Taylor Swift, Blake Lively and why the internet is obsessed with 'girl feuds'

Yahoo

2 days ago

The internet wants to see two best friends fight. Especially if they're women.
Rumors are swirling this week about famous besties Blake Lively and Taylor Swift, who have been dragged into conversations involving Lively's legal battle with "It Ends With Us" co-star Justin Baldoni. While the ins and outs of the legal case appear to get messier by the day, the latest twist has entangled America's favorite pop star and longtime companion of Lively.
The short of it: New claims indicate Lively pressured the pop star to get involved in the legal matter. Per Baldoni's lawyers', Lively's attorney Michael Gottlieb demanded a statement in support of Lively from Swift. This demand included the threat that private text messages between the women would be released if Swift did not comply. A spokesperson for Swift has emphasized the singer's minimal involvement with the film.
The rumor mill is convinced the suit has caused the pair's yearslong friendship to sour.
"This is crazy, Taylor and Blake have been friends for so many years," reacted one TikToker as they scoured legal documents for insight into an apparent feud. Another alleged the fight was a conspiracy between Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, to gain footing by leveraging the pop star's high-profile. Some even dissected Swift's outfits as evidence of a fall-out.
To be clear: Any evidence of a break-up between Lively and Swift is not confirmed. But the very suggestion these two women are foes rather than friends shows just how much the internet loves to see two women fight. Look no further than fan speculation of a years-long battle between Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber or supposed pop-princess grievances between Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo.
That we crave crisis from notable women says more about us, though, according to Elizabeth Cohen, professor of communication studies at West Virginia University. This is because we have have a parasocial relationship with celebrities like Swift and Lively, Cohen said. We feel like we known them personally, so that makes the thought of their demise extra dramatic for us.
"We might feel like we're friends with them, so if they're breaking up, it might have real emotional impacts on us," she said, adding "it would be weirder if we didn't."
If you're a Swiftie, holding hands with Swift through hardship is part of the job description. To fans, it's almost an expectation, not an exception, to feel pain with her.
"The reason we keep opening and clicking on updates is ... because we can all identify with it," said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. "Very few of us can identify with being as rich as Taylor Swift, or as powerful as she is. But all of us can understand a friendship breaking up ... It's the portion of the fabulous lifestyle that we can actually enter into."
There's also a less empathetic explanation, Cohen said. We get a kind of twisted joy by seeing greatness fall apart, Cohen said. This is because of something called schadenfreude, the feeling of pleasure derived from witnessing another's pain, Cohen said. It can be as benign as laughing when a TV character trips and falls or as dark as finding glee in a coworker's failure.
Celebrity misfortunes only accentuate schadenfreude dynamics because they have seemingly have so much farther to fall. And for women, because their elevation in male-dominated Hollywood is already precarious, the way down is even further.
"This isn't the noble part of the human spirit, but I think it is part of human nature," said Thompson.
The design of social media platforms permits our passion for pain to "grow and thrive" like never before, Thompson said, as every individual is afforded a venue to weigh in, adding to the potential reward we get from stoking the story.
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The gossip feels so startling to us right now because stands in direct contradiction to the girl's girl image both Lively and Swift have strived to publicly exhibit, Cohen said.
"They've branded themselves as 'women who are pro women' so the suggestion that's not the case could be symbolically devastating," Cohen said. "Girl's girls" pick each other over the drama, rather than let the noise come between them.
Fans know the pair for public displays of this bond. Lively has joined Swift in her box to support boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs' tight end, Travis Kelce. Just this time last year, Lively was adorably singing "Betty" at The Eras Tour with her kids (Swift's god children). Swift's "Folklore" song "My Tears Ricochet" illuminated a pivotal moment in Lively's "It Ends With Us" film, and the pair are known to hold hands on enviable, cool friend dates.
"The speculation in general is kind of exciting because there's a disconnect between what we're used to seeing and what's being suggested by this situation," she said.
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Plus, when powerful women's ties grow tenuous, it backs up a belief in some circles that life works better when men are in charge, she added.
If you're feeling caught up in the conversation, Cohen said to remember that to gossip is normal – to an extent. But it can help deflate the drama in our heads by reminding ourselves that celebrity image is often more crafted than we realize, whether it's good or bad, and our participation is part of the storytelling.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Taylor Swift, Blake Lively and our obsession with girl feuds