Gossip girls: The power of girls’ gossip in a low-income South African community

ABSTRACT

This study explores the ways in which a particular group of early-adolescent coloured girls subjectively experience and understand gossip. Social constructionist grounded theory was applied to analyse qualitative data yielded by conducting feminist psychodynamic group therapy with three groups of girls aged 13–14. The discussion of the results was informed by the principles of discursive psychology and psychoanalytic theory. Gossip, as a form of democratic surveillance and an instrument of envious undermining, can become a source of power for those who indulge in it, while it can be destructive to those who are gossiped about. While gossip can be constructed as a potential instrument for questioning, subverting and undermining existing hierarchies, its potential power is compromised by existing social rules – often unspoken ones.

Keywords:

• girls
• gossip
• low-income community
• power
• psychology
• South Africa