Jennifer Coates on Gossip

Question 1

House talk

Answer 1

its distinguishing function is the exchange of information and recourses connected with the female role as an occupation

Question 2

Scandal

Answer 2

a considered judging of the behaviour of others, women in particular. It is usually made in terms of the domestic morality, of which women have been appointed guardians

Question 3

Bitching

Answer 3

this is the overt expression of women’s anger at their restricted role and inferior status. They express this in private and to women only. They are not expecting change; they want only to make their complaints in an environment where their anger will be understood

Question 4

Chatting

Answer 4

this is the most intimate form of gossip, a mutual self-disclosure, a transaction where women use to their own advantage the skills they have learned as part of their job of nurturing others

Question 5

Cameron in Verbal Hygiene (1995)

Answer 5

argues that theorists like Lakoff and Spender see gendered language in terms of power and powerless for this reason: throughout Western culture the male has been the unmarked norm whilst the female has been the marked form.