Over the past year, pop star Chappell Roan had one of the biggest growths seen in the industry, leading to winning “Best New Artist” at this year’s Grammys. However, with quick rising fame comes criticisms from the public. 

I was first introduced to Roan in March 2024 at Gay 90s in Minneapolis, where a drag performer lip-synced to her songs “Red Wine Supernova” and “My Kink is Karma.” Since then, I have been hooked on Roan’s music.

Since then, Roan has had many moments go viral online of her setting her boundaries with not only fans but also photographers. Each moment has had mixed reactions by people online. 

With the latter incident, I admired her for her boldness in setting boundaries for herself in an industry that does not allow privacy. However, many viewers thought of the moment she yelled at the photographer and said, “No, not me b—-h,” as cringy or outright “mean girl behavior.”

To me, it just seemed like a moment where a woman did not want to sit and be yelled at by a massive crowd of people. I think I would have the same reaction. 

But, the former situation is where it gets sticky for me. Roan had posted a series of TikToks where she explained how she did not want people interrupting her day, or in other words, the “fame” side of being a pop star. 

While, yes, I agree with her that she does not need to take photos with fans, give autographs or allow people to touch her, I also know part of her reason for setting boundaries like this is that she had a massive breach of privacy with a stalker.

However, the reason I find this situation “sticky” is because, yes, she does have a right to privacy, but her way of seeming to turn off all fans feels weird to me. 

She says she does not owe us anything, which I partly agree with, because she is her own person, but the other part of me thinks she partly does, because the fans are what launched her into her realm of success.

Yet, when analyzing my feelings about the situation, I think back to my consumption of media when her TikTok videos were originally posted. People’s reactions and thoughts partially became my own, and I got the “ick” from those videos. 

Looking back now, many months later, when writing this piece, I’m starting to question if the thoughts of disagreement are my own. 

When looking at her fan interactions and rewatching her clips, I do not actually think she doesn’t want anyone to approach her, but rather, she just doesn’t want any “crazy” interactions. 

She wants people to treat her like a human being — because she is one.

Moments like this really make me take a step back from social media and question how many opinions are actually mine or just some fabricated ones I gathered from constantly being online, or being “chronically online.”

I cannot help but compare Roan’s response to Taylor Swift because I am a massive Swiftie at heart. While Roan slowly begins to grow “tired” of the celebrity life, Taylor Swift embraces it. 

“I get tired a lot, but I never get tired of it,” Swift said. “Because for me, I remember when I was a little kid, and I used to sit there and think about how lucky I would be if someday people cared about the words that I wrote … And when you spend so much time daydreaming about things like that, when that actually happens, you don’t complain about it, you know.”

I compare these two moments because I think they just show the grey “middle” of the situation, showing that not everything is black and white. Or maybe this is the internal part of me pushing two successful women against each other because the media often tries to make us do that. 

However, fan interactions are not the only thing that has caught Roan in a fire online. Rather, it is about being political. 

Many fans and chronically online users are upset with her because in the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Roan said people should not look to her for whom they should vote for or to educate people on politics in general.

And yes, I do agree with this, because she did not sign up to be a politician when releasing her gay pop hits, but she did inherently sign up to be looked up to as a political advocate as someone who uses her queer identity as a protest. Roan performs in drag, which originated from black trans women. 

That argument from fans never made much sense to me, because Roan herself is queer and is entitled to represent her community.

But there have been some moments when she has made me tilt my head when she says she should not be looked at for politics.

For example, Roan pronounced presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s name wrong in a video explaining she doesn’t condone either political party and didn’t correct it, but she has corrected people on her name pronunciation in a sassy, critical way. 

Or the one I really think of, when she performed at the 2024 Governors Ball Music Festival last June dressed as the Statue of Liberty, she proclaimed she would not perform at the White House until there was freedom and justice for all.

“I am in drag of the biggest queen of all, but in case you had forgotten what’s etched on my pretty little toes, ‘Give me your tired, your poor; your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,’” Roan said. “That means freedom and trans rights. That means freedom and women’s rights, and it especially means freedom for all oppressed people in occupied territories.”

I think, given that moment, of course, people are going to look at her for political insight, but she is just a pop star at the end of the day.

Honestly, I do love Roan’s music, but given everything the media is putting out, or she herself is saying, I’m not sure how to feel. However, I do think this is just what the media does: tears women down for the fun of it. 

I’ll continue to jam out to her music while waiting for the announcement of her sophomore album. 

Boggess can be reached at boggestm7197@uwec.edu.