Unpacking the Chappell Roan drama, from toxic fandoms to political missteps

By Charlie Sawyer

Updated Oct 3, 2024 at 02:49 PM

Reading time: 4 minutes

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Images courtesy of Chappell Roan from Instagram

My girl Chappell Roan is famous—like, really famous. The 26-year-old’s debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, first released in 2023, dominated the 2024 summer charts and a few of Roan’s girliest pop anthems (I’m talking ‘Good Luck Babe’ and ‘Pink Pony Club) saw insane streaming spikes. There wasn’t a girl or gay in the Western Hemisphere who didn’t know the iconic ‘HOT TO GO’ dance. But as beloved as Chappell is, she’s not immune to the wrath of the internet which holds her to an extremely high standard.

Welcome back to Explained By a Blonde. A warning: you might want to pause the Zoe Sugg vlog hun, because this is about to be a long one. This week, we need to talk about the literal witch hunt that’s currently going on against Chappell Roan. After establishing boundaries with toxic fans and subsequently making some political faux pas, it’s safe to say that Roan isn’t exactly in her fandom’s good books right now.

 

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A post shared by ･ﾟ: *✧ Chappell Roan ✧*:･ﾟ (@chappellroan)

Now, before I get started, let me preface that while I might not agree with everything the singer has said recently, I do believe that Roan is a genuine and dedicated ally of both queer and marginalised communities. And once more, while holding a public person accountable is 100 per cent a valid form of social justice, completely decimating a young woman whose intentions hold no malice is not cute. Either way, let’s delve into things, girly pops.

Things first kicked off in August 2024 when Chappell Roan took to TikTok to call out some incredibly creepy and toxic behaviour from a few of her fans. Specifically, the singer spoke about how she feels constantly “harassed,” “bullied” online, and “stalked,” as reported by the BBC.

The 26-year-old’s two videos addressing these issues, both of which were viewed by over 15 million people, showed an incredibly vulnerable side of the artist. Roan looked actively distressed as she emphasised that even though these types of behaviours have been normalised, it doesn’t make them okay.

Some fans took this on board, sharing posts on X that sympathised with the artist and expressed their own personal anger over what people in the spotlight have to deal with:

However, not everyone reacted well to Roan’s videos. Not only did the singer begin to fall victim to a large ass hate train, people began to relentlessly critique her and throw shade for quite literally no reason:

Following this uproar, Roan then put out another video on her TikTok clarifying that she was not intending to vote for Trump (if that wasn’t already very clear).

Personally, I understood why Roan posted the follow-up video, however, her encouragement to her fans to embrace “critical thinking” did feel slightly patronising. This is an incredibly terrifying time right now, especially for queer and marginalised communities, and so any comments made by any celebrity at this time will be taken seriously and to heart. Is Chappell Roan a terrible person for her recent political comments? No. Moreover, I agree with creators such as @simplysimone who can see the duality of the situation and accurately criticise the singer’s statement without completely annihilating her character.

Also, as a quick sidenote, has anyone else seen the conspiracy theory about Pop Crave having a personal vendetta against Roan? Because if that’s true, the world as we know it might just shatter. For context, Pop Crave (aka X’s go-to spot for all things pop culture), has been called out recently for fuelling “the Chappell Roan hate train” and purposefully manipulating certain quotes. Can we trust anyone these days?

One question I’ve thought of during the course of this deep dive is: Is the Chappell Roan fandom toxic? And it’s a multi-layered answer. For one, there are toxic groups within every fandom out there. Swifties, I’m looking at you.

However, it is evident that certain artists have it worse than others. Not all of Roan’s fanbase is hyper-judgemental, however, it’s been intense to see the ways in which stans can flip on an artist they love. 

On 27 September 2024, Roan made the announcement that she would be pulling out of the All Things Go music festival, citing health concerns and explaining to her fans that the recent situation had become too “overwhelming.”

“I feel pressures to prioritise a lot of things right now and I need a few days to prioritise my health. I want to be present when I perform and give the best shows possible. Thank you for understanding,” the singer continued.

The festival organisation immediately publicly backed Roan and shared a statement wherein it noted “All Things Go strongly supports artists prioritising their well-being and we ask our community to rally behind Chappell Roan with love and understanding.”

However, it wasn’t long until the Chappell Roan hate train got back in full steam:

On the other hand, I would like to applaud the few people who took a much better take on the situation and urged netizens to consider the singer’s evidently fragile mental health.

Indeed, some users brought up cases such as Britney Spears—a woman who was dragged to filth by the media and subsequently experienced extremely harmful mental health episodes. Have we learned nothing?

To make matters worse, Roan was also recently the subject of a pretty nasty Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit. Cast member Bowen Yang got quite a bit of backlash this week after he compared Moo Deng—everyone’s favourite meme-able pygmy hippopotamus—to Chappell.

Yang did immediately attempt to clarify things with fans, posting on his Instagram story: “Oh geeez. ‘Mocks’??? If my personal stance and the piece aren’t clear in terms of supporting her then there it is, I guess. Everything she has ever asked for has been reasonable and even then we can connect it to another story about boundaries or whatever. Needing the hose [right now]…”

Look, whether or not it was meant in an offensive way (or even if it was simply a joke) there’s a persistent problem here.

As I’ve already hinted at earlier in this article, I do believe that Roan is held to an incredibly high standard. She’s important to a lot of people and her music has become a safe space for communities all over the world. Negative attention is inevitable. But do I find it funny that the expectations placed on Roan happen to coincide with the fact she is an incredibly vocal liberal and progressive queer woman? Yes. Mental health matters and we can’t just cherry pick when we give celebrities graces for taking care of themselves.