Gossip often carries a negative connotation, but its historical significance is undeniable. PhD candidate Eleanor Black argues that gossip has been a powerful tool for marginalized voices, particularly women, throughout history.
From a young age, I was taught that gossip was unkind and unbecoming, especially for women. However, my perspective shifted as I delved into the world of journalism and later, academia. Now, as an English PhD candidate at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, I explore the intricate role of gossip in shaping communities and empowering individuals.
The women of Cosme colony and the power of gossip
In 1893, British journalist William Lane led a group of bushmen and shearers to Paraguay to establish a utopian socialist colony called New Australia. When the colony failed within six months, the faithful formed a second colony, Cosme. Despite its socialist roots, Cosme was a traditional Victorian patriarchal society where women had no voting rights, could not choose their own work, and had no financial independence.
The colony’s official narrative, controlled by a small group of men, hid uncomfortable truths about financial mismanagement, spousal abuse, and sexual assault. For the women of Cosme, gossip became a means of power and opportunity. As they scrubbed clothes together in the communal laundry or organized social events in the dining hall, they formed a clearer picture of their world and its dangers. This newfound knowledge allowed them to start thinking about how they might improve their situation.
The evolution of gossip: From intimate conversations to underground information
The Old English word “godsibb”first recorded in 1014, refers to a “god sibling” or family intimate. These intimate conversations were understood to be familiar and deep, helping to bind people together. By this definition, gossip was female, as men were often excluded from birthing spaces where these conversations took place.
Over the centuries, gossip expanded beyond intimate conversations to speculative talk carried out in drawing rooms, kitchens, shops, and factory floors. It became underground information about engagements, babies, money, and misdeeds. The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary defined gossip as “idle talk, trifling or groundless rumour; tittle-tattle.” Despite its pejorative connotation, gossip crossed social boundaries, covered great physical distances, and was shared between Friends in a process of meaningful bonding.
The risky flip side of knowledge
While gossip can be a powerful tool, it can also be problematic. When you gossip, you speak about someone who is not present and therefore unable to correct or challenge the information you share. Gossip is tainted by uncertainty, which historian Sebastian Jobs calls “the risky ‘flip side’ of knowledge.” We must treat gossip with care, as it is often information not intended to be saved for posterity and can be emotional, inconsistent, or spiteful.
The gossip I encounter in my research is recorded in diaries, letters, newspaper and magazine reports, court proceedings, oral history projects, and family stories passed down the generations. It offers alternative perspectives on the official, usually male-centric, stories preserved in national archives. This gossip can utterly transform the way we see historical events.
Revealing hidden truths
Patricia Meyers Spacks, a specialist in English literature and cultural history, points out that gossip can reveal hidden truths and suggest the emotional and social context of historical events which would not otherwise be accessible to us. In my work, I compare the differences between the sanctioned narrative of William Lane’s colonies with what the gossip suggests. Diaries and letters from 130 years ago capture the personalities of the people involved in disputed events and their all-too-human concerns.
These little tidbits help me distinguish between what the male leadership shared with the wider world about the colony’s goings-on and what the women living in the colonies could see with their own eyes to be true and chose to gossip about. Exposing those gaps allows me to consider reasons for them and sometimes to provide a fuller understanding of what took place.
Three years into my thesis, my perspective on gossip has softened as I have used it to fill in the outlines of archival stories, adding the light and shade that brings them to life. Now, I bristle when people complain about gossip, because they tend to lump it all into one category. Gossip is as varied as the people who use it.
