Five years later maybe I would have said, “Maybe that’s her price.” Because she got in trouble at last. Or so they said. I don’t know, except that most of the talk about girls, women, is envy or retaliation by the ones that don’t dare to and the ones that failed to. But while he was gone one April they were whispering how she had got in trouble at last and had tried to doctor herself with turpentine and was bad sick. Anyhow, she was off the streets for about three months; some said in a hospital in Memphis, and when she came into the shop again she took Matt’s chair, though Hawkshaw’s was empty at the time, like she had already done before to devil him, maybe. Maxey said she looked like a painted ghost, gaunt and hard, for all her bright dress and such, sitting there in Matt’s chair, filling the whole shop with her talking and her laughing and her perfume and her long, naked-looking legs, and Hawkshaw making out he was busy at his empty chair.

From “Hair” by William Faulkner

Faulkner describes the gossiping that plagues our society everywhere.  When it comes to women, the cruelty of the remarks or unsolicited opinions can have devastating effects. As he points out, “Most of the talk about girls, women, is envy or retaliation by the ones that don’t dare to and the ones that failed to.” Quite a few people have mouths on their faces only to open them and lash out a bunch of stupidities against one another, each highlighting their own deficiencies.  Casual remarks depict someone’s personality better than any psychological test.