*The following article contains an extract from Beyond Belief: A Defence of Gossip and the Women Who Do It** by Katie Baskerville. *

Tattle Life is an internet forum dedicated to gossiping negatively about people. Here, you’ll find a deluge of posts, all dedicated to ripping chunks out of people in the public eye, from A-listers to micro influencers, where slut-shaming, victim-blaming and body-shaming proliferate. It’s the ultimate mean-girl platform, built for tearing other women down – although the platform has in the past disputed this reputation.

While it’s believed that the majority of the users on the site are female, the anonymous nature of it makes it near impossible to discern the gender split. Originally, on the site’s ‘About’ section a moderator, identified only by her username ‘Helen’, had created a lengthy statement about what Tattle Life is for: "Tattle Life is a commentary website on public business social media accounts.…