Three women faced public downfalls in 2024. They have one thing in common.

This year, Katy Perry sang that it was "a woman's world and you're lucky to be living in it."

But for Perry and two other famous women, their luck ran out in 2024.

It began where most pop culture trends start: with Jlo.

Jennifer Lopez's downfall can be pinpointed to one moment: when she scruffed her hair in her documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told.

"It reminds me, like, when I was 16 in the Bronx, running up and down the block. Crazy little girl who used to f***ing be wild and no limits," she earnestly mused in the documentary.

@primevideo

She really IS still Jenny from the block 🥲 #TheGreatestLoveStoryNeverTold #JenniferLopez #PrimeVideo #TheGreatestLoveStoryNeverToldPV

♬ original sound - Prime Video

Such a statement wouldn't have raised much of an eyebrow ten years ago, but in the age of TikTok, the scene was mercilessly mocked.

The moment came from a documentary about the making of Lopez's visual album, This Is Me Now, which was a dedication to her pursuit of love, which ended in her marriage to the on-off famous fella, Ben Affleck.

The doco is truly unhinged but harmless. Again, ten years ago it would have slid under the radar, if not became a cult classic just for its sheer self-indulgence.

But the film was largely savaged by viewers. They didn't get it. They didn't want to get it.

Lopez had suddenly fallen out of favour. First came the videos of people sharing their unsubstantiated stories of the 'Let's Get Loud' singer, describing her as rude and dismissive to her staff and fans.

Then came the countless videos of people tearing her career to shreds, claiming she stole Ashanti's career by singing songs that were meant for the 'Foolish' singer, saddled beside allegations that Ashanti sang back vocals on Lopez's songs.

The clear point being made was that Lopez was not talented. People on TikTok became obsessed with digging up the raw vocals of the singer to prove they were right.

The divorce rumours that followed only further filled her haters with glee, claiming that Lopez's movie and documentary had embarrassed Ben Affleck so badly that he had called time on their relationship.

@iconactress

Replying to @its_luh_ree Here’s your answer #jlo #jenniferlopez #ashanti #jennyfromtheblock #fyp #singing

♬ original sound - Anna

Then came another pop star's steep downfall: Katy Perry.

Katy's change of reputation is a little more complicated.

Four years after her sixth studio album Smile, Perry announced the dawn of a new era with her first single 'Woman's World' and forthcoming album, 143.

None of this has gone well.

The backlash was twofold: the involvement of producer Dr Luke in feminist anthem 'Woman's World' was considered wildly tone-deaf, plus the song was a critical flop.

For weeks following the song's release, Perry has stayed relatively quiet until she chose to break her silence in a string of podcast interviews.

On Call Her Daddy, she defended her decision to reunite with longtime collaborator Dr Luke, despite the years he spent in a court battle with Kesha over allegations of sexual assault and psychological abuse.

"I understand that it started a lot of conversations and he was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with. But the reality is, it comes from me," Perry told host, Alex Cooper.

"The truth is, I wrote these songs from my experience of my whole life going through this metamorphosis, and he was one of the people to help facilitate all that."

Listen to The Spill's hosts discuss Katy Perry's controversial interview. Post continues after podcast.

In the same chat, Perry made some raunchy revelations about her sex life with Orlando Bloom, joking with the podcast host "If I come downstairs and the kitchen is clean… you better be ready to get your d**k sucked. I mean like literally."

The comment has been widely ridiculed online with people cringing over the 'shocking' NSFW confession.

The shock feels misplaced. This is coming from the same woman who once sang "I wanna see your peacock, cock, cock" and "we're so hot, we'll melt your popsicle."

It's hard to imagine anyone would protest if someone like Rihanna or Adele made the same harmless joke — instead, they would be championed for their sex positivity.

Then at this year's MTV VMAs, Katy made a joke while accepting the Video Vanguard Award about being on the 'first day of her period' after she performed a mega mix of her hits. But the response was one of eye-rolls, as some accused her of 'performative feminism'.

In particular, some of her feminist messages were dismissed. "One of the biggest reasons I'm standing here right now is I learned how to block out all the noise that every single artist in this industry has to constantly fight against, especially women," she said.

"I just want to say with my whole heart, do whatever it takes to stay true to yourself and true to your art. Turn off social media. Safeguard your mental health, pause, touch grass, and do what you were born to do."

Some critics have blasted the singer for seemingly comparing the social media backlash she's copped due to Dr Luke, to the plight of oppressed women.

But Katy is no stranger to public condemnation. She's done this before.

Back in 2017, she released her first album to cop unfavourable reviews, Witness, which was the catalyst for a year of bad press around basically everything she did, from cringe-worthy performances to digging up old beef with Taylor Swift.

But 2024 feels different. There's something more final about this backlash, and Lopez and Perry are not the only women being more scrutinised than ever.

The fallout for Blake Lively is on a whole other level.

Blake Lively has gone radio silent since the backlash. Image: Getty.

From the moment the press tour began for It Ends With Us, people noticed that the film's leading lady and producer Lively had unfollowed her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, on Instagram and the two had done their interviews separately.

For some reason, the consensus online quickly put the blame in Blake's hands, with online chatter accusing the actress of 'taking over' the movie, citing her enlisting the help of husband Ryan Reynolds to rewrite scenes as an example of her crossing a professional line.

