One of the most enduring pop culture tropes of the past few decades has been the "Team Aniston" v "Team Jolie" rivalry that followed Brad Pitt's famous split from America's sweetheart and Friends star Jennifer Aniston, and his union with America's Tomb Raiding fantasy woman, Angelina Jolie.
From the time this supposedly momentous split and coupling happened, there has been an endless picking of sides, denigrating Jolie as the vampish Scarlet woman who stole Pitt, and pitying Aniston as the scorned woman left behind, her life forever in ruins.
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'Brangelina' split sparks Jennifer Aniston memes
As Angelina Jolie files for divorce from Brad Pitt, the internet goes wild with Jennifer Aniston memes.
Not only has this trope been one of the celebrity world's most enduring, it has also been one of the dumbest and most sexist, although one often embraced in a tongue-in-cheek way.
And it's a trope that reared its head again this week, when news broke that Jolie had filed for divorce from Pitt, citing irreconcilable differences and seeking physical custody of their six children.
Immediately the internet exploded with memes of triumphant Team Jen/Team Aniston supporters. There was an endless stream of GIFs, tweets and posts of a smiling Aniston, supposedly relishing the schadenfreude.
When you've been waiting for this moment since 2004. #Brangelina #TeamAniston pic.twitter.com/OgZcPKpKtz
— LaMinuteTweet (@LaMinuteTweet) September 20, 2016
Pretty much... #TeamAniston pic.twitter.com/lJQkuIQhWt
— Lauren Stevens (@YesThatLauren) September 20, 2016
Sorry #Brangelina but I've always been #teamJennifer pic.twitter.com/uI4GFxZ7S6
— AttachmentBarbie (@DouxBebe_) September 20, 2016
![The internet has long peddled a rivalry between Angelina Jolie (left) and Jennifer Aniston (right).](/web/20160928050214im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/1/2/s/p/x/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grkrze.png/1474445059843.jpg)
Jolie and Aniston are both accomplished and phenomenally successful adults, who have nevertheless been reduced to two competitors in a petty catfight for a decade.
Aniston seems to have long since moved on from her divorce with Pitt, made a ridiculous amount of money, starred in a stream of films, and married Justin Theroux. She seems fine. But the trope has fed into the constant stream of pearl-clutching stories about poor old Aniston being single for an extended period in her 30s (the horror!) before her wedding to Theroux and still, to this day, not having children.
![Angelina Jolie's lawyer confirmed that the actress filed for divorce from her husband actor Brad Pitt.](/web/20160928050214im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/k/s/b/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grkrze.png/1474445059843.jpg)
The actress herself, so annoyed at the pitiable stereotype she has come to embody in the public eye, took the unusual step of penning a piece denouncing the coverage this year.
"I am not pregnant. What I am is fed up," she wrote in a widely-shared Huffington Post piece.
![Hollywood dream couple: Pitt was previously married to Aniston.](/web/20160928050214im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/k/s/d/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grkrze.png/1474638559607.jpg)
"The sheer amount of resources being spent right now by press trying to simply uncover whether or not I am pregnant (for the bajillionth time ... but who's counting) points to the perpetuation of this notion that women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful, or unhappy if they're not married with children."
The internet's reaction to the divorce - pretending to celebrate with Jen - is of course largely ironic and a joke, and I get it; it's an obvious place to go with this news.
TEAM JEN BABY #TeamJennifer pic.twitter.com/wVBKJ4aslA
— kole. (@Coliefarriellaa) September 20, 2016
Being an A-list actor is also a hugely, monstrously lucrative job for which some of the trade-off is speculation and public interest in your private life, some of which will be dumb and silly. And for some commenters, it wasn't so much Aniston's apparent victory over Jolie as her victory over Pitt himself (who many people believe was unfaithful during his marriage to Aniston) that may have motivated their mirth.
But the obsession with this imagined contest, with someone "winning", has always been and remains petty as hell, and pretty gross as yet another messy divorce unfolds, this time involving six young children. It's also a reminder that relationships and marriage are still talked about like a sporting rivalry for women, something at which they can win or lose, and something they are in direct competition with other women for.
"Poor, lonely Brad Pitt who just can't keep a woman" will TOTALLY be the media take on this story, right?
— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) September 20, 2016
With this latest news, hopefully this stupid contest can also be put to bed. In any break-up, there are rarely any winners - apart from the divorce lawyers. It's simply over.
When you post your Jennifer Aniston .gif then realise that perpetuating the imagined rivalry between two women over a man is lowkey sexist. pic.twitter.com/Ptq2WImN2M
— Josh (@J_Manasa) September 20, 2016