[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-post-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Black Han Sans|700||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”46px” header_letter_spacing=”4px” custom_margin=”25px||5px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
Words by Isobel Lewis<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/Kim-Tay-copy.jpg” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”Kim Tay copy” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n The Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian feud has been rumbling on for eight years now, and is showing no signs of slowing down. With the release of Taylor\u2019s new album The Tortured Poets Society, and a song that not-so-subtly appears to reference Kim, it\u2019s been stirred up once again.<\/p>\n In many ways, Taylor versus Kim is the archetypal rivalry \u2013 just one steeped in internet lore. Down-to-earth versus glamour. Musician versus reality star. Blonde versus (sometimes) brunette. Even billionaires, it turns out, can\u2019t get over someone hurting their feelings \u2013 and who can blame them? But as much as we all love the drama, the seemingly never-ending feud is hurting both Kim and Taylor, while perpetuating harmful ideas about \u2018catty\u2019 women.<\/p>\n While things kicked off between Kim and Taylor themselves in 2016, the origins of the rivalry actually stem back to a time before Kim\u2019s involvement. It was Kanye West\u2019s infamous speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when he jumped on stage during Taylor\u2019s awards speech with the words, \u2018Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Beyonc\u00e9 had one of the best videos of all time\u2019 when everything began. In the years after, comments between Kanye and Taylor went back and forth \u2013 Kanye apologised, then retracted his apology \u2013 but by 2015, the pair seemed on good terms.<\/p>\n Then: February 2016. Kanye releases \u2018Famous\u2019, his new song with the damning lyrics, \u2018I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex\/ Why? I made that bitch famous.\u2019 When the video dropped five months later, it showed Kim and Kanye lying in bed together with a life-like waxwork of a naked Taylor Swift on the rapper\u2019s other side. Other figures in the bed included Rihanna, Chris Brown, Donald Trump, Caitlyn Jenner and Bill Cosby.<\/p>\n When the song dropped, Kanye claimed that he and Taylor had an hour-long phone call where she gave the lyric her \u2018blessings\u2019 and said they were \u2018funny\u2019: something Taylor\u2019s camp immediately denied. \u2018Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, \u201cI made that bitch famous,\u201d\u2019 they said.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Soon, Kim entered the chat, echoing Kanye’s allegations that Taylor had given the lyrics her blessing, adding that Taylor had allegedly backtracked on the claims even when Kanye followed \u2018proper protocol\u2019. Kim also said that the phone conversation had been recorded, but that Taylor\u2019s lawyers had asked them to \u2018destroy\u2019 the footage. Soon, Kim was sharing snake emojis all over X (formerly Twitter) and eventually posted the recorded call on Snapchat. It appeared to show Taylor agreeing to the use of her name in the song.<\/p>\n While Taylor continued to insist that she never heard the lyric \u2018I made that bitch famous\u2019 and released a statement saying that she \u2018would very much like to be excluded from this narrative\u2019, the damage was done. According to Taylor herself, her reputation was immeasurably damaged. A year later, it was the singer\u2019s turn to reclaim the snake emoji, with snake imagery present throughout her darker new album Reputation and corresponding tour. On the album\u2019s first single \u2018Look What You Made Me Do\u2019, Taylor infamously sang, \u2018I’m sorry. The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, ’cause she’s dead!\u2019<\/p>\n In the years that followed, Swift spoke about the incident in a number of interviews. She told Elle in 2019, \u2018A few years ago, someone started an online hate campaign by calling me a snake on the internet. The fact that so many people jumped on board with it led me to feeling lower than I’ve ever felt in my life.\u2019 The drama was stirred up once more, when an unedited version of the call leaked in March 2020. It appeared to show Taylor OK-ing the \u2018I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex\u2019 line, but not the one calling her a \u2018bitch\u2019.<\/p>\n Kim responded, and the pair continued to sporadically comment back and forth. When she was named Time magazine\u2019s Person of the Year in 2023, Swift said that the leaked call \u2018took me down psychologically to a place I\u2019ve never been before\u2026 I pushed away most people in my life because I didn\u2019t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.\u2019 Receiving the Time title was seen by many as a career highlight for Taylor, rounding off an impressive year of record-breaking album releases and the beginning of her Eras tour. Even on a high, she still couldn\u2019t let what happened with Kim go.<\/p>\n The arrival of Taylor\u2019s new album The Tortured Poets Society this month showed that things were far from over. Naturally, its exes Matty Healy and Joe Alwyn who dominate the songs, but Kim appears to pop up on \u2018thanK you aIMee\u2019, with the capital letters in the title spelling out Kim\u2019s name. Fans think the song references a clip shared on Kim\u2019s daughter North West\u2019s TikTok, which showed Kim and North dancing together to Taylor\u2019s 2014 anti-\u2018hater\u2019 hit \u2018Shake It Off\u2019. \u2018In your mind, you never beat my spirit black and blue\/ I don\u2019t think you\u2019ve changed much\/ And so I changed your name, and any real defining clues\/ And one day, your kid comes home singin\u2019\/ A song that only us two is gonna know is about you,\u2019 Taylor sings.<\/p>\n Knowing Taylor and Kim, this likely won\u2019t be the end of the feud. As they previously have, both parties will be asked about the tensions in interviews going forward (Kim narrowly avoided the subject during a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!), adding fuel to the fire. Obviously, there\u2019s no rule that says they have to let it go. Taylor clearly felt hurt by the situation, that her autonomy was taken away from her by the song and the video for \u2018Famous\u2019, and that her reputation was damaged by the scandal. Kim, meanwhile, has expressed frustration in the situation, and still maintains that Taylor agreed to the song being released.<\/p>\n The problem, of course, is that it all feels a bit juvenile. It reduces two successful women to squabbling high schoolers, trading blows in pass-agg online comments and lyrical Easter eggs. People love drama no matter what, but when it involves an artist like Taylor whose appeal for many comes in the intense sleuthing and decoding of lyrics, it enters a whole new level. In that sense, the mythology around the feud has benefited both Taylor and Kim in their own ways, by encouraging interest in both of them. The cogs keep spinning, but it\u2019s hard to tell what the point is. If barbs are still being traded tit-for-tat after all this time, will they ever be satisfied?<\/p>\n Eight years on, it\u2019d be nice to say, \u2018We\u2019re done now, right guys?\u2019. But I suspect we\u2019re not\u2026<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian feud has been rumbling on for eight years now, and is showing no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2706"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2712,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706\/revisions\/2712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘It reduces two successful women to squabbling high schoolers, trading blows in pass-agg online comments’<\/h2>\n