Given Blake's celebrity status compared to Justin — an actor known predominantly known for Jane The Virgin — it was surprising how little credibility the A Simple Favour actress was afforded.

Then came the old and new interviews that painted Lively as a 'rude' celebrity.

Some of these moments were genuinely uncomfortable viewing.

In a chat with reporter Jake Hamilton for It Ends With Us, when asked how she would like people to approach her to discuss their experience with domestic violence, she sniped back.

"Maybe asking for, like, my address, or my phone number. Or, like, location share?! I could just location-share you," she oddly joked.

@cinemashub

Blake Lively in her JLo era ✨ #blakelively #itendswithus #justinbaldoni #hollywood #interview #movie #fyp #foryou

♬ original sound - Cinema Hub

In a dug-up interview from 2016, alongside her co-star Parker Posey for Café Society, Lively seemingly taunted her interviewer, Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa.

When Flaa congratulated Lively on her pregnancy, the Gossip Girl star commented on her "little bump," despite Flaa not being pregnant. Throughout the rest of the interview, both Lively and Posey appeared to ignore the interviewer and had a separate conversation.

In another unearthed 2012 interview, Lively used a transgender slur while speaking with Elle, and she said the slur a few times in previous interviews.

Some of these comments are just straight-up unacceptable, but there's others that are doing the rounds that are more morally questionable.

For instance, back in 2014 Lively was joking with reporter AJ Calloway in an Extra interview that his wife was exaggerating his pregnancy cravings.

"She's just taking advantage. It's not necessary. You can exploit it if you want," Lively told the reporter. Was it a bit off-colour? Sure. But it was also… clearly a joke.

@u_have_2_call_me_dragon

Every pregnancy hits everyone differently. Ive had five kids.. and it was all different experiences while pregnant. You can have a completely different experience from someone else without saying shit like this… #blakelively #pregnantcravings #itendswithus #fypage

♬ original sound - Victoria {SAHM} 🥰

In another circulated interview, Lively replied to a bizarre question in 2017, by saying in jest "Did you see the movie? We're gonna give you a pop quiz at the end of this."

In a different context, this would be considered light-hearted banter, which is not just the norm but necessary for these tedious press junkets.

As in the case of Lopez and Perry, if you already dislike the woman, these interviews won't make them look any better. But for those who accept this is just their personalities (a woman with a weird sense of humour?? have you watched a Harrison Ford interview?), it's nothing particularly noteworthy.

Since the backlash, Blake Lively has gone radio silent.

Aside from a statement posted on an Instagram Story where she wrote that "Everyone deserves a relationship free from domestic violence," and shared some helplines, Lively has not addressed any of the public fallout.

Something that all these public hate campaigns have in common is that there's a void between the women and their fame.

On TikTok, a common critique of Jlo and Perry was that they can't sing and lack talent; the same went for Lively, she can't act and has barely made any movies.

Lopez hasn't had a major hit song since the 2011 anthem 'On The Floor', as Perry has long lost the cultural appeal she once had in her Teenage Dream and Prism eras which ended around 2015 when she performed at the Super Bowl Halftime.

For both of these women, their days of success (in a relative sense to how huge they were before) are far removed. This makes it easier to dismiss them, especially for younger demographics on TikTok who didn't grow up emotionally bonding to them through their most iconic hits.

For Lively, she is still known by most as Serena van der Woodsen, the messy, irresponsible, narcissistic character she played on Gossip Girl for six seasons until 2012.

A character so masterfully executed by Lively that I'd hazard a guess that many have blurred the two entities.

Katy Perry was once the biggest pop star in the world. Image: Getty. 

In the years since, she's made a string of movies — some better than others — but she doesn't have the prestige reputation of her contemporaries like Amy Adams, Natalie Portman or Anne Hathaway.

Despite being a working actress since she was 10 years old, Lively hasn't made a lot of movies. This is a double-edged sword as Lopez has starred in over 45 films yet most have been long forgotten.

With a decade between their pinnacle of success, now any sentimentality about them as celebrities has waned.

The positive reviews for It Ends With Us have been buried in bad press and 'Woman's World' has gotten some of the worst reviews imaginable.

There's a reason why Adele, Beyonce and Rihanna don't often cop a lot of public backlash — of course, they are largely unproblematic people — but they're also still very much in the public consciousness as successful women.

It's easier to pile on someone who is already being weighed down by criticism.

Luckily for Lively and Perry, there is hope and that hope is the speedy redemption arc that Lopez has experienced since her divorce went public.

Because there's only one thing people love more than piling on a woman they've decided deserves to be taken down a peg. And that's supporting a relatable queen in her single era.

For Lopez, her uncancellation was relatively easy because she didn't exactly do anything that bad, other than calling herself a 'crazy little girl', making a weird movie and talking too much about love.

By contrast, Lively and Perry will have their work cut out for them setting right their wrongs. Or else, they need to drop a damn good movie or song asap.

The overwhelming positive response to Perry's VMAs performance suggests she still has plenty of people in her corner. In the multi-song performance, Katy purposefully ditched 'Woman's World', opting to play her less controversial new tracks.

With a new album about to debut, we'll have to wait and see if it is this woman's world, after all.

Feature image: Getty.