You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, sexual abuse, and gender discrimination.

The Introduction begins with the author describing her own positive relationship with gossip from an early age. Experiencing gossip as an enjoyable “fizzing” excitement that brought people together and allowed her to make sense of her world, the author was surprised when local authority figures began blaming gossip for trouble in their community.

Gossip is defined as two or more people talking about at least one other person who is not present for the conversation. Based upon this definition, McKinney argues that when doctors discuss a patient, their communication can be classified as gossip. She asserts that the same is true of media figures who speculate about the president’s actions, and she also believes that two people warning each other about abusers in their community is yet another form of gossip.

McKinney quotes researchers and philosophers who have discussed the importance, benefits, and dangers of gossip in their own books. She points out that although the cultural experience of gossip has fundamentally changed since the advent of the internet, its role in society remains largely the same. It is “a regulatory system” (5) that distributes information more or less freely, defying the institutional powers that strive to limit information exchange in order to maintain and consolidate power.