young boys. The instructions to create a paper airplane are not considered a part of most schools’ curriculum, meaning that most children are not creating these folk objects out of a directive from an authority. To be known as the boy who can construct the best paper airplane is to having a higher standing among your classmates. The paper airplane and the memory of how to make it is a relic of early competitiveness within the hierarchy of childhood.