Gossip: Fact of Life or Fiction to Laugh At?

Building off last week’s discussion, Monday’s class looked closer at some of the universal topics of humor, (specifically, gossip). As if there was any doubt in a reader’s mind on the viability of gossip’s universality in humor writing, one need simply consider the publication range of the various readings from the course. First, there is Ben Franklin’s "Silence Dogood Letters" from 1722, then Frances Miriam Berry Whitcher’s short story, “Aunt Maguire Continues Her Account of the Sewing Society,” from The Widow Bedott Papers of 1856, and now, Edith Wharton’s “Xingu” of 1916. Moreover, if one really wants to take it to the extreme, (and as others who are in the same Medieval Lit class would already know), the anonymously authored poem, “A Talk of Ten Wives on Their Husbands’ Wares,” is a rather humorous (though, not intentionally so) gossip piece about gossip that dates all the way back to the mid fifteenth century.

Clearly, the humor of gossip transcends time, but the implication of this I feel creates an unforeseen problem, especially considering that women are usually the ones gossip writings utilize for their delivery. In many ways, it makes women as gossipers more of a fact of life than a fiction to laugh at. For a topic to be universal enough to last throughout the years, that means there must be some constant truth to it that people can identify with. If gossip is one of these universal topics, then what is its truth? Do people still laugh at stories about it because they can identify with the scenario of a group of women who are in a book club only to talk about each other? Do they see the qualities of a gossip story’s hyperbolized characters in women they know? Do mainly women laugh, because they are guilty of some of the same behavior? If all around there are real examples, then how much of a stereotype are these stories playing with?

Along that same strain of though, I guess I also question, if the image of the “gossipy woman” is able to survive this long, how much of it is an erroneous stereotype, and how much of it is an unfortunate truth? I recognize that simply because an image survives in a culture, that does not mean it is always true (just look at society’s treatment of Native Americans), but, if people are still able to laugh at these stories, in them, there must be some genuine observation of the people they mock. To think that in this case, the observation is that women will always have a “cattiness” in their dealings with one another, is disheartening to say the least. Nevertheless, is it possible to argue the opposite? Can anyone assuredly say she never had a moment of less than honest intentions when speaking with another? For now, I resolve my argument with the belief that these stories are not insinuating each and every interaction between women is a disingenuous one. Also, given these stories are mainly by women authors, perhaps the use of women in their work has more to do with the old adage, “write what you know,” rather than some statement about who is more guilty of gossiping behavior. Therefore, as a reader, I need to be able to think for myself beyond what the text may imply, as certainly, women are not the only ones who gossip.