After January 23rd, when Fernanda Torres and Karla Sofía Gascón had been nominated to compete for “Best Actress” and the movies protagonized by them also had been nominated to run for “Best Movie” award in Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, there has been no other content about the event that does not involve a supposed rivalry between these two actresses.
The “fight” intensified even more after Emilia Pérez’s protagonist, Karla Sofía Gáscon, gave an interview to Folha de São Paulo, in which she accused Fernanda Torres’s work team of speaking ill about her and her movie and also finished by saying “That says more about them and their movie than it does about mine!”.
The last phrase was exactly what was needed to turn the contest between women in the cinema, an art area with clear and historical gender inequality, to get even worse and make it get an enormous, even global, proportion and millions of views, likes, comments and shares all around social media and even mainstream television programs. But behind this whole media attention to the problem, there is a deeply rooted idea that seems to never end in our society: female rivalry.
Fernanda Torres said, by a video published on her Instagram, that she does not want any rivalry to be created between her and other actresses nominated to Oscars’ Best Actress prize, especially Karla Sofía Gáscon.
Moreover, from the same perspective, Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres have been involved in a supposed race around “Best Actress” prize in Oscars and in Critics’ Choice Awards 2025. Also their movies, The Substance (2024) and I’m Still Here (2024), respectively, have been rivalized in the “Best Movie” award at Oscars – by this production dispute, there is also an another chance to society put one woman against another, just like have already happened to Fernanda and Karla Sofía Gascón around the Oscars prize.
Looking through the past: Meryl Streep X Glenn Close
However, this is not the first time women need to deal with an unnecessary rivalry around their work at the cinema. It has already happened with Meryl Streep and Glenn Close, just as much as it’s happening nowadays with Fernanda Torres, Demi Moore and Karla Sofía Gáscon – but in the past it did not have so much press coverage.
These two cinema stars have always been compared in the same categories, especially at Oscars, creating an invisible competition between them. Press used to say that one of them was always “stealing” prizes from the other one. They were both nominated to run for the “Best Actress” Oscars’ prize in 1989, 1999 and in 2012 – talking about this “rivalry”, 2012 deserves an special attention when the relationship between these women and press got more tense attributable to Meryl Streep winning “Best Actress” Oscars’ prize due to her play in The Iron Lady (2011), while Glenn Close was in the dispute with her acting in Albert Nobbs (2011).
These two actresses have also contested the Golden Globe Awards prize twice, in 2003 and in 2007. At both times, Meryl Streep has won as best actress with The Hours (2002) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006), respectively. Currently, even with eight nominations, Glenn has not won any Oscars’ prize, but has won a Golden Globe as best actress three times at different categories with The Lion in Winter (2003), Damages (2007) and with The Wife (2017).
At the same point, Meryl has won the Oscars three times – two as best actress with Sophie’s Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011)- and, in addition, has also achieved one as Best Supporting Actress with Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). About Golden Globe Awards, she has won twice as Best Supporting Actress for different genres with Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Adaptation (2002), moreover as Best Actress for different genres too.
Streep has six victories with The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Sophie’s Choice (1982), Angels in America (2003), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Julie & Julia (2009) and The Iron Lady (2011). However, Meryl and Glenn have always been respectful between themselves and have constantly reinforced in their speeches that they were not in a competition. This is a situation in which it is noticeable how the press sometimes may create an unreal conflict between women.
Female rivalry: what is it?
This recent situation that has happened to these two renowned cinema stars and is something common to happen to all women is the perfect example of a social phenomenon that makes women compete and fight against each other aiming for a ground, position, and opportunities in all areas of life since they were kids and has terrible consequences to women’s life in society, increasing gender prejudice and inequality.
Women are protagonists in this type of behaviour, but men may also incentivize these actions and speeches, thrilled at the idea of putting one woman against another. It can be seen when a man compares one woman with another in a way to do a compliment, inferiorized one woman over another or tells jokes like “one woman can not see another one being more successful than herself”, for example.
