The whisper clip of less than 20 seconds between Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards has opened a long drama no different from ‘Mean Girls’ on social networks.

Some tabloid news sites speculated that Selena wanted to take a photo with actor Timotheé Chalamet, but his girlfriend, model Kylie Jenner , did not agree.

Some people based on Taylor’s expression and Selena’s mouth to speculate that she said: “I asked for a picture with him and she said no”. said no).

Returning from the awards ceremony, the Who Says singer posted a photo of her boyfriend Benny Blanco locking lips with the caption: “I won”. Many people think that this is the singer’s response to Kylie.

Social networks are currently filled with memes related to the drama between Selena and Kylie. In the comments section, people also quickly divided into #teamselena and #teamkylie. Everyone gave arguments to prove that the other side was the real “mean girl”.

Persistent feud

The 2024 Golden Globes is not the first place to spark drama between Selena Gomez and Kylie Jenner.

It all started with Selena Gomez’s eyebrows in early 2023. On the TikTok channel with 58 million followers, the singer posted a clip with her makeup eyebrows raised and said that she really wanted to look like a supermodel. Bella Hadid.

A few hours later, Kylie posted a screenshot of a FaceTime call with her best friend Hailey Bieber. In the image, both models raised their eyebrows, which the Internet deduced was an attack on Selena.

The “mean girls” drama between Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber started in February 2023. Photo: Glamour.

And that’s how the war between the stars’ fans began. Compared to Selena, Kylie and Hailey received more criticism. The two models lost millions of followers after the incident.

On the contrary, Selena gained more followers and surpassed Kylie to become the woman with the most followers on Instagram at the end of March. On TikTok, the hashtag #teamselena has 2.1 billion views, #teamhailey only has 221 million views.

Hateful comments about Kylie and Hailey flooded TikTok, Instagram, and the products they advertised or the publications that put the two models on the cover. The hatred reached its peak, forcing Hailey to ask Selena for help at the end of March.

On her personal page with more than 400 million followers, Selena said she, Hailey and those involved in the incident felt very tired and pressured. The female singer urged the public to stop interpreting everything and not criticize or attack others.

“Hailey Bieber contacted me and said that she had received death threats and bullying comments from a group of aggressive fans. This is not something I support. No one deserves it. having to receive hate or bullying. I always support kindness and really want all this bad behavior to stop,” she wrote.

This is not the first time Selena has spoken out to defend Hailey. “Please, be kind and considerate of others’ mental health. My heart is heavy and I only wish the best for everyone,” the pop star once shared.

The problem of “mean girls”

After the 2024 Golden Globes event, despite some sources saying that Selena did not mention Kylie while whispering to Taylor, speculation still spread quickly. And perhaps even when insiders speak out, it will be difficult to quell the rumors.

The public’s appetite for celebrity gossip has never stopped, regardless of its impact on the mental health of said stars.

But is there something darker driving our obsession with female celebrity feuds? How is it that the wave of criticism against Hailey, Kylie or any girl labeled “mean girls” is always waiting to break out?

The movie “Mean Girls” became a cultural phenomenon in the 2000s. Photo: Mean Girls.

In the book Unlikeable Female Characters , film critic Anna Bogutskaya devoted an entire chapter to decoding the issues surrounding the “mean girls myth” in popular culture.

Bogutskaya argues that villains like Regina George in the film Mean Girls (2004) are always constructed as one-dimensional and superficial. They are portrayed as having no inner life or fragility.

Meanwhile, the film’s female protagonist is capable of displaying much deeper, more idealistic qualities. In this way, the audience always supports the female lead and is placed in a position of direct conflict with the “mean girls”.

“Also, people are very good at hating ‘mean’ characters because they often give us a return to the insecure world of our teenage years,” Bogutskaya said.

According to Glamor reporter Lucy Morgan , unlike previous star feuds (Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry), much of the discussion surrounds Selena, Hailey and Kylie’s performance. out on TikTok, the perfect place to generate fan speculation.

Audiences watch content on TikTok just like watching TV shows on Netflix. But in contrast to the (generally) well-researched documentaries helmed by streaming giants, TikTok empowers amateur content creators to compile scraps of information (photo screenshots and clips out of context) to build stories that attract viewers.

Dr. Louie Dean Valencia, Associate Professor of Digital History at Texas State (USA), points out that these stories are fascinating even if you are not a member of a specific fandom. “These types of content creators may invest in personal feuds and unsubstantiated rumors because they are hot and exciting.”

Mr. Valencia also emphasized the element of “schadenfreude” (joy at the misfortune of others) present in our reception of drama stories between celebrities. “Stars can be petty, gossipy, vulnerable, and spiteful. People are happy to see that celebrities also have such shortcomings,” the doctor explained.