If you’ve been alive this past year then the chances are you’ve become aware of the musician Chappell Roan. The singer has become one of the most listened to popstars of 2024, rocketing up the charts and inspiring legions of devoted fans. Adele and Lady Gaga are both fans. TikTok has been H-O-T-T-O-G-O for months. Roan’s performances regularly go viral. Now, she’s telling the world to back off and stop being weird about her.
She took to social media to call out the ‘creepy behaviour’ she’s experienced in-person and online since becoming a bona fide celebrity. ‘I don’t care that abuse and harassment is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous, she said. ‘I don’t care that it’s normal. I don’t care that this crazy type of behaviour comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen. That does not make it OK.’ While asserting her boundaries, many lambasted her for what they claimed was an unreasonable and diva-esque attitude, but the facts support Roan. She’s become the most recent face of the parasocial problem with fame, and another example of celebrities being forced to say ‘no’ to increasingly aggressive demands for their attention.
Roan became wildly famous in a brief period of time. She went from an indie star largely known by her queer fanbase to a chart-topping, meme-defining, sound-of-the-summer icon. It was only a year or so ago that she was working as a summer camp counsellor to pay the bills. Even her most devoted fans from that period didn’t think she’d reach these heights. Queer-focused pop singers whose lyrics are proudly LGBTQ+ inclusive and who style themselves after drag artists usually have the ceiling for success set at the level of the B-List (think Carly Rae Jepsen or Ava Max – the gays love them, they’ll play a festival but never as an opener, and they can get by without any top 40 songs.)
That Roan exploded in the way she did is a testament not only to her talent but to how much her music and message resonated well beyond her niche demographic. In a year where pop is not only commercially dominant but critically so, from Brat to the Eras Tour to the new Billie Eilish record, Chappell Roan feels right at home in the year of heightened poptimism. She makes fun, catchy, impeccably composed pop that never sacrifices personality for mainstream hooks. And it’s exciting to see her performances, to see what she’ll dress up as next, whether it’s Divine drag or her stoned Statue of Liberty chic. This is a year of music Events and Roan feels like a series of iconic moments unto herself. It’s no surprising that a gay woman who sings joyously about her sexuality has inspired such adoration. Nor does it prove shocking to see how obsessive some have grown towards her. That doesn’t make it any more acceptable.
It’s aggravating that Roan has to keep clarifying what were very basic points about the boundaries between fan and subject, as many bad-faith tweeters misrepresent her ultimately basic desires to live a simple life. Roan seems wearily used to having people who claim to love her offer the most startlingly ungenerous readings of her philosophy. It’s a thing you’re supposed to wearily accept once you become famous: you signed up for this, didn’t you? Other people are totally fine with it so why can’t you be? If you don’t want this then go get a real job. Of course, that smarmy attitude is usually presented by people who seldom show respect to those with jobs they consider ‘real’ (anyone who’s done domestic work or retail knows how little respect they receive from such folks.) It’s just easier to insist that anyone with a modicum of fame is so monied and entitled that anything you say or do to them is 100% justified.
Here’s what being a fan entitles you to: Not much. The person makes their art, you consume and enjoy it, then we all keep moving forward. If you liked Chappell Roan’s album, maybe you want to get some merch or see her in concert to revel in the vibes she elicits. That’s great. That’s why we engage with art, to feel something beyond the emotions of our everyday lives and to be inspired by what we encounter. That’s how you show your gratitude to someone like Roan, not by shoehorning yourself into their personal space and demanding they satisfy you for reasons of personal and emotional clout. What do you hope to gain from, say, badgering a clearly uncomfortable Roan in a public place while she’s trying to socialize with her friends or run some errands? I once read an article on the dark side of K-pop fandom where someone admitted with their whole chest that they’d rather be remembered by their idol under any circumstances than not remembered at all, even if that meant scaring or upsetting them. I wonder how prevalent that callous attitude is. More than I’d care to admit, I imagine.
It’s not simply that celebrities should feel more confident in asserting clear boundaries: it’s that everyone else has to be cool with accepting them without caveats. They can’t get into the smarmy whataboutism that often accompanies discussions of fame. A celebrity can call the paparazzi for a photo-op and still tell their fans to stop threatening their loved ones online. That’s not an easy task given that the dual forces of high-emotional demand and corporate growth largely dictate fandom. It’s profitable to make people frenzied over their favourite celebrity to the point where they’re willing to pay four figures for concert tickets and all the variant album releases to match. A lot of record companies and publicists need to invest more in keeping their talent happy, healthy, and within their desired boundaries. Is that likely when they see someone like Chappell Roan having her moment and are eager to milk it until the next fad comes along? One has to hope that this much-needed paradigm shift happens before someone gets hurt. It’d be a shame to lose incredible talents like Roan to the cannibalistic machine of infinite growth.
For Roan, for all celebrities, and for everyone who has had to deal with this kind of cruelty, there is one important thing to remember: ‘No’ is a full sentence.