Team Selena Gomez or Hailey Bieber?

[mtlebay]

Hey all!  Long time no see!  I'm glad I found you guys at 'Gossip Rocks Too'!!  Nice to see some familiar usernames <3

Und so... I've been following the Selena vs Hailey drama.  IMO Hailey is an entitled bully, using her father's last name and connections to the Kardashians as clout.  I think all of Hailey's TikTok videos of, "I'll kill you" and "I'm not saying she deserved it but God's timing is always right" are not 'accidental' as she claims, she's just being passive aggressive about it all.  I mean, if the public has an idea of a rift between you two, WHY OH WHY do you post these suggestive videos when you do?  If you say there's no connection to Selena, then what are they about/who are they intended for??

I was never a fan of Selena but I have just started following her on TikTok just to help her rise about the Haileys and the Kylies, etc...

Your thoughts on the above silliness?

[Sarzy]

Welcome, glad you found us!

Team no-one to be honest! I haven't really followed any of that drama between them.

[tulip]

Haven't been following the drama, but I will always be Team Selena. I have a soft spot for her. My kids used to love Wizards of Waverly Place and I love how forthright she is about mental health.

[MsDark]

I always thought Hailey was a weird and fast rebound for Justin from Selena. Almost like he had something to prove. I mean, weren't these two off and on for like, 10 years or something up until mere weeks/months before he married this chick?

But I really feel that Selena got lucky in that regard. If anything it probably helped her shut the door on something toxic for good. She seems like she had/has enough of her own career and things going on that she definitely doesn't need to be hitched to someone as problematic as Beiber

I don't know the extent of this situation. But nothing would shock me. Hailey I never "got" in the first place. There is no way this chick would be a model or any kind of famous if she wasn't a child/niece of other famous people.

I did not even know she was friends with any of these other pseudo-famous folks like the K-hole/Jenners but I guess it doesn't surprise me.

This is probably way overblown, but hey, if the K-holes and Beibs' wife are losing followers over it maybe they should shut their pie holes.  Cause having and keeping followers on social media is their main bread and butter.  It's not like there's any other talent going on here. 

At least Justin and Selena each have a legit profession/career and talent.  He's a douche, but I'll give him that.     

[notoriousmkg]

Is there actually drama between Selena and Hailey? I had never heard that. I don't have any problems with Hailey (unless she is actually picking fights and disparaging people). Like Tulip said, I have a soft spot in my heart for Selena because my kids watched "Wizards of Waverly Place". It also seems like she has been through a lot health wise - none of which has been her fault - unlike a lot of celebs.

[loftybike]

Selena is doing good by being open about her mental health struggles. I don't see Hailey and Justin doing anything more productive than making mean jokes.
Their recent stunt about Taylor Swift wasn't even funny, just mean and a stupid idea. You don't mess with TS, especially not as a has-been who may or may not need some goodwill to restart a career.

[greysfang]

Team Selena, of course. What does Hailey do besides try to copy everything Selena does anyway.

[czb]

my kid was telling me about this 'feud' the other day and it didn't make sense to me. or my kid. something about kylie making fun of selena's eyebrows??

[no1novice]

Clear as mud!



Hailey Bieber, Selena Gomez, and the Easter egg-ification of the Hollywood feud

Remember when Hollywood feuds were fun? This one is extremely not.
By Alex [e-mail] Mar 3, 2023, 2:10pm EST
Selena Gomez, in profile, sitting in an audience.
Singer, actress, and beauty mogul Selena Gomez may or may not have been attacked for the appearance of her eyebrows. Mike Coppola/Getty Images for CNN
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at the Atlantic.

Athena turned Arachne into a spider. Queen Elizabeth locked her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, in a castle and had her beheaded. Joan Crawford nearly broke Bette Davis’s back while filming What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.

Feuds used to really mean something. But if I were to tell you, for example, that Hailey Bieber’s friend Kylie Jenner posted a photo about eyebrows, and then further have to explain that this was a devastating attack upon Selena Gomez, you’re probably going to need some more context. I’ll explain it, though, because women’s stories matter.

The long and short of it is that Bieber (married to Justin, ex to Selena) hates Gomez. But Hailey, an extremely photographed socialite, as well as celebrity daughter and wife, didn’t actually say that she hates Selena Gomez because her professions do not allow for that type of candidness. This, despite the fact that Hailey’s main job is being extremely popular on social media, making scads of money on the promise of being utterly candid.

