Professor of Anthropology Douglas Raybeck was quoted in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an article titled "Desire to dish slowly returning" about gossip post-Sept. 11:
...after the terrorist events of Sept. 11, some Americans thought gossip, at least the printed variety, was over and done....
"The predilection of those in my field following something as destabilizing as 9/11, you get more, not less gossip," said Douglas Raybeck, psychological anthropologist at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. "One of the functions of gossip is to bind the community."
After Sept. 11, gossip may well begin to serve its true purpose, Raybeck predicted. By talking about people and events, we develop solutions or we promote good behavior by acknowledging when someone steps out of line.
"Something like 9/11 comes along and gossip goes right to the core of the community and stability. One of the functions (of gossip) is not necessarily to be nice but re-establish a sense of pattern. Social scientists would say we're going to get more gossip, not less."
...In some ways, gossip can serve a greater good. It makes a community smaller. It enforces community rules and mores. It tells as much about the person spreading the gossip as it does the person being gossiped about. But it is not built for the giant nation state, said anthropologist Raybeck.
"The electronic media and, prior to that the print media, provided the means of what you might call 'the gossiping allusion.' The idea that you have a familiarity with members of our 'community,' " Raybeck said.
"Let's say I'm fond of Julia Roberts. I suddenly hear that she's married again. If I had followed that, if I were concerned about it, I'd be crestfallen a little bit. Oh, damn. Like I had a chance."
Gossiping about celebrities a la Salon or "Entertainment Tonight" or any gossip column or television show makes the listener/viewer an insider to their lives. It humanizes the elevated and elevates the regular guy.
But Raybeck thinks we may not be back up to speed with our gossiping just yet.
"We want to gossip about the secure, the predictable, the rewarding. The sign that things are getting better will be when we get back to the nasty backbiting," he said.
