What is it about Taylor Swift that inspires such extraordinarily bitchy and unsavoury reaction?

Judging by social media over the past 24 hours, you’d be forgiven for thinking she’s a conniving, selfish, ruthless psycho marauding around breaking hearts as fast as she rakes in cash.

She’s been branded a slut, a whore, a b*tch, and a publicity-mad, man-hunting hound after being caught kissing British actor Tom Hiddleston.

Taylor Swift has been branded a slut, a whore, a b*tch, and a publicity-mad, man-hunting hound after being caught kissing British actor Tom Hiddleston

Oh, and if you believe Kim Kardashian then she’s a brazen little liar too over that whole Kanye ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex’ nonsense.

Really?

Let’s consider some facts:

Taylor Swift is still only 26.

She’s an incredibly talented, phenomenally successful singer-songwriter who’s sold more than 40 million albums and 130 million single downloads.

Her gigantic award haul includes 10 Grammys, one Emmy and 22 Billboard Music Awards.

She’s beautiful, intelligent, hard-working, clean-living and more than lives up to the title of her 2nd album Fearless as we saw with her heroic and ultimately triumphant stand against Apple over the way it financially abused recording artists via iTunes.

She’s beautiful, intelligent, hard-working, clean-living and more than lives up to the title of her 2nd album Fearless

She’s great to her fans, regularly sending them holiday gifts by post and in person, and even inviting them to her home to listen to her new music.

She’s a serious philanthropist, donating millions of dollars to help fund arts and education projects, and to help victims of natural disasters or sexual and racial discrimination.

She’s the best kind of political activist, urging young people to vote, but deliberately avoiding telling them which way to vote.

‘I try to be as informed and educated as possible but don’t like to talk about politics because it might influence other people,’ she explained.

She’s a serious philanthropist, donating millions of dollars to help fund arts and education projects, and to help victims of natural disasters or sexual and racial discrimination

I’ve met Taylor a couple of times at parties and she was extremely polite, effortlessly charming, very natural and great fun.

No wonder that the Hollywood Reporter described her as ‘the best people person since Bill Clinton.’

Nor that Michelle Obama said of her in 2012: ‘Taylor has rocketed to the top of the music industry but still keeps her feet on the ground, someone who has shattered every expectation of what a 22-year-old can achieve.’

So why all the constant ferocious attacks on her?

Taylor herself told GQ recently: ‘I monitor what people say about me and I see a theme. In 2010 it was, “She’s too young to get all these awards. Look how annoying she is when she wins. Is she even good?” Then in 2013 it was, “She just writes songs about guys to get revenge. She’s boy-crazy. She’s a problematic person.”'

She’s the best kind of political activist, urging young people to vote, but deliberately avoiding telling them which way to vote. Pictured: Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston board her private jet together as they head out of Rhode Island

Her latest ‘crime’ was to be caught in flagrante with Tom Hiddleston on a beach.

They’re both single people, but the global vitriol poured on their heads has been extraordinary.

They were accused of deliberately staging the photos.

She, apparently, to taunt previous boyfriend Calvin Harris and ‘rub his nose in it’.

He to promote his chances of becoming the next James Bond by portraying himself as a seductive ladies man.

What a load of balderdash!

You think either of these two major stars of their respective industries needs to go around setting up fake kissing pictures to promote their brands?

Pur-lease. They’re not extras in Desperate Housewives.

They’re both single people, but the global vitriol poured on their heads has been extraordinary. Pictured: Taylor Swift boarding her jet

It looks to me like they’ve just fallen in love; an affliction that’s been known to happen to good-looking young people when they meet.

Unfortunately, when people are this good-looking and this famous, such actions often provoke bitter outbursts of insane, spiteful jealousy.

In a separate attack, Kim Kardashian branded Taylor a liar for saying she didn’t know Kanye was going to include her in his song Famous which included the repulsively misogynist line: ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b***h famous.’

Any self-respecting married woman should surely be far more agitated about why her husband wants to write songs about desiring sex with other women?

Last night, Taylor’s management issued a withering statement reiterating her denial of knowing anything about Kanye’s sexist claptrap and saying she felt ‘humiliated’ by the song.

In a separate attack, Kim Kardashian branded Taylor a liar

It added: ‘Taylor cannot understand why Kanye West and now Kim Kardashian will not just leave her alone.’

I think I know why. It’s that j-word again: jealousy.

Taylor Swift is everything Kim Kardashian isn’t, and it’s driving the latter mad.

First, Taylor’s got an outstanding musical talent, for singing and songwriting, whereas Kim - by her own admission - has no discernible talent for anything other than shameless self-promotion.

Second, while they both claim to be feminists, only Taylor seems to understand what this actually means, promoting talent and a wholesome, dynamic image over the pathetic topless bird-flipping selfie nonsense which Kim falsely claims is so ‘empowering’ and ‘liberating’ to women.

It’s not, it’s just cheap, tawdry attention-seeking and the very last thing young impressionable women should be encouraged to do in public by female celebrities with tens of millions of followers on social media.

Taylor, as GQ observed, ‘never gratuitously sexualises her image and seems pathologically averse to controversy.’

By pursuing this path, she has managed to build one of the biggest brands in the history of pop music and retained her dignity, pride and sense of self-worth in the process.

I can’t think of anyone I currently admire more in the music business; she’s living proof that sometimes the good guys, and girls, do come first.

Taylor's management issued a statement saying: ‘Taylor cannot understand why Kanye West and now Kim Kardashian will not just leave her alone.’

My response, therefore, to Kim Kardashian and all the other poisonous, green-eyed monsters out there currently trying to tear down Taylor Swift is simple: back off you sad, pathetic, envy-ridden people.

She’s a fantastic example of what every young women should strive to be: a true feminist whose talent, success, work ethic, behaviour and personality are all hugely positive role model messages.