Photo: Chappell Roan @ Hollywood Palladium 11/18/2022 by Justin Higuchi via Flickr (CC BY 2.0 DEED)
Many people are familiar with Chappell Roan. Her career started in 2014 when she uploaded her song “Die Young” to Youtube. However, she didn’t really have a career breakthrough until 2024. From February to April of 2024, Chappell Roan opened for Olivia Rodrigo in her “Guts” World Tour. During Roan’s first week on tour, her streams went up by 32%. Not long after opening for Olivia Rodrigo, Roan released her single “Good Luck, Babe” (2024). This was her true rise to fame. In the song’s first week, it had already received seven million streams. “Good Luck, Babe,” along with some of her other songs, were getting on the Billboard Hot 100.
In an episode of the podcast “The Comment Section with Drew Afualo,” Roan said “If I felt stalker vibes or like if my family was in danger is when I would quit.” Unfortunately, in today’s society, fans of celebrities tend to believe they are entitled to actions that no human is entitled to. In Roan’s case, she stated that she was being followed around, that fans knew where her parents lived and where her sister worked. No human being would ever want that information to be public. That’s what fans tend to forget: that these artists, actors and celebrities are also living, breathing human beings. They aren’t characters for our entertainment.
Roan isn’t the only one exposed to inappropriate fan behavior. There have been a number of instances where celebrities were treated like they were nothing more than an object of public enjoyment. For instance, in 2020, Billie Eilish had to get a restraining order against a fan who continuously showed up at her home. Another example is some of Taylor Swift’s fans’ behavior. There have been instances of her fans sending death threats to other people and doxing them just because they dislike her music or are not a huge fan. Obviously, Swift and Eilish did not ask for this kind of behavior from their fans. This is what Roan is trying to put a stop to for herself and other celebrities.
Roan’s TikTok platform is her primary space for speaking out against some of the behavior she has witnessed from her fans. In a recent TikTok video, she spoke out against some of the behavior she experienced. She brought up examples with a hypothetical “random lady,” asking the viewers questions such as: “Would you be offended if she says no to your time because she has her own time?,” “Would you stalk her family?,” “Would you dissect her life and bully her online?” and finishing off with “This is a lady you don’t know and she doesn’t know you at all.” She used this “random lady” to exemplify what she has experienced from her fans during her career. In another instance, on her Instagram, she posted a series of images with text drawing and explaining her boundaries: “For the past 10 years I’ve been going non-stop to build my project and it’s come to the point that I need to draw lines and set boundaries.” She went on to talk about how she didn’t agree that she owed anyone an exchange of admiration that matched the person who gave it: “I feel more love than I ever have in my life. I feel the most unsafe I have ever felt in my life.” She expressed repeatedly that no one owes anyone a reason to not want to be touched, spoken to or harassed. She spoke out against everything that she has experienced and has seen happen to others. She finished her post with “There is a part of myself that I save just for my project and all of you. There is a part of myself that is just for me, and I don’t want that taken away from me. Thank you for reading this. I appreciate your understanding and support.”
There are many comments and responses that take Roan’s words to heart, understanding where she is coming from and relaying the message to their own audiences. For example, a user on Instagram stated “Hey Chappell, still love you. Respect you as an artist, you do what you gotta do. You don’t owe us anything and you are your own person.” In other instances, fans have become outraged, thinking celebrities are entitled for refusing a hug or a photo from fans. The truth of the matter is, people can know whatever they want about a celebrity, but that doesn’t give them any more of a right to treat them like they owe them something. Many celebrities love giving back to their fans, but that doesn’t mean they have to. At the end of the day, they are just doing their job.
It’s important to remember that celebrities are human beings too. Just like everyone else, they are entitled to their boundaries and privacy. Roan is paving the way for fans to understand that celebrities have the right to their own independent lives and deserve to live their lives without being followed, filmed or bombarded with requests and questions. Many people argue that celebrities ask for the attention of the public because of their occupation. However, being a celebrity does not mean that they’re only there for our entertainment. They dedicate their lives to being a public figure and deserve more respect than what they are given. Roan will not hesitate to give up her fame for the protection of her own security. Hopefully her message will be taken to heart, because fan behavior will always be a problem in the media. Considering the already-positive feedback from her speaking out, Roan will most likely remain in the public eye with clear boundaries set for her fans. However, all it takes is those boundaries being broken for Roan to step away forever.
Payton Vogt is a second-year English major. PV1017396@wcupa.edu