I have this theory that all women can't separate themselves from gossips, one way or another ( unless they live in jungle ). Even those who claim to never gossip have listened to it a couple of times, I bet. Although you don't blurt it out to another person, I think you'll form your own thoughts and opinions about what you hear whether it's true or not.
Me? I enjoy gossip moderately. I don't go around telling ALL people I know about the things I heard about other people ( in my line of work and social circles, it's unavoidable! ). But when my close friends talk about it. I can't help asking. Sometimes I can't help telling them what I think too. Still bad, but they're my close friends and I don't go around telling it to anybody beside them, I also definitely don't gossip about my close friends behind their backs. That's the difference between me and mean gossip folks that roam Jakarta's social scene. It happens everywhere, to anyone from any classes. From regular joes to urbanites, from the rich / fabulous and glitteratis to socialites. Oh, if you raise your brows, you might have to read my theory about Jakarta residents classification here.
Have you checked it?
So yeah, basically the higher a class is, the less people will be. Less people mean everyone knows one another and since huge ego is unavoidable as your class goes up, the more people will feel insecure toward each other. This creates feuds, and what can ignite feuds better than gossips? What you see in shows like The Hills or The City or 90210 or Gossip Girl isn't just something some lousy script writers whip up. It what happens to most of us living in a big city. From low key sinister whispers over coffees or cocktails and of course, a particular web gossip forum where a lot of people hide under screen names and talk shit about all the significant people they know, sometimes even when they're their own friends. The more important people become, the happier people will be to dig up their dirts.
In Indonesia, Jakarta in particular, an example of said web gossip forum can be found if you visit Detik Forum. The forum contains lots of people gossiping over celebrities and even *gasp* the city's rich and famous in a thread called Gossip Socialites. If you're one of Jakarta kids who's out and about enough you'll find many people you know being gossiped and trash talked about. It can be your friends, your family, your boyfriend / girlfriend, your exes, your neighbor and even yourself.
I found this forum when several friends complained to me how they're talked about a lot there. The gossip folks talk about everything from their family members, their wealth, their family business, their education, their weekend activities, their trust funds, their relationships, the brands in their closets, etc. It's scary! And what makes it even scarier is, all of them think that the ones who have been writing all those stuff are the people from their own circles. Since some information can be true and so detailed, with pictures of them that only people from their Facebook can get. Yikes.
I write this because my best friend Shahnaz is currently talked about there. Some sentences about her are true, some are biased, some are totally stupid. The girl isn't one of those from ultra-loaded family background but she's not exactly average either. She's friendly, fun, stylish and have tons of friends. This last quality about her is actually the reason she's exposed. She has a bunch of well connected, filthy rich socialite friends and I guess some people just trash talk about her for that fact. I feel her pain reading how people label her as some sort of social climber, trying too hard, and not from the old blood. They're convinced that she's a gold digger, a stupid female who paid for homeworks to be done and stuff even went as far to say most of her branded bags are fake.Put yourself in her pink pumps. Should she be blamed if she associates with important people? Should she be trashed for attending cool events and hang with the cool cliques? It's astounding what people can do out of jealousy and insecurities. Oh, and don't say "It's just gossip, Ignore it!" after you read this because if you never experience a big city living along with its complex social scenes and in crowds then you may never even understand how things work in the first place.
Jakarta is like a huge metropolis zoo with predators all clad up in the latest designer collections. MTV should take a note or two before they make any more drama reality show.
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