No matter how high Taylor Swift and Katy Perry‘s respective stars rise, there’s something tabloid publications find much more worthy of a story: their “feud”.
First, there were whispers of a stolen dance crew on tour. Then, a song with ambiguous lyrics, followed by a mutual love interest and a string of suspicious tweets.
The documentation of the two women’s “dislike” for one another is so extensively detailed, Digital Spy has published a timeline of it. Covering some seven years of interactions between the pop stars, cutesy tweets are juxtaposed with images of both Swift and Perry on the arm of John Mayer — whom the latter dated two years after Swift’s pointed single ‘Dear John’ hit the charts.
On Tuesday, American talk show host Andy Cohen fuelled the fire by going "bigger and better and dishier" with his new book Superficial, including an anecdote about the women not wanting to sit next to each other at an awards event.
How incredibly scandalous.
This is all despite Swift and Perry declining to publicly comment on their relationship whatsoever. They've got better things to do, I suppose - like make millions of dollars off the back of their indisputable talent, for instance.
But while their celebrity status shines blindingly, all anyone can see is the potential cat fight that might erupt between two women at the top of their field.
Two successful women 'feuding' is a story we're all too familiar with.
Coverage of an alleged Modern Family rift between female stars Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara has been anything but scant in recent years.
If you read the gossip mags, jealousy runs rife between the star-studded pair - both speciously hungry for the highest level of fame and wealth. If you're gullible enough, anonymous sources can exclusively reveal "tension on set" has been rampant since 2013.
It's all very Mean Girls-esque until you speak to either of the women themselves, who vehemently deny the stories.
"So-and-so trash mag will be running a story that you are icy to Sofía Vergara because you are jealous of her fame," Bowen told Ellen Degeneres last week.
"So I email her last night and then we talk and I'm like, 'What should I say?' because we're friends."
Closer to home, in April, a The Sydney Morning Herald journalist wrote about rumours of a "rift" between Channel Nine's Lisa Wilkinson and Sylvia Jeffreys.
It was succeeded by an article on the Daily Mail with the headline: "Drifting apart? The Today Show's Lisa Wilkinson and co-host Sylvia Jeffreys reportedly 'barely speak off camera'".
The reports were quickly dispelled by Wilkinson, who aptly called the articles "bullshit", adding that she and Sylvia are "great mates and love working together".
"Sylvia and I couldn't enjoy working together, be more supportive, or respect each other more," Lisa wrote on her personal Instagram page at the time, adding: "THAT, in fact, should be the headline!"
Frustratingly, Wilkinson and Jeffreys are joined by their breakfast spot rivals - Sunrise hosts Samantha Armytage and Edwina Bartholomew.
In February, their faces were also splashed across the news, under headlines that read "Blonde ambition? Channel Seven shoot down claims Samantha Armytage and Sunrise co-host Edwina Bartholomew are caught in a 'power struggle' for the spotlight".
Before Bartholomew was promoted, Armytage was said to be "feuding" with journalist Chris Bath. Before Bath, it was supposedly the show's then-host Melissa Doyle. Before that, well, who knows? Perhaps she was "feuding" with her female university classmates. Or her female sister. Or even herself.
The archaic notion that powerful women are inherently bitchy, hyper-competitive and jealous is rife, and it's everywhere we look. Irrespective of the facts, the media is titillated by the concept of successful women in the public eye descending into a scrag fight.
So, are Taylor Swift and Katy Perry enemies? Well... does it even matter?
Pitting women against each other who have no interest in discussing the matter is a futile exercise. People clash. We don't all get along. It's hardly a new phenomenon.
Please, let's give it up.
WATCH: Samantha Armytage dicusses her experience in the spotlight with Mia Freedman.
Top Comments
In fairness, no-one would have known about this had Taylor not brought this (pretty one-sided at that stage) 'feud' up in an interview to promote her song, so she definitely publicly commented on it. She made sure to drop enough hints that it was pretty easy to work out who she was talking about, and Katy's response when the article came out just confirmed it. Both are happy to take little swipes at each other, so I don't think this is a case of the media fuelling the fire.