Selena, Hailey, and Stan Twitter’s Unhealthy Obsession with the Mean Girls Narrative

For the nth time, Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber are at the center of attention for their alleged beef that can be linked back to a common denominator between them—Justin Bieber. 

Theories left and right from fans invested in their so-called drama can be seen everywhere on the internet, especially on Twitter and TikTok, about their apparent (according to their stans) dislike for one another. 

And to be honest, it has been dragged on for too long, and it’s getting tiring to see repetitive videos about them on the FYP (screw you, algorithm!) for almost a week already. However, the narrative that Hailey and Selena are enemies has been set in stone since God knows when and “stans” will never stop curating content to pit two women against each other, unfortunately.

Twitter has been known as a notorious hell site, especially if you have stumbled upon the community of “stan Twitter.” Being the fastest platform to share information and get traction, it is filled with communities of different niches, and “stan Twitter” hosts the most aggressive, dedicated, and passionate set of users. The community, which has fan girls and boys as the mainstays, has been one of the instruments behind the success of many mainstream media.

From edited fancams to viral tweets that capture the general public’s attention, stan Twitter promotes their idols for free. They have helped new and growing artists gain fame through the content they share on the platform. One example is the rise of the British up-and-coming girl group FLO which gained traction through a viral tweet embedding the video of their song ‘Cardboard Box.’ It was the push they needed to introduce themselves to the world and drastically developed a cult following online with fan pages aplenty.

As much as it’s fulfilling to see dedicated fans do whatever it takes to lift their idols up, we must realize there’s a thin line between being a devoted fan and becoming chronically online and obsessed.

Social media sites, especially Twitter, have become a way for fans and celebrities to interact. It’s cute to witness. However, it spirals quickly into something when fans think they know their idols very well and invest so much that they become chained up to parasocial relationships with someone they don’t know personally.

Fans experiencing celebrity worship syndrome tend to be chronically online and project their insecurities onto them to the point where they even act on behalf of their idols. Going back to the Selena and Hailey alleged beef curated by their own fans, they are the perfect and recent example of where you can witness such behavior.

Their alleged feud is not just between them, fans speculate as they accused Kylie Jenner of shading Gomez over posting a photo of her eyebrows with the words “this was an accident” after the latter shared that she had “accidentally laminated my brows too much.” Followers of both parties thought it was a little suspicious, especially after Jenner posted again, now with a FaceTime screenshot with Hailey Bieber on it and both of them holding their cameras up close to their eyebrows. The overblown alleged beef had Jenner and Gomez clarify that there’s no bad blood between them on TikTok.

@devotedly.yours Replying to @happy_mama3 Selena Gomez is a such a kind soul and I love that she will never get involved in the petty drama #kyliejenner #haileybieber ♬ original sound – Nuha

So, yeah…that’s kind of a reach, right?

Creating a narrative for so long that many people have believed in it based on a relationship that ended years ago is immature on the part of the fans. It has become destructive for all the people that are being included, and it’s just tiring to see takes from people who don’t know the full story just to jump in the clout. The discourse surrounding Gomez and Bieber is fueled by the internet’s obsession with the “mean girls” narrative. People have projected themselves as one of the two women they are pitting against each other for so long that they think they have a say in their lives and control them to how they want them to act.

Film critic Anna Bogutskaya has talked about the ‘Mean Girl’ trope in her new book, ‘Unlikeable Female Characters.’ She says that we’re so good at hating “mean girl” characters because they bring us back to the world of our own teenage insecurities, which we later on project to people that we hear of, and one prime example is…hmm… the Selena and Hailey alleged feud that fans non-stop talk about for years already, right? Right, unfortunately.

Twitter and TikTok are no help in freeing people from the obsession they planted themselves in, thanks to algorithms. We have consumed TikTok content the same way we binge-watch TV shows, but instead of gaining knowledge about relevant topics, TikTok spreads out fake news and fan theories like wildfire that we, admittedly, choose to watch for hours and hours.

At the end of the day, Hailey is happily married to Justin Bieber, and Selena is thriving in her life as a business mogul of her own make-up line, ‘Rare Beauty.’ Their common denominator is that they’re successful, and people behind the screens must stop and reduce their screen time and touch some grass. Maybe in this way, they could be successful with their own lives without being chronically online and throwing out irrelevant takes about people they don’t know on a personal level.

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