In English medical history, gossips were the women who supported birthing mothers. To the men on the other side of the door, a gossip was associated with screaming, grunting, wailing, and panting, until the term became synonymous with the crude utterances exchanged between women. In patriarchies, we continue to demand of language what men demand: you expect of these words—the ones that you are reading now—that they are reasoned and legible; that they, like a well-chosen surgical knife, precisely disembowel my thoughts for your examination.