The public tends to believe that Selena Gomez is the victim, and Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner are bullies, although insiders have denied it.
“Damn it, Hailey”.
One person shouted, followed by loud profanities from the crowd as soon as Justin Bieber finished his performance on the stage of Rolling Loud (California, USA), last weekend.
The video that captured the not-so-beautiful moment went viral at breakneck speed. Twitter users wondered why Justin didn’t react, but many others said that in the face of that harassing and bullying taunt, the male singer should keep quiet.
Rude words aimed at wife Justin at a time when the drama between her, Kylie Jenner and Selena Gomez exploded online. In it, Selena is considered a “victim”.
Hailey, Kylie are suspected of bullying Selena
According to Cosmopolitan , at the end of February, the moment Hailey mocked Taylor Swift on the Drop the Mic program many years ago was suddenly dug up and posted on TikTok. More surprisingly, Selena spoke up against Hailey and defended her friend.
She directly commented under the post: “Sorry, my best friend was and continues to be one of the best in this game.”
So, the Selena fan community has more reason to flood Hailey’s account to curse. Just a few days ago, the 27-year-old model made fans angry because she was said to be with Kylie Jenner mocking Selena.
Specifically, when Selena shared that the abuse of brow lamination technique caused a bad effect for her eyebrows, Kylie shared a screenshot of a video call showing off her eyebrows with Hailey, with The statement is said to be offensive to the voice of Lose You To Love Me .
Selena Gomez took close photos with Hailey Bieber at the gala of the Film Academy Museum in Los Angeles, USA in October 2022. Photo: People.
Pia Mia, Jordyn Woods immediately voiced their support for Selena. Social networks quickly divided into many streams of opinion, but most criticized Kylie and Hailey for being mean. Receiving countless negative reactions, the mother of two had to correct: “I am not mocking Sel. I have not seen her eyebrow video”.
Selena responded to Kylie’s post, asserting that no conflict exists between the two. She also emphasized that she is a fan of American beauty.
To avoid pushing things further, the former Disney star almost begged fans to spend time on something else instead of attacking the girls. Selena expressed: “Please, be kind and take care of other people’s spirits. My heart is heavy when I see bad things happen. I just want the best for everyone. Sending this love to everyone. you”.
Insiders have explained, but it seems that netizens are not really satisfied when more than 1 million people click to unfollow Hailey on Instagram. Because there were still a lot of bad comments, she was forced to limit the comment section.
Kylie suffered the same fate as his wife Justin, causing her to lose the title of “Instagram Queen” to Selena.
As of now, with 396 million followers, the former Disney actress is the most followed woman on the platform.
“Nobody is the victim or the perpetrator”
Unlike the feud that the public once discussed about Kim Cattrall – Sarah Jessica Parker, Taylor Swift – Katy Perry or Kylie Jenner – Jordyn Woods, the controversy between the 3 beauties originated from clips on TikTok, the platform that allows people to use the freedom to create content with images or clips without context, to build stories for their purposes.
Dr. Louie Dean Valencia, Associate Professor of Digital History at Texas State, points out that this content is extremely engaging, even if we’re not Selena, Hailey or Kylie Fanclub members.
“They can cause resentment because they are interested in ‘gossip’, like to talk about breaking information,” he said.
Louie emphasized the “schadenfreude” (laughing on others’ pain) element present in the public witnessing celebrity revenge. According to him, network members are very happy to know that the star is also petty, vulnerable and angry.
With the drama going on, Justin’s wife and sister Kendall are labeled the villain, and Selena is said to be the victim (or protagonist). Dr. Louie likened the scandal to “a TV series”.
Hailey, Kylie is not actually the villain in the “series” with Selena. Photo: Elle.
Hailey, Kylie is not actually the villain in the “series” with Selena. Photo: Elle.
In her book Unlikeable Female Characters , film critic Anna Bogutskaya spends a chapter exploring the metaphorical meaning of the phrase “bad girl” in popular culture.
Using Rachel McAdams’ role of Regina George as a reference, Anna argues that characters of this type are purposefully created to make the story one-dimensional, and that they often don’t have a deep inner life or burdens. suffer any harm.
“People hate the ‘bad girl’ character because they take us back to a world of teenage insecurities. This explains part of the reason why Hailey and Kylie received such a backlash, and Selena got a backlash. Despite the fact that no one is righteous or harmed in this story (insiders have confirmed it)”, Anna analyzed.
However, as Kelcey Kintner – VP of senior communications at Red Banyan PR – said, in an age of so many different sources and social media, it’s hard to know what’s trustworthy and what’s not. Therefore, audiences tend to believe what they want to believe.
“If we could see ourselves and empathize with the hurt and insecurities that celebrities in ‘series’ (Selena, Hailey and Kylie in this case) have to endure, we would think differently, feel much more comfortable. I think we will be happier, “said an expert on Cosmopolitan.
