Where does that instinct come from?
Glamour: I assume youve read about the Meghan Markle and Gwyneth Paltrow feud?
Sophie Gilbert:I have.
Getty Images/Penguin Random House/Glamour composite
Something about her inspires a rage that I find interesting, similar to Meghan Markle.
The idea that theyre too perfect.
Which is lovely, but its not necessarily something a lot of other women can possibly connect with.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
So thats the tensiondo we crave that kind of aspirational content or does it put us off?
And sometimes its both.
What role do they play?
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
And that, in turn, gives them this rapacious attention to the supposedly hidden details in their art.
Taylor Swift has always had an interesting relationship with this idea.
Six years later and its still being brought up and debated on TikTok and X and Reddit.
Bauer-Griffin
I think this is part of why feuds have been covered with such interest in gossip media.
I was just reminded of the two most powerful women in the music industry, Taylor Swift and Beyonce.
Why are we so eager for two of the most important artists of our generation to dislike each other?
People love to see women fighting.
Theres an entire genre built around this impulse to feed it.
On the one hand, its fun, car-crash entertainment.
On the other, its internalized patriarchy and its a distraction.
These [feud rumors] might seem frivolous, but theyre actually rooted in quite serious shifts in feminism.
At what point do you think celebrity gossip becomes harmful?
And it does remind people that celebrities are human beings.
But now do you feel like were heading backward?
But there were also much younger women who did not escape unscathed.
I feel like we have to mention other forms of misogyny in celebrity feuds.
Thats been really fascinating and depressing and dispiriting to see.
I wish I understood the impulses better.
Theres probably a desire to resettle old scores.
And so I think people, even women, are innately distrustful of women sometimes.
In your opinion, does this make it more or less harmful to people who are consuming it?
And I do think it just comes back to the neutralization of feminism.
There was so much in second-wave feminism that was really powerful because it wasnt self-focused.
I think weve lost so much of that.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
