Chappell Roan’s rapid rise to fame this year, in so many ways, has felt like a breath of fresh air. Recently taking home the VMA for Best New Artist and showing a lot of promise for upcoming awards shows, Roan has won the hearts of critics and crowds alike after decades of work behind the scenes. In the beginning stages of fame, everyone seemed to love Chappell, but recently, I’ve noticed the narrative starting to shift. And at the end of the day, it’s got surprisingly little to do with her or who she is; it’s the pattern of what happens to any woman in the music industry.
In a previous article, I went more into detail how women being seen as disposable in the music industry is nothing new. (Do you see what I did there?) Being viewed as pioneering, adored, and deserving of fame one moment while quickly being seen as tired, overhyped, and attention-seeking the next day is a tragically universal reality. It happens to (specifically female) popstars everywhere. And once you notice it once, you start to notice it everywhere.
“Tabloid overexposure” has been pointed out by a couple of different figures, my first exposure to the topic being activist and actress Jameela Jamil’s take. In essence, media outlets will start to pick up on an (almost always female) celebrity. They’ll afford her coverage as she gets famous, and as things ramp up, the name becomes unavoidable. It’s purposeful overexposure; journalists are trying to get the public tired of her. They paint her as a sellout, like she’s bribing the news outlets and the media to follow her every last move. But it never was her. The purpose of this overexposure has always been the same: to shift the narrative and gradually turn the public against her. Media sources, especially tabloids, do this all the time, and they know exactly what they’re doing. The faster these companies can spark any type of emotional reaction among readers through outrage and juicy headlines, the more engagement they can receive — and the faster they can profit from it.
Accounts like Pop Crave and Pop Base have an undeniable impact on the media, specifically Twitter (no matter their level of journalistic trust). News accounts, one of the most prominent being Pop Crave, have posted constant quotes from Roan in recent months. These quotes are often out of context, and if you’re looking for it, you might notice that they’re often cherry picked to elicit an emotional reaction. Opinions that aren’t widely held, quotes with any swearing, and anything controversial (or controversial out of context) are more likely to be picked out and spread online.
Roan, by far, isn’t the only victim of this — Every female singer on the planet seems to have an understanding of what she’s being put through. In an interview with Zane Lowe, Sabrina Carpenter mentions how her words have been twisted and misreported and jokingly clarifies to him, “You’ll be fine; you’re a man!”
I’ve been a fan of Chappell Roan for years, and seeing her rise in popularity has been astounding to watch. Songs that used to have a couple million streams were suddenly eliciting products like fanart, fan projects, music awards, and international recognition. Before widespread fame, Roan spent years trying to get a record deal only to be dropped by Atlantic Records before her debut album was even released. Recently, she’s received unprecedented hate after two major show cancellations. She’s been painted as out of touch with reality, while to me, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Roan has been in the working class her whole life. She’s worked as a nanny, a drive thru girl, a barista, and probably tens of other other minimum wage positions in the last couple of years, waiting for her big break. Roan isn’t a stranger to struggle; among celebrities, she seems to be one of the most familiar with it. She’s probably not canceling shows because she’s lazy or doesn’t care. She’s a human being who needs to take time for herself, like anybody else.
Some suggest that Roan needs to find a PR manager to cut down on some of the internet hate. It’s probably true that having a PR manager or team to read interview questions in advance, suggest alternative ways of responding, and looking out for her reputation would be helpful to her career. It might even make her life better. But it shouldn’t have to; I dream of a world where every female celebrity doesn’t need a PR team just to exist at all in the public eye. (See also: What is “Media Training,” and Why Does the Internet Seem To Think Only Women Need It?).
In a better world, I think the things that a woman says would be read in good faith instead of scrutinized for a way to criticize or “put her in her place.” In a less misogynistic culture, words wouldn’t be blown out of proportion the way that they are for female celebrities today; a listener’s first goal would be to understand rather than finding fault in her words without fully listening to what she has to say. You can disagree with what Chappell Roan says, but at the end of the day, she’s never going to owe you self-censorship.
Roan has gone into detail about her boundaries and ways that they’ve been crossed as she’s become more famous — one of the first things that I saw her being torn apart online for doing. As more interviews are being published, these concerns have also shown to be coming from a very real place. At least in part, they’ve contributed to her recent diagnosis of severe depression.
“I think it’s because my whole life has changed,” Roan said to The Guardian in September. “Everything that I really love to do now comes with baggage. If I want to go thrifting, I have to book security and prepare myself that this is not going to be normal. Going to the park, pilates, yoga — how do I do this in a safe way where I’m not going to be stalked or harassed?”
A new wave of hate has seen its beginnings amidst Roan’s canceled appearances at All Things Go, a recent music festival in Washington D.C. While it may or may not be related, this happened during a particularly bad wave of hate for her online. While many were understanding of her decision, Roan was definitely met with a lot of criticism. If you’re a big enough fan to pay extreme resale prices just for Chappell Roan, I hope you’ll also be able to see your favorite artist as a human being (the same as everyone else).
Roan hasn’t disclosed the severity of her situation or the exact reason for pulling out of the festival, but it can be assessed from the information available that it definitely could be something serious. Roan has been open about her struggles with mental health, including a diagnosis of bipolar disorder years ago and her recent diagnosis of severe depression. At the end of the day, Chappell Roan doesn’t owe you her reasoning, and she certainly doesn’t owe you a window into her lowest.
This article has been in the works for at least a month. And the longer it’s being worked on, the more I see the feedback loop of public hate growing more out of proportion. Celebrities like Chappell Roan shouldn’t have to be put through an exhausting cycle of tabloid overexposure to do what they love.
Any time you notice the start of a hate train for any female celebrity, I implore you to be immediately suspicious. Whatever’s happening, ask yourself a couple of questions. Who could be profiting from this shift in the narrative? Is the hate rooted in a real event (true misconduct, allegations to be taken seriously, a crime of law), or are the reasons for hate more blurry and unclear? At the end of the day, you might love her music, but Chappell Roan herself doesn’t owe you anything. She doesn’t owe you her personal time when she’s going outside, she doesn’t owe you a media team, and she doesn’t owe you a window into her mental health before she’s ready to. Chappell Roan is a human being like anybody else — I hope that eventually, every “fan” on the planet can get that into their head.