Hailey is bound by the rules of Hollywood social media, which are simultaneously governed by two powerful decrees, the first being that “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women” and the second being: “i do not support all women. some of you bitches are very dumb.”

And so, to get this point across, it seems that Hailey Bieber neé Baldwin has, in a roundabout way, made fun of Selena Gomez’s eyebrows. By itself, the act seems like a petty jab, but given the deep lore of their jagged relationship, it was so much more than that.

This is how famous people fight now. Not through traditional means of saying something nasty to the press, or trashing someone by all other identifiers except name, or purposely not filming with someone even though you’re both on a show that is contractually obligated to air 22 episodes per season. No. This is the Easter egg-ification of the Hollywood feud.
Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner say they weren’t but totally seemed like they were making fun of Selena Gomez’s eyebrows

Like how the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand set the first World War into motion, the current Hailey-Selena war has a starting point too: Late last month, Selena Gomez posted a TikTok of herself in which she voiced mild concern that her eyebrows were too laminated.

Eyebrows, sets of hairs that lie in a space above our eyeballs, are usually innocuous. Brow lamination is a beauty process in which hairs are set in an upward position to make them look fluffier and fuller. Selena was worried that her brows were not laminated in a position that felt fashionable — perhaps too vertical, maybe not full enough, maybe too fluffy, only the old gods know.
Besties Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner. Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Around three hours after Selena’s TikTok, Kylie Jenner shared a screenshot of her and friend Hailey Bieber’s eyebrows that was taken during a FaceTime call. If this had been any other two women on the planet, the photo of their forehead hairs would have been anodyne.

But this was much more complicated.

Selena famously dated Bieber’s husband Justin back when Barack Obama was the president of the United States. They were together on and off from 2010 until March 2018, before Hailey married Justin in September 2018. Since then, devotees have dissected every possible moment in these women’s lives to affirm that they, Hailey mostly, hate each other.

Fans have frisked every Instagram post for clues, flipped every lyric upside down and shook for hints (Selena’s, since Hailey does not sing for a living), inspected every TikTok for signs and symbols. They also flood the comments section of these women’s social media profiles, and prove their loyalty by fighting for their respective queen. As a person of lazy experience, it all sounds vaguely exhausting, but Selenators (fans of Selena Gomez) and Jaileys (fans of the Justin and Hailey pairing) call it devotion.

The back and forth looked to be squashed in 2022 when Hailey appeared on the comedy podcast Call Her Daddy and directly addressed questions about the reality of her marriage (Justin didn’t cheat on Selena with her), the optics of her marriage (bad), and her relationship with Selena (saying that they harbor no ill will toward each other).

But that armistice didn’t last.

Keen-eyed Selenators found a post of Hailey Bieber with friends lip-syncing the song lyrics, “I’m not saying she deserved it, but I’m saying God’s timing is always right” around the time Selena’s weight gain (reportedly a side effect of her her lupus medication) became a flashpoint on the internet. “I never comment on this type of thing but we were just having a girls’ night and did a random TikTok for fun. It’s not directed at anyone,” Bieber wrote after being called out.

This all ultimately brings us to the Kyle-Hailey eyebrow photo that appeared just hours after Selena’s eyebrow TikTok.
Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift hugging.
Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift are friends. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartRadio / Turner

Despite denial from Jenner that the photo of her and Hailey’s hairs were posted with malice, and a reassurance from Selena that she was on good terms with Jenner, the kerfuffle revived the feud.

And on the same day as eyebrow-mageddon, hours after Selena and Kylie’s public peace, a six-year-old video of Hailey allegedly being secretly mean to Taylor Swift resurfaced, prompting Selena to defend her bestie: “So sorry, my best friend is and continues to be one of the best in the game,” Selena wrote.

To those engrossed in the mythology of these women, this was proof of faith, a crystallized moment that meant everything up until that point wasn’t just fanfiction or imagination but evidence that the world they observe is reality. The external world was reflecting, finally, presumed but unseen interiority.

The digging, speculation, investigation, and archival research into videos, photos, and TikToks has reignited to the point where Selena announced she was taking a break from social media. She deleted her TikTok entirely and reiterated that she is 30, too old to participate in this type of behavior.

