Pop singer and songwriter Chappell Roan posted a set of videos on TikTok last month calling out intrusive behavior from fans in public. The videos sparked a conversation online about celebrities, boundaries, and fan culture in the age of social media.
Imagine that you’re walking down the street and you cross paths with a woman you’ve never met. How would you behave toward her? This is the scenario Chappell Roan wants viewers to inhabit in the first of two videos posted August 19. She asks a series of questions:
“Would you yell at her from a car window?…Go up to a random lady and say, ‘Can I get a photo with you?’ ..Be offended if she says no to your time because she has her own time?”
The questions adopt a more serious tone.
“Would you stalk her family?…Follow her around?…Try to dissect her life and bully her online?…Assume that she’s a good person? Assume she’s a bad person?…Assume everything you read about her online is true?”
The video has amassed over 2 million likes, over 50 thousand shares, and over 14 million views. The same day, she posted a follow-up video, saying, “I don’t care that abuse and harassment, stalking, whatever, is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous.”
Chappell Roan Calls Out Intrusive Behavior
Roan is more than just “a little famous.” Behind the stage name and persona is a 26-year-old woman who has been working at her craft for a decade. But the success of her 2023 debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, along with her opening sets on Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS tour and performances at festivals like Coachella and Gov Ball, launched her into the mainstream cultural consciousness.
“I don’t care that this crazy type of behavior comes along with the job, the career field I’ve chosen,” Roan continues. “That does not make it okay. That doesn’t make it normal. It doesn’t mean I want it; it doesn’t mean I like it.”
The singer goes on to call out entitled behavior from people in public. “It’s weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online or you listen to the art they make,” she says. “I’m allowed to say ‘no’ to creepy behavior.”
Celebrity Boundaries in the Age of Social Media
Sam Murphy is a pop culture content creator and music journalist known as PopSamCam online. In a video reacting to Roan’s message, Murphy commented on the way social media has affected fandom.
“I think because of social media we’ve come closer and closer to our icons, to the point where it feels like you can just approach them in the street,” Murphy says. “Standom has gotten out of control. And it is because artists have given an inch and stans have taken a mile.”
Roan is not the first artist to face or comment on this issue. Billie Eilish got a restraining order against a man who was harassing her. Some fans speculate that her recent song THE DINER is written from the perspective of a stalker.
Taylor Swift has cultivated a strong relationship with her fan base throughout her career. But even she included lines throughout her latest album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, that seem to address the public’s sense of entitlement over details of her personal life. In the song But Daddy I Love Him, she calls out the “wine moms” and “judgmental creeps” who overstep boundaries to comment on her romantic endeavors.
Several artists showed their support for Roan online, including Finneas, Noah Kahan, and Lizzy McAlpine. Hayley Williams, the lead vocalist of Paramore, shared Roan’s post on her Instagram story. She added, “This happens to every woman I know from this business, myself included. Social media has made this worse. I’m really thankful Chappell is willing to address it in a real way, in real time. It’s brave and unfortunately necessary.”
Can Fame And Boundaries Coexist?
Ironically enough, it seems that social media has both exacerbated the problem and provided the avenue through which to address the problem. Users have flooded TikTok with takes and opinions.
“It seems like this isn’t fun for her. And what’s the point of being an artist and doing all of this if it’s not fun?” asks creator @flower_sea_sand. “I wonder if, ultimately, this is not the path for her. And only she can make that decision.”
“She had to turn the comments off and everyone’s calling her a brat, a diva, she’s not grateful for her fame, proving her point from the entitlement of random people,” says Brianna LaPaglia in an August 20 video. “There’s a difference between someone craving to be famous and wanting that life, compared to a person who is just good at what they do and got world renown fame.”
“She has a whole alter ego that she has named to help separate herself from the art,” another TikToker, Clare, points out. “People still act like they know her on an intimate level even though she has made it very clear that makes her uncomfortable. And some can argue that’s the life she signed up for, but no – she signed up to be a musician. She signed up to be a performer…No one should have to sacrifice their safety and their comfort for their art…I think anyone deserves that basic courtesy. She’s a real person, after all.”
In their reaction video, Murphy concludes: “If you think that what she said means that she’s not ready to be a super star, maybe you need to reassess your own connection to artists.”
Chappell Roan Asserts Her Boundaries
Roan followed up her TikTok videos with an Instagram post on August 23.
“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 writes. “I chose this career path because I love music and art and honoring my inner child, I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it.”
She goes on to draw a clear boundary between her work and personal life. Work: when she’s on stage, in drag, at an event, doing press. Not work: anything else.
“I am specifically talking about predatory behavior (disguised as “superfan” behavior) that has become normalized because of the way women who are well-known have been treated in the past,” she clarifies.
In a post upvoted 1.5K times, a Reddit user compared Roan to a hypothetical female barista at Starbucks. If a regular customer starts to display predatory behavior, the user writes, “we call this person…a harasser, delusional, dangerous” and “encourage the woman…to call the police and get a restraining order.” The user then poses a question: “Why is it that just because someone is famous, this behavior is now labeled as okay instead of what it really is?”
The post received over 100 comments, including: “I’m so glad Chappell has started this conversation, and I hope the people who feel angry and called out by her posts take a look at why they feel that way, and change their behavior.”
Honoring Boundaries in a New Era of Fandom
The “she should have known what she was getting herself into” attitude is reductive and disingenuous. It doesn’t actually have to be this way. We as consumers and fans have the power to individually and collectively change our behavior.
Maybe Roan’s message will help usher in a new era of fandom. An era of healthier relationships between fans and celebrities, where honoring boundaries is the norm – whether we deem them reasonable or not.
“I want to love my life, be outside, giggle with my friends, go to the movie theater, feel safe, and do all the things every single person deserves to do,” her Instagram post continues. She then lists a set of specific requests. Don’t touch her, be weird to her family, or assume things about her.
“There is a part of myself that I save just for my project and all of you,” she writes. “There is a part of myself that is just for me, and I don’t want that taken away from me.”
Like it or not, the boundaries are clear — it’s on us to respect them.
