If you had asked me who Chappell Roan was one year ago today I would have shrugged my shoulders and said I had no clue. Just one year later, Chappell Roan has taken the world by storm with her chart-topping album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” and her single “Good Luck Babe!”. I found out about Chappell Roan in April of this year when I heard one of her songs on TikTok and IMMEDIATELY added it to my playlist. I mean, her voice and her songs completely blew me away. I fell in love with her as an artist and went as far as to drive all the way to Kentucky last minute when I snagged tickets to see her perform live.
What most people don’t know is that Chappell Roan is actually her drag persona! That’s right… Chappell Roan is a female drag queen! Her real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz and she is from Missouri. She had been making music for an entire decade before blowing up this past year. Chappell’s songs have topped the charts this entire year and she’s had as many as 80,000 people at her live performances. During her rapid rise to fame, however, she has been very open about her struggles with fame and the social implications that come with being a pop star.
Chappell recently took to TikTok and Instagram to comment on inappropriate behavior she had been experiencing from fans. From fans stalking her and her family to fans making unwanted physical advances towards her, Chappell was very clear in setting boundaries against these things. She explained that she had every right to decline a hug or a photo and pleaded with people to stop harassing her family. She frustratingly expressed that while people may think they know her because they connect with her as an artist, she was nothing but a stranger to them. Chappell emphasized that outside of drag, she wanted to lead a normal life as Kayleigh with her family and friends without fear of being followed or harassed. I watched these videos myself and was frankly really impressed that a celebrity of her caliber had finally spoken up against parasocial relationships that have become so normalized.
After watching her videos, I was surprised to see the amount of hate she was receiving for commenting on these issues. People called her a “diva”, “irrelevant”, “ungrateful”, and went as far as to say she didn’t deserve the fame and wasn’t ready to be famous because these things “came with the job”. While yes, these are things that we’ve normalized, does that make it any less terrible? I sat back and wondered, why are we so concerned with how she leads her everyday life? Why do we feel like we are entitled to interactions with her because she produces music on a large scale? Parasocial relationships have become a way to normalize emotional, verbal, physical, and sometimes sexual abuse against celebrities that we feel like we have a connection with… especially female celebrities.
The bottom line is… female artists do not owe anyone ANYTHING!
Her commentary against parasocial relationships should serve as a wake-up call for all of us as media consumers. Rather than attacking an artist when they set boundaries, we should come together to protect them and work harder to keep them safe. We should take an active stance in protecting ALL women… even pop stars. Despite the hateful comments, Chappell Roan continues to perform on a large scale; her most recent performance being at the VMAs! I encourage you to give her songs a listen and continue to support and protect female artists.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 