“Spilling tea”: A critical feminist reclamation of gossip in literature and media

Abstract

In this discussion, we argue for those who are literacy educators to reframe gossip as a dialogic, feminist act in their teaching and interpretation of gossip as framed in the literature they teach in secondary English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Reframing gossip as a feminist act invites meaning-makers to view those conversations and generative dialogues discursively gendered in deficit ways (or gossip) as proactive, productive, and powerful tools of connection between and within societies and communities. We share how we centered and created through a critical feminist lens, an ELA curriculum that supports gossip as a literary tool that drives narratives in plot formation, as well as a means to enhance characters' positions, personalities, allies, and enemies within a story. Most importantly, we use gossip as an analytical tool to reframe and promote gender equity, guiding preservice teachers and adolescents in critical analysis of the innumerable ways systems and institutions of power and privilege—such as race, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality—intersect in the fight for gender equality. First, we will discuss our guiding theoretical framework of critical feminist pedagogy to examine the ELA curriculum. Next, we share how the development of a curricular unit on reframing gossip in literature unfolded organically through a monthly Saturday workshop called “Writing Us In: Developing Critical Literacy Curriculum for ELA Classrooms.” Then, we showcase how one preservice ELA teacher applied the critical feminist lenses examined within the workshop space to develop a linked text set and subsequent ELA curricular unit with the aims of her future students to critically analyze, from a feminist lens, how gossip is portrayed in society and how it is framed in literature. We end with a discussion of how our spotlight student reflects on this project and her key takeaways.