Bremen says symbol, used to call for silence in class, ‘in danger of being mistaken’ for Turkish extremist ‘wolf salute’

A city in northern Germany has become the first to issue an all-out ban on the use of a hand gesture used to encourage silence in the classroom because of its close resemblance to a far-right Turkish gesture.

The “silent fox” gesture – where the hand is posed to resemble an animal with upright ears (the little and forefinger) and a closed mouth (the middle fingers pressed against the thumb) – has long been seen as a useful teaching tool by educators in Germany and elsewhere. It signals to children that they should stop talking and listen to their teacher.

But authorities in the port city of Bremen say the symbol is “in danger of being mistaken” for the right-wing extremist “wolf salute”, from which it is indistinguishable.

  • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
    62·
    5 months ago

    Based on the description, the gesture described has nothing to do with metal heads…

    Well… one usage of it for sure does. BabyMetal has co-opted it into their shtick some decade ago. They retroactively added it to the band as they do put some of the Japanese lore into their stuff… With the kitsune (fox god) being the reference for the hand gesture itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_of_the_horns Just scroll down and you’ll see an image referencing “Yuimetal”, who’s from the original Babymetal lineup (original image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Babymetal_at_2015_GQ_Men_of_the_Year_ceremony.jpg).

    Forget that it has other meaning elsewhere, this is just the one that I recognize immediately.

    Other’s that I’ve seen brought up…

    It does however resemble the “too sweet” sign used in wrestling by backstage friends in WWF known collectively as “the kliq”, later used by some of those friends in WCW’s NWO and in Japan’s NJPW by a group called Bullet Club.

    It’s the “silent fox” in germany. Used by the teacher in the Kindergarten when the kids are to loud.

    Taking the hand gesture away has everything to do with EVERY culture that uses it.

    • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      51·
      5 months ago

      Then I think “Babymetal fans” would’ve been a better descriptor than “metal heads”, lol

      • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
        65·
        5 months ago

        Babymetal is metal… Don’t be one of those gatekeeper pricks that makes claims that certain bands aren’t metal. Hell they’ve toured with Judas Priest. Are you also going to say Rob Halford isn’t metal?

        • otp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          41·
          5 months ago

          Lmao… Are you being facetious?

          You said that banning the gesture would upset metal heads. But the gesture is not something that’s relevant to all metal heads as a group.

          My first guess was that, based on the description, someone mixed up the fox gesture with the “horns” gesture (that is commonly associated with heavy metal).