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The OK Symbol: Folklore or Fakelore?
The “OK sign” is in the news again, this time because some cadets and midshipmen flashed it during the Army-Navy game this week. The familiar battle lines were immediately drawn with some declaring them Nazis and others rolling their eyes at what is clearly teenagers playing “the circle game.” [Note: That’s what I called it growing up; it has various other names.]
This brings us to an interesting folkloristics debate. There are currently two radically different interpretations of the same gesture: one that developed organically over generations and the other that was manufactured and largely spread by the media.
Complicating the matter is that the second, manufactured definition has been culturally codified by organizations like the Anti Defamation League.
In turn, the gesture became part of political discourse and has been used by some conservatives to effectively make fun of their liberal counterparts for falling for an obvious internet hoax — or colloquially, they’re…
