Jones - Gossip Categories

House Talk

• the exchange of information and resources connected with the female role as an occupation

Scandal

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

Bitching

• the overt expression of women's anger at their restricted role and inferior status
• they express this in private and to other women only
• the women who ***** are not expecting change; they want only to make their complaints in an environment where their anger will be understood and expected

Chatting

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