Even if we hate to admit it, we all like a bit of a gossip. We like to be kept in the loop and know who’s doing what, whether it be about the breakup or beginnings of relationships and friendships, or the drunken mistakes or sly comments people make. Even if it’s completely harmless, gossiping is generally looked down upon as catty behaviour. Stereotypical views of gossiping conjure up images of ‘bitchy’ women. However, this simply isn’t the case. A study from the University of California disproves such misogynistic and negative assumptions around gossip. Looking at data from 269 women and 198 men, aged from 18 to 58, the results refute false stereotypes of gossipers being mainly uneducated women of a lower socioeconomic status. It also proved that the majority of gossip is in fact neutral and not of malicious intent. So when, and why, did this demonization of gossip occur?
The etymology of the word comes from the old English word ‘godsibb’, meaning godparents. This was typically used to refer to companions in childbirth, normally close female friends. While it was not solely used for women, when it was, it was in a complimentary rather than derogatory sense. It was not until Shakespeare that the verb to gossip was used in a context similar to our current understanding of the word. So somewhere along the historical timeline, our perception of gossip converted from describing strong emotional bonds to bitchy bad-mouthing.
Scholar Silvia Federici argues that escalating gender oppression, particularly around the time of witch-hunts, contributed to this changing understanding of gossip. With anxieties around witchcraft, female friendship became something to be attacked rather than appreciated, and gossips were accordingly punished. Around the 16th century, the scold’s bridle, also known as the witches or gossip’s bridle, was increasingly used. This metal cage would be placed over a person’s head, with an iron muzzle that would pierce their tongue if they dared to talk. It was used almost exclusively on women who were thought to be deviant or practicing witchcraft.
Not only were conversations between women deemed as malicious and as potential signs of the occult but gossip also became a means to label conversations between women as superficial and thus pointless, and so, it appeared that women were either evil or frivolous. Laws were made to stop this frivolous behaviour, with a 1547 proclamation ‘forbidding women to meet together to babble and talk’ and ordering husbands to ‘keep their wives in their houses’.
With the advent of the printing press came the widespread consumption and publication of gossip. Gossip columns became popular among all sectors of society. Similar to Lady Whistledown in Netflix’s ‘Bridgerton’, these columns were often anonymous and reported on the comings and goings of high society. Criminal Conversation trials, the aspect of divorce proceedings where a wife’s infidelity was proven in court, were often highly publicised with all the juicy details. It’s here that we see a reflection of the modern form of gossip and celebrity.
This modern notion of gossip dismisses its origins as a sort of solidarity in conversation. In many societies, gossip may also be seen as a useful social currency, or a means of transferring information and traditions. In royal courts during the renaissance period the act of gossip heightened the political position of female courtiers, as even being disenfranchised members of society, they held useful information that could be bought or deployed in a way to their advantage. The history of gossip entails much more than idle chatter and frivolous, or spiteful women. In its history we see a development of gossip from a form of social bonding and social currency, to a tool for the societal chastisement of women.