This was taken by Swift as a reference to her song Bad Blood, which was nominated for video of the year. The video shows Swift as an action hero, surrounded by a posse of women - many of whom are models with unattainable figures.
"I've done nothing but love and support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot," Swift tweeted to Minaj in response.
This prompted Perry to enter the fray with her own criticism of Swift.
"Finding it ironic to parade the 'pit women against other women' argument about as one unmeasurably capitalizes on the takedown of a woman," she tweeted.
The Roar singer added that she would have liked to see Rihanna's Bitch Better Have My Money nominated.
Swift has said that she wrote Bad Blood about another pop star - widely believed to be Perry.
With her public response to Minaj, the self-styled feminist has been accused of not understanding the relationship between gender and race.
Addressing the feud in the Guardian, music journalist Tshepo Mokoena wrote that Swift's tweets as a "faux-feminist" defense to a black artist exposing the hypocrisy of the US music industry - that "profits from the commercialisation of parts of African American culture without rewarding the creators of those trends".
Race issues were at the heart of Minaj's message about being excluded from the VMAs.
"I'm not always confident. Just tired. Black women influence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it," Minaj tweeted.
Swift later tried to smooth things over with Minaj, inviting her to come onstage if Bad Blood won best video.
- nzherald.co.nz
