Got hot news? Like, all the time? Does it involve scandal, dirt, and slander? Do you think it’s your job to spread it to the whole word? Truth time: are you just always, always on your phone?
There’s a thin line between news and gossip. News is what people might find useful or what they need to know about their world. It’s based in fact. Gossip goes outside of the bounds of “need to know” and crosses into “none of your business” territory. It is based in speculation and conjecture.
The Gossip secretly (or not-so secretly) delights in other people’s mistakes and embarrassments. This type will dish babble conveniently slanted to make one person look like a zero and everyone else look like a hero in comparison. When the rumor mill runs dry, the Gossip is not above making up lies to keep people buzzing. The Gossip’s trash talk may be used as a tool of politics, social re-ordering, manipulation, and power. Some rumors are rather innocent, mere tidbits to stir interest or make people laugh. Some rumors are poisonous enough to make their subjects jump off a tall bridge. This type of thing actually happens on the regular, so don’t think for a second that Gossip can’t potentially ruin or even end lives.
The Gossip is especially obsessed with information about the lives of the beautiful, rich, and famous.
Gossip Superpowers
- Stirring up chaos
- Crazy-nosey
- Overly dramatic
- Eyes and ears everywhere
- Master of elaboration and fabrication
A Happy Gossip
Celebrity arrests, domestic difficulties, babies born out of wedlock, secret lives revealed, murder, madness, mayhem… and let’s not forget the deliciousness that can be extracted from a simple fashion faux pas: these are the events that elate the Gossip.
Famous Gossips
Hedda Hopper, Perez Hilton, Page Six of the New York Post, Gossip Girl of Gossip Girl
Gossip Entourage
The Gossip especially loves to tell tales about the Cheerleader, Entertainer, Actor, Musician, Prince, Princess, Class Leader, Athlete, Tomboy, Indie, Gangsta, Rock Star, Diva, and Metrosexual.
Gossip in Love
When it comes to his or her nearest and dearest, the Gossip is always torn between loyalty and the impulse to spill all. So if you’re in love with a Gossip, you are always teetering on the brink of your reputation, which could change at any moment.
Gossip Challenge
Ironically, for one so in-the-know and at the center of the swirl, the Gossip’s biggest challenge is feeling like he or she is always on the outside of things. Because no one can totally trust the Gossip, he or she is nagged by loneliness and isolation. Even the Gossip’s real friends hold back their heart and vulnerabilities, afraid to open up and be betrayed.
How to Play It
If know a Gossip, or you have these tendencies, recognize that the compulsion to bring others down with vicious words comes from low self-esteem. The Gossip lacks compassion and likely feels the brunt of that lack inside, affording himself or herself very little love, respect, tenderness, and forgiveness. Life without those qualities can’t be pleasant.
The Gossip will not be at peace and will continue to feel unloved until he or she stops tearing others down and becomes open instead to love and compassion.
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