As you might have heard (unless you live under a rock), last Wednesday, January 11th, TMZ published photos of Selena Gomez and The Weeknd kissing after enjoying a romantic dinner together. Following the publication of the aforementioned photos, the world of social media seemed to become engulfed in rage. Trust me, I get it, I too was sad when I heard that The Weeknd and former girlfriend, 20-year-old, supermodel Bella Hadid, broke up last month, but I was even sadder that the hashtag #BellaVsSelena was trending worldwide on Twitter.
Hundreds of users took to Twitter and Instagram to voice their opinions, comparing the two women and positioning them against each other. Many of the comments made on social media and by several different news outlets were largely judgemental toward Gomez, vilifying her as “slut” and “snake” while the comments aimed at Hadid painted her as the victim. Nonetheless, all of the comments made were increasingly degrading. The comparisons got taken even a step further when TMZ posted a photo of both women scantily clad in a bathing suit and underwear with the caption, “Who would you rather?”
To many people not involved or interested in celebrity gossip or the antics of pop-culture, #BellaVsSelena may be considered a very minuscule and insignificant issue but in fact, it points to an even bigger and very significant issue that unfortunately plagues society: women-on-women hate.
In the current digital age, social media enables its users to compete with each other in order to portray the perfect life and the perfect person. But social media isn’t the only place that this women-on-women hate is present. Think about it, in the music industry whenever a female artist releases a new album, Taylor Swift's album sales are somehow always brought up, emphasizing the fact that the other female artist's sales are lesser, and that therefore, she is lesser. In the entertainment industry, daily headlines compare the success of sisters, Kylie and Kendall Jenner. Months ago, President-elect, Donald Trump, even tweeted an unflattering picture of Ted Cruz’s wife and a ‘glamour’ picture of his wife, with the caption “A picture is worth a thousand words.” But that's not all, in 2012 Time Magazine, reported that “female bullies target other females in the workforce 70 percent of the time.” When society, is constantly pinning women against each other because of their looks or their success, etc., it becomes the norm to compete with our friends, coworkers and colleagues, and even strangers. Voting rights were not accomplished by comparing women to one another or by engaging in senseless twitter drama. Instead, in this male-dominated world, we should celebrate our anatomy, our success, and each other, all the while joining hands as the strong, smart, successful, and beautiful women we are!
