|
|
 |
May 1999
Why Gossip Is Good For Us
1. gos*sip \ n [ME gossib, fr. OE godsibb, fr. god god + sibb kinsman, fr. sibb related -- more at SIB] (bef. 12C) \ 1 a dial Brit: GODPARENT b: COMPANION, CRONY c: a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others 2 a: rumor or report of an intimate nature b: a chatty talk c: the subject matter of gossip -- goss*ip*ry \ n
2. gossip vi (1627): to relate gossip -- gos*sip*er n
--Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary
|
By
Yes. It's been a very good year for me.
I've made an enormous amount of money from gossip. It beats being a news reporter by a country mile.
But that's not the question you're asking, is it? Well, surprise, surprise! Many academics have asked this question. There have been papers written, theses explored, studies made. The findings are that gossip is cathartic. It is useful. It serves a number of purposes. Gossip relaxes you, establishes you, makes you feel better -- indeed, I have seen one such paper that posits that gossip makes you live longer. Gossip is an enormous way of exchanging information and thereby of exchanging power. There is power in telling something you know or think you know.
Gail Collins of The New York Times, author of Scorpion Tongues, says that "gossip empowers both the tale carrier and the recipient....[G]ossip answers a wide range of human needs....It bonds both teller and listener together with a sense of sharing something slightly forbidden."
In an article for Family Circle, journalist Margaret Jaworski writes, "Gossip is a bit like Greek tragedy, an emotional release valve that allows us to express a whole range of human feelings --envy, anger, compassion-- and find solace in other people's woes."
People crave news. Houses in early New England were built close to the road so that passersby might give the latest. Hey, didja hear? They shot Lincoln two months ago in Washington! And a little gossip makes it even more so. People are now used to news that also entertains.
Oscar Wilde said, "History is merely gossip." Later, he added my personal favorite, to wit: "But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality." Still, if gossip becomes history (and it certainly does; just consider the 1,000 days of John F. Kennedy), then gossip has its own importance as a historical reservoir.
Gossip is based on a common impulse -- Let me tell you a story. This makes it a basic for studies of history, biography, autobiography, memoirs, romans à clef, novels, diaries, letters. Everything is grist for history's mill, even, or perhaps especially, gossip.
Classics scholars have told me that some of the earliest evidence we're said to have of Greek writing is two incisions in Mount Hymettos that date back to the eighth century before Christ. They are seldom cited by classicists because they are dirty gossip. The first says, "So-and-so is a c--------r." The second reads, "So-and-so is a pederast."
Among the first gossips in history was Homer. At first, Homer, or whoever he was, repeated his tales aloud, memorizing them, getting others to memorize them, and thus, by repetition, turning them into literary legend. Finally someone began writing them down.
Today, Erica Jong says, "gossip is the opiate of the oppressed." And it does seem that everybody wants to know --in the words of lyricist Alan Jay Lerner-- "what the king is doing tonight." They then take delight in the king's conquests, his travails, his hangover, his embittered marriage, his extramarital dalliance -- whatever. They sometimes find out that the rich, famous, and gifted are just as miserable as they are. Thus, gossip gives comfort. Joan Rivers notes, "It's nice to know, when everything is going wrong in your household, that Elizabeth Taylor has problems too."
In Moralities of Everyday Life, psychologists John Sabini and Maury Silver state, "Gossip brings ethics home by introducing abstract morality to the mundane....Gossip then, is a mechanism of social control in that it allows individuals to express, articulate, and commit themselves to a moral position in the act of talking about someone....It is a way that we come to know what our own evaluations really are....[It] is a training ground for both self-clarification and public moral action."
These guys, Sabini and Silver, really love gossip. They say it is "common....a cross-cultural universal....a curious pleasure....[it] highlights the idleness of talk....[People gossip] to advance their interests....[Gossip gives] the actors using [it] a way to make their stories interesting....Part of the charm of gossiping is sharing a secret....[Y]ou have an obligation to talk, and gossip is a pleasant, easy, and universally accepted way to fulfill the obligation....[Gossip] dramatize[s] ourselves: our attitudes, values, tastes, temptations, inclination, will....[Gossip] creates a feeling of intimacy....Gossip lets people air their chest, get their outrage supported....[allows them to] be the hero of a moral drama with a minimum of inconvenience....Gossip, then, is one method commonsense actors have to externalize, dramatize, and embody their moral perceptions."
If you always say merely, "Hello. You're looking well. Isn't this lovely weather?" then you are a social bore. If you say, "Let me tell you a story you're just not going to believe," you'll be unforgettable. Gossip makes you interesting and boosts your self-esteem at having it to relate.
Because of the happenings of the last decade or so, we have all become more cynical and less innocent. Is this bad? Isn't knowledge power? And we became that way chiefly from gossip. But do we really still want the kind of press that operated on "a gentleman's agreement" with Congress and the White House and told us little white lies about the people we were electing? Isn't it better to know the truth? Shouldn't we examine the feet of clay of our peerless leaders? Wasn't it better when Betty Ford ended speculation about her substance abuse and publicly declared it, thereby becoming a role model?
Here's a yellowed scrap of paper from a defunct magazine called L.A. Style. The unknown author commented perspicaciously, "Gossip is good. It is that rarest of guilty pleasures -- completely democratic and fully participatory.... It helps us sort things out."
I have a little theory. I think gossip is one of the great luxuries of a democracy. It is the tawdry jewel in the crown of free speech and free expression. You don't read gossip columns in dictatorships. Gossip is for leisure, for fun, for entertainment, for relaxation. Should the day come when we are enduring big black headlines about War, Famine, Terrorism, Natural Disaster -- that kind of news will drive gossip underground and out of sight.
Then, we won't have gossip to kick around any longer. And just like Richard Nixon said, we'll all be sorry. 
|
|
|
|
|
| BUY
books at 25% below retail prices.
|
| READ
(for free) lively commentary from leading opinion makers, cultural figures and book experts.
|
|
 |
|
SPECIAL OFFER:
FREE SUBSCRIPTION
Spend $25 on anything at Contentville and get a free subscription to Brill's Content magazine, plus a membership in the Citizens' Club, which gives you a 5% discount off already-low prices. Shop NOW and get your FREE subscription!
more info
|
|
| DISCUSS this article on the message boards. |
|
| a letter to the editor.
|
|
| READ recent feedback.
|
|
