Yellow Press

The old Egyptians did it, Iago riled Othello up with it, and even Bill Clinton was not spared – gossip seems to be the social oil that keeps our communication going. Whether as village chat or cyber talk, our little cultural history of gossiping gets to the bottom of the phenomenon of talking pleasurably about others.

Gossip has been a vital part of human life since language exists. The old Egyptians have already exchanged news about the intimacies of their fellow citizens. Talking about the private lives of others behind their back provides us with certain pleasures and increases our well-being. From pure voyeurism to sympathetic participation, speaking about others fulfils many social needs. As latest research shows, sociologists and psychologists agree that gossiping as verbal communication forms communities and maintains social networks. In fact, intimate chatting integrates group members, it allows us to pass on vital information and solves conflicts. Not to gossip also means isolating oneself. Or speaking with iTV: As soon as the waning bean ration drains Scarlett Moffatt and Co of their strength in the Australian jungle camp, groups establish themselves most effectively by gossiping during fire watch.

Washing dirty laundry: Gossip in the Middle Ages

Our contemporary understanding of »Klatsch« (German for gossip) derives from the medieval washing of laundry. The German word »Klatsch« comes from the Middle High German »klatz« which describes the sound of something soft but heavy hitting something hard, like wet laundry beating against a stone. While the village women did their laundry, they also exchanged stories about the private lives of their fellow villagers. Common starting point for their indiscretions: Who was responsible for these suspicious stains on the bed linen? The medieval place for washing thus developed into a space for exchanging public news. Gossip became part of an oral culture which contributed to the work pleasure of village women and served as a means of social interaction. Men, however, did not find that amusing. Martin Luther, for instance, associated gossip with dirt, or »the washing with the mouth«, as he would call it.

Gossip & gender in the 18th century

Gossip was constructed along the lines of gender stereotypes in European countries of the 18th century insofar as it was ascribed to women as time-consuming and useless talking. Instead, gossiping can be read as a sign of female solidarity. In patriarchal societies, solely men had access to the public sphere; women were restricted to the domestic domain and were excluded from political debates or public activities. By chatting publicly about the private lives of others, they symbolically reclaimed this denied right. Female communication at the time can be understood not just as simple chatting but also as a kind of rebellious speech act which undermined male authority and influenced public opinion. By the way, a brilliant gossip girl was British author Virginia Woolf who wrote about London Bohemian life in her letters and vented on a certain Mrs Clifford as »wattled all down her neck like some oriental Turkey and with a mouth opening like an old leather bag«.

Male gossip & coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th century

Men, however, also like to gossip. What was dirty laundry for medieval women, was the coffeehouse for 18th century men. With the conquest of the colonies, new exotic products like coffee and tobacco changed the social norms of meeting. Thus, in 1650, the first coffeehouses opened in Oxford; between 1670 and 1740, more than 2,000 coffeehouses were founded in London alone. Since there were no daily newspapers at the time, those places quickly developed into important centres of communication in early bourgeois cultural and economic life. Coffeehouses advanced to public institutions in which business men, scientists, merchants and artists established talking about politics and economy as maledominated oral culture. According to the ideology of separate spheres, women were not allowed to enter coffeehouses. Gossip served also as a currency which was also reflected spatially: Most coffeehouses were located near the stock exchange, for trades people had a business interest in the news. Coffe klatsch constituted a bourgeois public: The conversations lead to the foundation of Lloyds insurance

company and the press. Richard Steele, for instance, alluded to the male gossip culture when he called his magazine »Tatler« and conserved all coffeehouse talk in magazine form.

The Yellow Press

This passion for indiscretions developed into the so-called Yellow Press. The term »yellow press« does not derive from the fact, as cynics might say, that it is reading material for the toilet. In fact, in their early beginnings, gossip magazines were printed on rather cheap paper which shimmered yellow. More concretely, the term stems from a magazine dispute between Joseph Pulitzer’s »New York World« and William Randolph Hearst’s »New York Journal« that both published the comic strip »The Yellow Kid« in a circulation competition. In simple ghetto language, the kid was drawn with a yellow t-shirt and stood exemplary for unserious sensational journalism. Most common focus of those ‘yellow’ stories: the private lives of celebrities. Whereas gossip about private people often projects one’s owns weaknesses, stars serve as heterogenous figures of identification and projection who we can love or detest, onto whom we can transfer our wishes, hopes and anxieties or with whom we can compare ourselves. Be it Kim Kardahsian’s cellulite or Britney Spears’ baldness. Just like classical mythical tales, such stories construct our identity because they generate a reference frame for moral values. Talking about stars also makes celebrities experienceable as people »like you and me«.

Cybergossip in 20th and 21st century

The Internet helps us to exchange information even quicker. On 17th January 1998, a certain Matt Drudge wrote on his homepage about the affair of US president Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. With this, he published one of the most well-covered scandals of the 20th century. This also established the World Wide Web as a catalyser of gossip. The Internet came to be a transgressive medium which generated a culture of borderlessness. As a mixture of mass and individual medium, the Internet enables each user to publish information. Jennifer Aniston can tell you a thing or two about it. According to the yellow press, she would have now at least 100 children.

This also shows the downside of gossip; its protagonists can quickly become media victims due to unauthorised paparazzi records or false reports.

XOXO, GOSSIP GIRL