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Is the Hailey vs. Selena Beef Just Another Example of the Media Pitting Women Against Each Other?

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Villanova chapter.

As you might have heard there has been some recent controversy between Justin Bieber’s current wife, Hailey Bieber (formerly Baldwin), and ex-girlfriend, Selena Gomez. I am highly invested in this drama as I am a strong Belieber (I went to the Purpose tour concert in fourth grade). My Tik Tok feed for the past week has been filled with theories about Hailey and Selena and their many cryptic posts. You would think the beef would have been squashed as Selena and Hailey were just photographed together at an event a few months ago and they seemed to be getting along just fine. I am here to break it down for you guys to the best of my ability just in case you don’t know what I am talking about!  

The beef has been speculated to start in 2018 when Justin and Hailey got engaged just a few months after Selena and Justin split after dating for seven years on and off. Selena wrote in her famous pop song Lose You to Love Me: “In two months, you replaced us, like it was easy, made me think I deserved it, In the thick of healing.” Many people think that song was written towards Justin, and I definitely think it is.  

The whole drama started a few weeks ago when Selena posted a video saying she accidentally messed up her eyebrows while laminating them. That same day Kylie Jenner posted a picture captioned “This was an accident” on top of her eyebrows. Later, Kylie posts a picture on Facetime with Hailey and both of them are just showing off their eyebrows. Kylie clears up the rumors and says she didn’t even see Selena’s post and Selena agrees and says she is a fan of Kylie. Selena then takes a break from social media because of all the comments about this drama.  Another Tik Tok was going viral of Hailey on a show expressing how she does not like Taylor Swift’s music. Selena commented on the Tik Tok defending her best friend, Taylor, and hyping her up.  

Here are some conspiracy theories going around about the two:  

One year Kylie and Kendall invited Selena on a trip to Dubai during New Year’s so that Hailey could spend it with Justin. Many people have been dragging Kylie and Kendall and calling them “mean girls.” Fans have also been saying that Kylie and Kendall were not even friends with Selena at the time.  

Fans speculate that the marriage between Justin and Hailey was arranged by their parents. Hailey met Justin when they were both really young before a show. Hailey’s dad introduced Hailey to Justin. Justin’s mom never liked Selena Gomez as he has mentioned in songs and there have been comments about it on social media from Justin’s mom.  

Recent videos have come out showing Justin getting paparazzied and Hailey creeping behind him before they even started dating.  

People also speculate that Justin does not even love Hailey. There have been videos of them arguing, Justin slamming the car door on Hailey, and Justin claiming he is only keeping Hailey around just because of her looks and calling her dumb. I think this one is a stretch and I think Hailey and Justin just goof off and make funny videos and fans spin the narrative to make them look bad. There are also many cute videos of Justin and Hailey cuddling and getting along, but the internet only focuses on negative videos.  

Hailey and her friends have made Tik Toks in the past using cryptic sounds and fans speculate the Tik Toks might be about Selena. I think this one is a stretch because most of the sounds they use are just viral sounds that are popular at that moment.  

Hailey has been caught being a super fan of both Justin and Selena in the past. There is an iconic photo of Hailey when she is very young holding a magazine cover of Justin and Selena together. A lot of tweets from Hailey have also surfaced showing her support for Selena’s music and that she ships Justin and Selena together.  

Fans have been digging through old videos and interviews and have been comparing Selena and Hailey. Selena will say something in an interview and then Hailey will also say something similar in a different interview. Selena had a cooking show and then Hailey made cooking videos and they both had similar intros. Selena will post on her story that she likes a song and then later Hailey will post that she also likes the same song. Fans are basically trying to portray Hailey as being a copycat of Selena.  

Do you guys think this beef is real or are fans just stretching and creating the drama? I think there should be all love between the women as they both are in the same industry, and I think Selena has no intention of “stealing” Justin back. Fans have been bullying both women in their comments and calling Hailey a “mean girl,” but isn’t it mean to be commenting that in the first place? I think our society and everyone on social media should be uplifting women and not throwing shade and creating drama out of nothing. These two women are very empowering to young girls and thrive to create a strong message to be confident, and I think we should support them for doing that.  

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Radhika Dutta

Villanova '26

I am a freshmen at Villanova and I am excited to start writing for Her Campus!