With hand signals you have to be careful to discern what the technical signal is and what the individual in question means by it in his or her heart. For instance, the signal Billie Eilish is flashing in this pic is technically the American Sign Language sign for “I love you” (ILY), which you can read about here. The ILY signal is distinguished from the “sign of the horns” by the thumb being out.
Gene Simmons from KISS would use this gesture a lot, the ILY sign, going way back to the 70s. He even tried to have it trademarked in 2017, but failed (for obvious reasons), which you can read about here. It’s likely Simmons genuinely meant “I love you” since his band would always tell their fans in concert “We love you!”
Singer Ronnie James Dio is the one who popularized the “sign of the horns” in heavy metal culture after he joined the band Black Sabbath in 1980. This version of the signal is distinguished from the ILY sign by the thumb being in, not out. The reason he started using this gesture was because he didn’t want to copy former-singer Ozzy Osbourne’s peace sign and so he incorporated the “sign of the horns,” but he didn’t call it that or the “devil horns”; and actually borrowed it from his Italian grandmother who used the sign to ward off the evil eye (aka malocchio), which is a traditional Italian hand gesture.
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When Dio first started using the sign my friends & I were still in our teens and would make fun of it. We literally mocked it because we thought Dio overdid it and we viewed it as the furthest thing from ‘cool.’ Nevertheless, the gesture caught on and metal fans started utilizing it as a cheer or signal of unity in the subculture ever since (as noted in the above concert pic).
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The sign is used for several other reasons, depending upon the person and context. For instance, fans of the Texas Long Horns flash it as a cheer sign or greeting; Geezer Butler used it in a 1969 photo and he held to a general Christian worldview (proven by some of his lyrics, like this song); and the fictional Spider-Man of course utilizes the gesture to release his webbing from his shooters, dating back to 1962.
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Of course Wiccans will use the signal to invoke their horned god and LaVeyan satanists will use it as a salute. But this doesn’t automatically make someone else who flashes the gesture guilty by association.
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So, whether the “sign of the horns” is a bad thing or not, it all comes down to the intent of the person using the sign and the corresponding context. It goes without saying that we should be careful about rashly judging people who use the gesture because they might just be saying “I love you,” “YEAH!,”“Go Long Horns!” or they’re warding off the evil eye.
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For a good listing of the myriad uses of this gesture (not to be confused with the ILY sign) see this article.