Gomez going offline hasn’t stopped the fury of fans swarming and fighting in the comments section of Hailey’s social media accounts, and doubling down on investigating the feud. Selenators want Hailey to show some kind of remorse and to remind Hailey that she isn’t as famous as their favorite. Hailey’s fans want to show that Selena has always had something out for Hailey.

But despite the new wrinkles to this saga — Jordyn Woods, ex-bff of Kylie Jenner, posted a video recommending a lip liner from Rare Beauty, Selena Gomez’s makeup brand; fast food chain Whataburger has also signaled support for Selena (but no lip liner rec) — the Hailey-Selena feud isn’t about any kind of forward movement. There is no new information. The eyebrows, TikTok deletion, even Whataburger; these things do not matter. These women just probably, reasonably, do not like each other. And the cycle repeats itself until it finds you.
Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez is really about the fans

The Hailey-Selena war raises a lot of questions. Like: what does it mean to be a fan of Hailey Bieber? Is it an appreciation for an existence? Is it finding beauty in the way Hailey moves through life?

After existential examination and intensive Googling, I’m still unclear on the answer but I think one thing is very clear: Whatever one may think about Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez, this feud is really about the fans.

That shouldn’t be a shock.

There’s been an ongoing shift that manifests itself in the way we watch movies to the way we listen to music (especially music by noted Selena Gomez friend Taylor Swift) toward the hunt for Easter eggs. It’s the idea that you can consume things normally but, if you dig a little deeper, there’s some payoff, some kind of rewarding, secret understanding. The total thing is less interesting than the little clues, symbols, and hints that create it.

Celebrities and their feuds are subject to the same lens, with an added layer of parasocial tendencies. How Hailey and Selena actually feel about one another is somehow less significant than what their fans believe they feel. And it doesn’t matter who’s in the right or wrong in this fight because the only winners in this fight are the fans.
Kylie Jenner and Selena Gomez do not hate each other, say Kylie Jenner and Selena Gomez. This picture is from 2017. Matt Winkelmeyer/MG18/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

In a strange roundabout way, the treasure hunt to prove this alleged war between the two has also become a fruitful popularity contest, at least for Selena Gomez. Gomez and her Rare Beauty makeup company have gained hundreds of thousands of new followers on Instagram and TikTok, presumably from people who want to show their support, or have only been made aware that Selena Gomez even has a beauty line as a result of this well-publicized dust-up. Selena has also passed Kylie as the most followed person on Instagram. Supporting one or the other signals identity, and that’s the very basis of the deep, devoted fanaticism of stan culture.

As for Hailey Bieber, I have to believe that hating your husband’s ex isn’t some kind of unique and terrible sin. Though I have never been married, I have to think that wishing ill on your spouse’s ex is a completely natural, human reaction (especially an ex whose fans will remind you, often forcefully, often daily, of her superiority). Making petty social media posts, consequences and all, is just part of the 2023 experience. Some people in this universe are just not meant to get along. At this point, pretending to get along when you don’t, or posting like you don’t while saying you do, can’t be worse than actually admitting it.

It’s certainly more exhausting.

[o0amber0o]

I mean, Justin was kind of obsessed with Selena until like the second he married Hailey so yea I get why she wouldn't like Selena but I'm tired of people famous and non bringing their dirty laundry to social media. Selena has more important shit to give her fucks to and so do the rest of us.

Team Selena.

[MsDark]

I think Justin marrying Hailey five minutes after their last breakup says it all. If Hailey feels insecure, she probably has good reason.

Besides the fact that Selena has a legit career and is way more likeable.

[coppercatseye]

Team Selena always! I don’t like Hailey or Justin.

[beeyotch]

I don't really care about any of these people, but Selena is likeable and seems to be reasonably smart, well rounded and well spoken. She has way more interesting things going on in her life to be dragged down to these people's level.

[podium]

I don’t really know enough about either of them to form an opinion on who is right or wrong or good or bad. But if a Kardashian/Jenner is a friend of Hailey, then I’m team Selena.

[trixie]

I agree Selena dodged a bullet and seems to have moved on with her life. It's too bad Mrs. Bieber still feels like the rebound all these years later.