My Opinion
I’ve been a bit confused why I see videos with that gesture censored, I feel like that rarely happened in the media I consumed a decade ago. However, I believe this “phenomenon” is older than TikTok and its weird censorship.
I’d place giving the finger at a high 2, low 3 on offensiveness, definitely nowhere near gesticulated sexual acts. You can give a child shit for using it, but the occasional finger is something I’d expect from even a teenager.
Context matters a lot. I wouldn’t flip off my mom, but with some friends it’s how we say hello. So I guess I put it in the whole range of 1-5
Now, about you seeing it censored, I always thought that was bizarre. You see it a lot in american media - but let’s be adults for a second. If they’ve censored somebody’s hand, there’s a very limited few reasons why that might be. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what the censored gesture is, and the blurring doesn’t really do anything to diminish the insult.
Honestly, I think it has a lot to do with the prudishness of american media. The gesture is symbolic of an erection, but I don’t know anybody who’d confuse a finger for a penis.
Interestingly, all cultures seem to have a gesture for this, even if it isn’t necessarily the middle finger. Some places it’s the thumbs-up that stands in for it, and others it might be gripping your elbow and pointing your fist.