Popdust

Selena Gomez's "Look At Her Now" Isn't About Justin Bieber

It's about her.

It's one of the first significant epiphanies of early adulthood: when you realize we may be attracted to self-destructive tendencies in other people.

It's not your fault; it's just unresolved trauma disguised as love and affection, but that "aha!" moment feels substantial. When you can finally pin down the errors you've made in past relationships, recognize, and absorb them—even if the "why" remains absent—you've grown substantially as a person. Selena Gomez has had a similar epiphany. While "Lose You To Love Me" and her latest single, "Look at Me Now," can be interpreted to be about Justin Bieber, the bigger takeaway is that Gomez—much like other #MeToo era pop starlet's—has realized that men ain't sh*t. The result has been some of the best pop music in recent memory.

"Look At Her Now" is Selena Gomez's relationship memorandum. "What a thing to be human," she sings as she reflects candidly. While braggadocious in execution, "Look at Her Now" is devoid of a well-earned bitterness. Gomez has been absent from the limelight for a few years, and despite her exes' relentless airing of her dirty laundry, Gomez herself has remained mum on the drama of her love life, facing inward to reflect, rather than outward to cry and moan.

Gomez's latest single is similar to "Lose You To Love Me" in that it's not abrasive in its message. Even when her new music invited rumors about the relationship between Gomez and Bieber's wife, Hailey Baldwin, both contested parties were quick to diffuse the situation. "I don't stand for tearing other women down," Gomez said in a post, "be kind." Tabloids will continue to conjecture, but we're reminded that these songs are about Gomez and for Gomez. Everything else is just speculation.

Did Hailey Baldwin Just Vow to Kill Selena Gomez?

Thank God Selena got out while she could.

Selena Gomez

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Selena Gomez has released a new song called "Lose You to Love Me," which many fans think is a final goodbye to her famous ex Justin Bieber.

For anyone needing a refresher on the Baldwin-Bieber-Gomez love triangle, Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber famously dated on-and-off from the time they were teens. They broke up for the last time in March 2018; Bieber started dating Baldwin in June, and the pair got engaged in July.

After Bieber and Baldwin celebrated their wedding, fans watched Gomez's moves with bated breath. A sleepy, sad-faced selfie Gomez garnered over 8 million likes.

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The social media drama has continued. Precisely four minutes after the star posted "Lose You To Love Me," a glittery piano ballad that erupts into a lush chorus, Hailey Bieber posted a screenshot of the song "I'll Kill You" by Summer Walker, a song that is mostly about a woman warning another woman to stay away from her man. Gomez's many devoted fans have criticized Mrs. Bieber, comparing each of their reactions in a series of scintillating Tweets. Many have pointed out that Gomez's song in no way seems to imply that she wants JBiebs back; instead, it seems to praise the end of a toxic relationship.

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Bieber also posted something after Gomez's song dropped, though it's slightly more cryptic: An extremely high-definition image of a very annoyed-looking cheetah.

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Personally, I'm happy for Selena. She's a complex, talented, strong woman and she shouldn't have to deal with somebody as obviously needy as Justin Bieber. In so many of the interviews with Bieber and Baldwin, Bieber seems to describe Baldwin as the steady, stable contrast to his heavily tattooed chaos, but really, it just seems like Bieber's looking for someone to take care of him. Thank god Selena got out of there when she could.

Still, maybe we shouldn't all be so quick to attack Hailey Baldwin and Justin Bieber. They're probably fighting like hell right now to preserve their marriage in the name of Jesus Christ, while Selena Gomez just released the best song of her career—which isn't saying all that much, but still. Anyone who watched them fall for each other in 2009 knows why this is so important.

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