How the Swift-West-Kardashian Drama is Balanced
The Balance Theorem states that if a complete graph has the structural balance property, then that means that (i) all pairs of nodes are friends or (ii) the nodes can be split into two groups, for example A and B, where everyone in A likes each other but dislikes everyone in B and vice versa.
Conflict between Kanye West and Taylor Swift created a social network that is surprisingly balanced according to the Balance Theorem. This feud dates back to 2009, where West disrespected Swift publicly during the MTV VMA’s by discrediting her award for Best Female Video. Later in 2016, during one of Kanye’s performances of his song “Famous,” he again includes a disrespectful line that defaces Swift. This creates higher tensions between West and Swift, because Swift and her team claims that they did not give permission to use that lyric in his song, while West and his wife, Kim Kardashian, claim that Swift actually did provide permission over a phone call. Four years later, the drama resurfaces when their phone call is somehow leaked. Tension arises once again with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West arguing about what really happened with Taylor Swift and her publicist on Twitter
This network created by drama between West and Swift is surprisingly balanced. Given the social network initially created between the two in 2009, they created a negative relationship. Because Kardashian is married to West, she took his side, and also formed a negative relationship with Swift. Married couples tend to always be apart of the same group, since they support each other and their views, which is what we see here. This three-node network by itself is balanced because both Kardashian and West have a negative relationship with Swift but a positive relationship with each other. Additionally, if we were to add Swift’s team and her publicist, this network remains balanced. This is because we see that they both have a positive relationship with Swift because they publicly defended her, but have a negative relationship with West and Kardashian since they have released statements shutting down the said “lies” of the married couple.
This network displays how the Balance Theorem works in the real world, even with celebrity drama. There will always be two sides, in this case where Taylor’s management team and publicist defended Taylor against the couple because they work closely with her and know her side of the story, and where Kim defended Kanye against the allegations because she felt the need to defend her husband knowing his side of the story. Since they have two different interpretations of what happened, it creates two opposing sides, which is a balanced network.
Sources:
West, Kelly. “The Taylor Swift/Kanye West/Kim Kardashian DRAMA EXPLAINED.” CINEMABLEND, 25 Mar. 2020, www.cinemablend.com/television/2493242/the-taylor-swiftkanye-westkim-kardashian-drama-explained.
Easley, David, and Jon Kleinberg. Networks, Crowds and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World. Cambridge University Press, 2019.