Female Feuds this International Women’s Day 2023

Inspirational female empowerment quotes, female colleague round-ups, and throw in some “all genders matter” slogans and you’ve nailed it, today is International Women’s Day. I’m no pessimist, I love “celebrating” this day, so much that I have a podiatrist appointment later this evening. Independent, girl-boss that’s me. But despite the countless female-led content that will grace your social media feeds today about “embracing equity”, this year’s global theme, there is one new story that will continue to dominate your algorithm and I am calling BS on this one.

I like that boulder, that is a nice boulder

Unless you’re living under a social rock (if you are, can I join you?), you wouldn’t be surprised to know that there’s a “female feud” in full motion. Let me give you a clue, eyebrows, party favours, exes, husbands, models, and singers who can’t sing. You guessed it, I am talking about the Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber drama that has taken over the world, according to news outlets. I feel so strongly against this so-called feud that I am not even going to recap it for you, my reader, because you can just Google it and find everything out for yourself, plus I am ranting.

Women’s rights? Reduce the gender pay gap? No thanks, let’s dream up conspiracy theories about people we know literally nothing about!

I’ll say it, who gives a bloody damn about the social feuds between these people? I don’t understand how we, the public, can get so riled up about the lifestyles of the rich and famous in terms of their apparent rows and dramas. Any content and theories that I have been subjected to online stem from far-reaching theories where people have put 2+2 together and come up with 666 AKA Hailey Bieber.

Here is a reminder to us all - celebrities do not care about you, your opinion, or your timelines of events. Come on people, wake up and smell the daisies - the world is literally falling apart and you care about Kylie Jenners apparent “shade” at Selena’s eyebrows? Grow up.

Positive > negative energy

Just because celebrities live their lives in a public sphere does not mean that the public gets to rule their lives. Interestingly, it’s likely all these hardcore crazies who shout about mental well-being and protecting your self-care regime whilst trolling either Hailey or Selena on social. It’s disgusting, and if you wanted to channel your energy into something more productive and fruitful how about choosing to support victims of domestic or sexual abuse, women from minority groups who deal with racism every day, women who are sick and need support, women who have no access to education, healthcare or basic human rights.

The privilege that seeps through all the Selena-Hailey content makes my skin crawl and that’s got nothing to do with the two women at the centre of this controversy but stems from people so disassociated with reality that they think this social media feud is the be-all and end of all of the 21st-century news. Some people may argue with me and say that engaging with this content is escapism for people from their mundane everyday life similar to how people love watching crap reality TV like Love Island, Married at First Sight, etc, but again, I call BS. Because the people who actively seek out commenting on celebrities' posts to “throw shade” or share their unfounded opinion to a vacuum in the comment section are to me, just bat-shit crazy.

I can list five real stories that people should be directing their attention to:

1. Women, in the UK, Ireland, and across the globe are being targeted by deep fake pornography.

2. Women and young girls are being subjected to online sexual harassment from as young as 12.

3. UK women are being priced out of work by a lack of affordable childcare.

4. Iranian school girls are being targeted and poisoned yet the government is covering it up.

5. Afghanistan women barred from attending university by the Taliban.

So, don’t our problems seem so much less than these people's? Doesn't our obsession with Instagram models and multi-millionaires seem so futile when the attacks against women and girls are so frequent and prevalent?

All I’m asking for is a little perspective

I’m not dismissing what anyone is feeling by the way, I am just asking for some perspective. I had a shit week at work a few weeks ago, I felt like everything was imploding, I was stressed, overwhelmed, and generally upset. That’s how I felt, then I watched the news and saw babies being pulled from the rubble in Turkey and Syria along with women who were giving birth when the earthquake hit. Then my problems seemed so little, and that’s a combination of privilege and living in a part of the world where earthquakes and devastation tend not to happen.

I’m happy to use my soapbox to shout about this celebrity nonsense and people’s reactions to it. I find it truly unbelievable that people care, or think that celebrities care about their opinions when they have millions of followers all trying to get heard through the noise. And my final note is that if you’re so willing to devote time to solving fictional issues in the lifestyles of the rich and famous, take 5 steps back and re-assess your priorities. There are so many more important things going on in the world, watch the news, it’ll give you a little perspective.