Gossip TED Talk

The main idea behind the speakers presentation is to prove that gossip is a form of academia in the category of social culture and ecosystem. She uses two examples from ancient Egypt and modern day United States. The Egyptian examples were a pharaoh sneaking off to be with an army general and the queen was intimate with a non-Royal male. In modern times she uses the examples of Kristen Stewart getting all the backlash for an affair and Chris Brown, just three years after beating Rihanna, is now back together with her and won a grammy. She also claims that tabloids are our version of Hieroglyphics. She argues that since all of these things can be observed through gossip it is a viable way to study the inner workings of todays societies and the values that hold dear. She connected the idea of the Egyptian Pharaoh allegedly sleeping with one of his army generals to the current gossip stories surrounding John Travolta and questioning his masculinity through the idea that he might be gay.