By Thea Postalakis
SERENA / @Serena on Pinterest
If you’ve spent any time on TikTok this summer, You may have heard the catchy tunes “Casual” or “Good Luck, Babe!” by “Midwest-princess” pop singer Chappell Roan. Much known for her powerful vocals and colorful outfits, Roan blew up this past year, going from a smaller fan base to now having over 45 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
What comes with such a quick rise to fame is having a wavering group of followers and the always prominent threat of cancel culture. We see this all the time now, especially in female celebrities, where crowds of people suddenly turn against them for seemingly no reason. In a fast-paced culture like today, with trends coming and going, it's hard to know who has been “canceled” or not.
Roan’s so-called “cancelation” has come at a pivotal point in her career: she’s finally playing at festivals, and everyone seems to know her name. Yet, she is extremely forward in her thoughts and ideals and that looks to be what today’s culture might be against. There are three main instances in which Roan’s social media presence and honest opinions disadvantage her.
In August, Roan shared her beliefs on TikTok about her boundaries with fans– specifically how she doesn’t always want or need to take photos with fans and compared the harassment she faces from fans to catcalling. She received a lot of backlash for this from the community, as people felt it was an unfair comparison and that she was unappreciative of the fandom she had built. However, later, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Roan revealed that she had additionally been dealing with an active stalker at the time.
The second situation in which Roan faced a public reaction on social media was her opinions on the current political standings in regard to the 2024 presidential vote. Roan has made herself a public advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, especially the rights of transgender people. Due to that, her fans assumed that she would be endorsing current Vice President Kamala Harris as president. However, Roan stated in an interview with The Guardian that she didn’t want to endorse either candidate and woke up to a world of hurt online by upset fans. Roan posted a further TikTok explaining her stance, passionately emphasizing that she can’t stand behind either side’s full views. The comments on this TikTok were extremely resistant to her ideals, however, they were turned off soon after posting.
Roan has also been very public about her battles with her mental health and her experience with bipolar disorder. With everything in the past few months finally hitting her, she withdrew from the All Things Go Music Festival just 29 hours before she was supposed to perform. While it is understandable to cancel for mental or physical health reasons, Roan left thousands of fans devastated, some already on flights to see her.
So, what’s the point of this? Our society needs to realize what we are prioritizing. What’s better: a celebrity who hides their personal agendas, or one that's candid about their opinions? The time of putting artists on a golden pedestal is over, or at least Roan seems to think so.
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