Chappell Roan’s rise to fame is one of the quickest I’ve seen in my 19 years of life. Less than a year ago, she sat down for an interview with Emerson’s Five Cent Sound. Since then, she has moved her tour to bigger venues, performed at Lollapalooza, and was set to perform at All Things Go Festival in Maryland before she dropped out the day before.
From May to August, everyone was talking about Roan. I couldn’t open Instagram or TikTok without hearing “Casual” or “Pink Pony Club.” These songs weren’t new, but they gained huge traction throughout the spring and summer. While Roan always had a passionate fan-base, it quickly grew larger, and she became a more mainstream artist. Even sororities had used Roan’s songs for recruitment videos.
But over the past month, many people have turned on the artist. Roan took to TikTok on Aug. 19 with two videos detailing her experience with attention from fans she found obsessive:
“I’m a random bitch. You’re a random bitch. Just think about that for a second.”
“It’s weird how people think that you know a person just ‘cause you see them online.”
In these videos, Roan acknowledged that it has become normal for fans to act like they intimately know their favorite celebrities and borderline stalk them. She called out the practice, saying that she does not want violating interactions simply because of the “career that she chose.”
This phenomenon has been lovingly coined as being “Woman’d” by internet writer Rayne Fisher-Quann. She described the “depressing inevitability of female celebrities being discarded like plastic—tossed away in a cycle of finding the hot new thing within a fast, ruthless cycle.” Is Chappell Roan being woman’d? And if so, who’s next?
Current fan culture often puts people with a following on a pedestal and fans develop parasocial relationships with their idols too often. Since these videos, people began turning on Roan, criticizing her for expressing distaste for how she was being treated.
It struck me as odd because I have yet to see a male artist criticized in the same way as Roan quickly was. I wish a woman could express boundaries without experiencing extreme fallout, but alas.
On Sept. 20, Roan publicly stated in an interview, then later in two TikTok videos, that she would not be endorsing Kamala Harris, emphasizing a difference between voting and endorsing a political candidate.
“There is no way that I can stand behind some of the left’s completely transphobic and completely genocidal views,” Roan said in her video statement. “So yeah, I’m voting for fucking Kamala. But I’m not settling for what has been offered.”
I don’t think you should need your favorite music artist to endorse a candidate for you to vote for them. Yes, there are people like Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift who have large fanbases, but their presidential vote should not sway yours.
Even though I find comfort in Roan’s music—specifically the songs about being queer in homophobic hometowns—I don’t care who she is voting for. It does not affect my vote. You do not have the same life experiences as anyone with a million followers on Instagram. Yes, you can relate to the lyrics, but your reason to vote should be based on your life experience and the policy issues that affect you and your community.
I hope that Roan’s recent performance at Austin City Limits lessens the hate she’s been receiving online. There has been an increasingly toxic culture surrounding female pop artists, and I hope the Midwest Princess didn’t fall for good.
