This super graphic ultra modern girl has something to say. Graphic by Reece Butler. 

REECE BUTLER | MANAGING EDITOR | rmbutler@butler.edu 

If you just learned about Chappell Roan this year, you are not alone. The 26-year-old “Femininomenon” has a storied career of around ten years in the music industry. However, she only recently reached mainstream stardom through a combination of festival and tour performances, including opening for Olivia Rodrigo and playing at this year’s Coachella music festival. 

However, for some of us, Roan has been a longtime staple on our playlists.

Via Sarjent, a senior music industry studies and classics double major, found out about Roan through a playlist of unconventional country songs right after the release of “Pink Pony Club.” Sarjent noted that they were immediately drawn to the unique and eye-catching cover art, as well as the deeper messaging of the song, which chronicles a young woman’s decision to move to California to enjoy a sense of identity and freedom she feels she cannot experience in her Midwestern hometown.

“As a queer person, I automatically connected with [Pink Pony Club],” Sarjent said. “I pretty much immediately followed her because I’m always looking for queer musicians to support.”

For me, it was the summer of 2023 when I saw Instagram reels — I’m never redownloading TikTok and you can’t take my superiority complex away from me — of Roan performing “Red Wine Supernova” on stage, a Zumba class-adjacent production complete with her signature drag queen makeup and bedazzled bodysuits. She was strikingly effervescent, raunchy and unserious, not to mention that we had a solemn kinship as fake redheads. I spent that summer filing insurance claims while mouthing her innuendo-layden music in the confines of my cubical and begging everyone in my life to listen to her. In equal measure, I have spent this summer telling everyone in my life “I told you so.”

Unfortunately, Roan’s meteoric rise to fame has also been accompanied by its fair share of struggles. In recent social media posts, including two TikToks and an Instagram post, Roan communicated how an increasing number of negative fan experiences made her feel. 

Roan cited multiple instances wherein fans overstepped boundaries by interacting inappropriately with her personal life and family. Moreover, she took a stand against the popular opinion that celebrities are indebted to their fans and, as a result, must engage with admirers regardless of their own comfort.

“I don’t agree with the notion that I owe a mutual exchange of energy, time, or attention to people I do not know, do not trust, or who creep me out — just because they’re expressing admiration,” Roan said in her Instagram post.

In a not-so-shocking series of events, her clear communication of boundaries was met with a range of responses, especially when her posts were followed by the announcement that she was canceling and postponing multiple shows. Although there are a multitude of tweets conveying some listeners’ misgivings regarding her induction into the world of fame, many fans believe that this boundary is not only appropriate but should become the undisputed norm.

One such fan is Jonathan Shinn, a senior choral and general music education and vocal performance double major. To him, the world of music is overrun with entitled fans, too often leaving artists in an impossible position. Roan’s statement felt like a natural, even overdue action.

“It has just made me like her more,” Shinn said. “I’ve always thought that sort of super-fan sense of idolization for an artist has been so strange and sort of distinctly American as well. It’s a part of American culture to idolize people.”

Perhaps even more relevantly, Chappell Roan is a drag persona. Roan has deliberately and strategically separated her personal and professional life throughout most of her career with the intention of avoiding the fan encounters she is now facing. While the connection that fans feel through her lyricism and storytelling is very much real, she is ultimately portraying a character for the public eye when she is on the clock.

Taylor Funkhouser, a fifth-year P3 pharmacy major, believes that Chappell Roan’s dual identity is actually helpful in preventing parasocial relationships.

“I think what she’s doing actually … can kind of help [with] this parasocial identity, because, yes, she comes on as Chapell but that’s not how she is behind the scenes,” Funkhouser said. 

Given that our culture has normalized fans’ demand for constant access to celebrities, it is unsurprising that many people are struggling to find sympathy for Roan. After all, her sudden rise to fame is what most young creators can only dream of. She has certainly reaped the benefits of a loyal fanbase, emotionally and financially, but does that mean that she is irrevocably indebted to them?

Several fans, including Teagan Morrison, a senior theater and creative media entertainment double major, disagree with this sentiment. For Morrison, the best way to approach boundaries like the one Roan aims to set is through a lens of empathy.

“Her fame really skyrocketed at such a rapid pace that … people have really been crossing some inappropriate boundaries with her,” Morrison said. “Even though [she] picked this career, that does not mean that [she’s] consenting to be touched, yelled at, stalked and [subjected to] all of this creepy fan behavior that has been really normalized … in our society lately.”

Personally, I cannot fathom handling the pressures of fame to any degree. I get overwhelmed when too many of my real-life friends wave to me on my way to class and would probably burst into tears if an acquaintance asked to take a picture of me. It is genuinely impossible for most people, even those with aspirations of success and visibility, to accurately conceptualize what a complete lack of privacy looks like — not to mention how it feels to have those invasions be facilitated by mass pop culture. 

For those disillusioned by her frank communications, Funkhouser offers some advice. 

“If you’re upset and it truly hurts you, then stop listening to her music,” Funkhouser said. “Listen to someone who is going to want to get pictures and sign autographs all day long. But also understand that you probably wouldn’t be so happy if someone came up in your face every day and asked for a picture.”

Ultimately, Roan has set a striking precedent in her fan interactions. Love it or hate it, it’s not the same old story, time again of an artist bending her boundaries to the whims of supporters, and I, for one, think that’s something to applaud.