Does the Taylor Swift & Katy Perry "Feud" Sound Familiar? It Should

If you didn't know, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift are currently mired in a feud. Why? Because Swift wrote a song "Bad Blood" about a mean girl, and then Perry made some veiled statements about a mean girl on Twitter. Did either woman actually say the other's name? No, but we know they meant each other through some very important journalistic research: namely, they have both dated the same guy (John Mayer), so they must be feuding, right?

This kind of manufactured conflict has become a run-of-the-mill story for celebrity reporting. If a female pop star makes some camouflaged angry statements, they must be talking about another female pop star. Whether it's boyfriends or success or album sales, the myth perpetuated by the media is continually the same: Women are in constant competition only with each other and there's only so much room for female pop stars. They must duke it out with one another.

If you don't believe it, here are some examples from only the past year or so of the media making a cat fight out of two or more female pop stars. Whether it's Rihanna, Lorde, Selena Gomez, Iggy Azalea, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, they've all been involved in these "feuds":

Beyoncé and Rihanna

Larry Busacca/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Although these two women are too confident to be insecure about their relationships, recent headlines have been claiming that their "feud" is simply a fight over a boy — specifically, claiming that Rihanna was the source of the famous elevator fight between Solange and Jay Z.

Lorde and Iggy Azalea

Christopher Polk/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

When Iggy Azalea criticized the Hall of Fame induction ceremony for closing out with Lorde, rather than someone who was Kurt Cobain's peer, the media tried to make it out as a feud between the two women. But contrary to the headlines, Azalea and Lorde reached out over social media and continued to support one another.

Lorde and Selena Gomez

Jason Merritt/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Unfortunately, that's hardly the first time that Lorde has been the subject of a fake feud. When the singer criticized Selena Gomez's song "Come and Get It" for promoting the myth of women being sexually passive and submissive, rather than portraying it as a legitimate criticism, the media played it off as a petty fight.

Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Britney Spears

Larry Busacca/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Otherwise known as the Great Album War of 2013. But seriously, when these female pop stars all had albums released around the same time, instead of criticizing each album on its own strengths and weaknesses, the media started comparing them to one another. Not cool.