whisper network

English

Etymology

From the fact that the information is secret (whisper) and that it is a connection between multiple people (network).

Pronunciation

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Noun

whisper network (plural whisper networks)

1. Any informal network of people who share information or gossip.
   • 2001 June 11, Nancy Gibbs, “A Whole New World Along the U.S.-Mexican border, where hearts and minds and money and culture merge, the Century of the Americas is born”, in Time‎^[1], →ISSN, retrieved 2020-11-10:

     There is a whisper network in Bisbee, of codes and messages telling weary crossers where they can stay, safely hidden from the border patrol.

   • 2005 May, Madhu Purnima Kishwar, “Strategies for Combating the Culture of Dowry and Domestic Violence in India”, in Violence against women: Good practices in combating and eliminating biolence against women‎^[2], Vienna: UN Division for the Advancement of Women; UN Office on Drugs and Crime, retrieved 2020-11-10, page 17:

     Earlier families ensured that proper lists and accounts were prepared and the groom's family was made to sign on the list of things they received while the dowry itself was put on display for all the relatives […] Today, no lists are signed and most of the giving and receiving is shrouded in secrecy and made known only through whisper networks within the social circle.

   • 2012 January 8, “Pulp fiction with Jungle Jim”, in MarkLives.com‎^[3], retrieved 2020-11-10:

     Cold calling at two or three favourite bookstores usually sorts out distribution. And word of mouth, which nowadays includes whisper networks like Facebook, helps spread the good news.

   • 2020 February 23, Aliza Licht, “How ‘whisper networks’ can help you leverage negotiating and your career”, in New York Post‎^[4], retrieved 2020-11-10:

     […] Luzio hosts free monthly whisper network dinners for members […] During the dinner, they’ll share work challenges, and are encouraged to ask any taboo question that may be preventing them from succeeding.

2. An informal network of women privately sharing information, typically of people alleged to be sexual harassers, abusers, or rapists. [21st c.]
   • 2014 January 1, The Library Loon, “In which the Loon endorses anti-harassment codes of conduct”, in Gavia Libraria‎^[5], archived from the original on April 7, 2015:

     Bluntly: the Loon is part of the whisper network, because there are a very few librarians and library technologists whose behavior in the Loon’s presence does not incline the Loon to trust them to treat a young, conventionally-attractive female professional like a human being rather than an object of either aggressive sexual interest or airy dismissive scorn. There are a few more the Loon would not trust to treat a queer person like a human being. And just because the Loon cannot presently think of any professional acquaintances capable of consciously racist acts hardly means that there are none.

   • 2016 August 5, Siobhan O'Leary, “What do you do when your abuser is part of the whisper network?”, in Against the Grain‎^[6], Free Thought Blogs, archived from the original on August 6, 2016:

     Since the police and most organizations are completely inept at actually doing anything about allegations of sexualized violence, women often depend on this whisper network to help keep them away from serial harassers and rapists who’ve never been held accountable.

   • 2018 February 6, Jessica Valenti, “When It Comes to Sexual Harassment, Are Whisper Networks Justified?”, in Marie Claire‎^[7], Hearst Digital Media, archived from the original on 1 November 2020:

     The truth is whisper networks were never meant to be the end-all solution for harassment and abuse; they’re triage. We just want to stop the bleeding.

   • 2020 January 22, Elyse Martin, “Jane Austen’s Whisper Networks”, in Electric Literature‎^[8], Pressable, archived from the original on August 15, 2020:

     In one of her characteristic ironies, she underlines the necessity of these female whisper networks in Pride and Prejudice by having the heroine Elizabeth disbelieve everything she hears from other women about rake-masquerading-as-virtuous-man George Wickham.

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