What about the start of this type of behaviour?
It is hard to say when and where this specific type of gender prejudice has started, since our society is guided by a patriarchal, sexist and misogynistic logic that underpins all relationships and actions from antiquity – starting approximately at 753 B. C., in Rome, and consequently currents of sexist thinking have been shaping people’s behaviour for more than two thousand years until the current moment.
Simone de Beavouir, french philosopher, writer, sociologist and a pioneer feminist, has perfectly summarized it by a famous phrase in one her books, The Second Sex (1949), that the reason why the society in which we live is structured like this is: “Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth”.
Examples about female rivalry
In opposition to talk about the exactly start of female rivalry, it’s so easy to gather so many other examples of this concept of women competing in an unhealthy way: since school, girls compete and turn into rivals looking forward to the same boy’s affection and can even try to do attempts to destabilize the other one; the comparison between woman resulting from this incessant seek to be into the beauty standards and have “the perfect body and perfect skin”.
A woman having unethical attitudes at workplace to sabotage another woman who is in a higher position or has more recognition from the boss; women in the same circle of friends disputing for social status, attention, or approval from others, by one subtly criticizing the other’s choices in an attempt to look superior; in the academic field, they can compete for who has the best grades, recognition from teachers and colleagues or achieve more opportunities, in a way that one can feel pressured to outperform the other; and in the adult world, women can compete about who is managing her career and motherhood simultaneously in a better way.
The consequences of this gender prejudice demonstration
Furthermore, as a result of this rivalry, in personal and social life, toxic relationships are created with an enormous and unnecessary competition, along with jealousy traits between the women involved, making them get away from each other, end friendships and even enter into a social exclusion situation.
In terms of physical or aesthetic impacts, women may feel bad about themselves and their bodies, lowering their self-esteem due to comparisons that make them doubt their qualities, strengthening aesthetic statements and gender prejudice. In corporate life, this tension can make women have competitive actions, aiming to be more than the other one, therefore a bad and unhealthy workplace environment gets created, in which every employee will be impacted negatively.
From a physiology point of view, it can lead to stress, anxiety, emotional problems, feelings of being hated or pursued by a work colleague, depression, or affect mental and physical health. Moreover, it can also reinforce gender stereotypes about women being not able to handle the “pressure” involved in working life at the office, like how it is too competitive for her, or that she can not control her feelings due to the female gender characteristics, and so many other sexist speeches assumed as truth in situations that women feel fragile.
How can we make society stop seeing women as enemies every time?
Ending this culture of rivalizing women is directly associated with empathy, support and promoting changes into social standards, and consequently, on how people see women and their roles in the world. Saying out loud and clarifying that women rivalry is a big problem in our society nowadays is the first step to try solving the question.
Then, it is necessary to discuss the topic, aiming to educate and change people’s mindsets. Another good startpoint is building established relationships between girls, making them rely on each other and learn to give support to others when necessary. This way, they will not see each other as a threat, but as allies in her journey and in their personal or professional self development.
Combating stereotypes and stopping comparisons between women is also important, since through this process, the competition created by society ends and women can be valued, with all of her individualities being respected. Another essential action is truly celebrating other women’s achievements and successes, without any jealousy or rival feeling, creating a healthy space for all involved. Considering every woman’s background, earlier experiences and perspectives individually without judging is also a manner to make support and solidarity grow around interpersonal relationships.
The last but not least step is to create places, such as assistance groups on social media or in the workplace, where women feel comfortable to share their ideas and emotions, feeling listened and validated. The main result expected is to be able to transform this behaviour based on rivalry into a new point of view for an entire society, filled with respect, empathy, kindness and understanding, promoting an environment where women can shine and grow together.
————————————
The article above was edited by Duda Kabzas.
Liked this type of content? Check Her Campus Cásper Líbero home page for more!