Why Chappell Roan and Other Stars Are Battling Toxic Fans

In just eight months, Chappell Roan went from being a relative unknown to unexpectedly topping the charts as one of the biggest new pop stars in the world.

But as the Missouri-born 26-year-old wraps up a sold-out UK tour, the dark issues of immense fame and her invasive superfandom begin to cast a shadow over her success.

In August, she posted two TikTok videos that have collectively been viewed more than 30 million times, calling attention to “troubling behavior” she had experienced and asking fans to respect her boundaries.

And she wrote on Instagram “women are not to blame” after a fan grabbed her and kissed her in a bar. Elsewhere, police had to intervene when an autograph hunter wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

This week she went a step further, telling The Face magazine that she “might quit” the music industry if the harassment against her and those closest to her continues.

She concluded that fame “is associated with an abusive ex-husband.”

Trauma dumps

Chappell Roan is a drag queen, the alter ego of Kayleigh Amstutz, who struggles to separate her two identities.

Even with a stage persona, authenticity is key to her appeal. But being recognizable has its drawbacks for the modern pop star.

“We live in such a curious world where everyone wants to see who you really are on social media. But there’s this illusion that they know you and can tell you anything,” she told Glamour magazine last year.

At social gatherings, LGBT fans have been dumping their difficult coming-out experiences on her. “My music has helped a lot of people overcome that trauma, and I love that,” she added.

“But personally, as Kayleigh, I can’t take on that responsibility.”

Roan’s attempts to draw boundaries and redefine the relationship between fans and artists have, unsurprisingly, been met with negative reaction.

On their podcast, Perez Hilton and Charlie Booker supported Roan’s calls to improve her relationship with fans, but warned that her repeated criticism of fame – while seeking media attention – left her open to accusations of being “moody”.

Online critics have taken Roan’s comments as entitlement, saying that the negative aspects of attention are an inevitable part of fame and fortune.

But most fans are supportive of Roan. Lily Waite, a 29-year-old transgender woman, tells BBC News she finds the star’s openness groundbreaking and empowering, but understands her plea for a more measured response.

“Most of her fans are wonderful and genuine and respectful, but they’re not the ones she’s addressing in her videos where she’s drawing boundaries,” says Waite, who believes misogyny is behind much of the negative reaction.

Rebecca Clark, a 35-year-old who identifies as queer, believes Roan’s experiences in the drag/queer community — which Clark says reflects a greater understanding of mental health — have given her more “international exposure.”

Still, Clark supports her, especially when she questions the superficiality of those who only support celebrity authenticity when it’s positive. “She’s self-aware enough to see what’s happened to other pop stars in the past, and she actively sets boundaries for her fans.

“As the first outspoken pop star since Lady Gaga, she’s incredible. But that doesn’t mean she owes her fans a one-on-one. She’s human, too.”

If Roan is making the most publicized and perhaps most intense attempt to impose boundaries, he is certainly not the only one speaking out.

Paramore singer Hayley Williams publicly backed up the remarks. “This happens to every woman I know in this business, including me,” she wrote. “Social media has made it worse. I’m really grateful that Chappell is willing to address this in a real way, in real time. It’s brave and unfortunately necessary.”

Mitski welcomed her to “a club where strangers think you belong and then find and harass your family members.”

Indie band Muna have also criticized “toxic” elements among their fans, and in her song The Diner, Billie Eilish similarly addressed bullying.

For Sarah Ditum, author of Toxic, which examines female stardom over the decades, this year was a “turning point” for stars openly admitting that their fans are overstepping certain boundaries.

She believes it’s easier for this generation of stars to talk about the topic because they were raised in a world where the language of mental health and boundaries reigned supreme, as “popular culture was reassessing how celebrities were treated in the 2000s” – most notably Britney Spears.

As the princess of millennial pop, Spears is a cautionary tale for those who would emulate her. She symbolizes both the exploitation of an era — marketed to the masses as a teenage sex kitten aged just 16 — and the changing pressures of fame brought on by changing media.

Rising to the height of her fame in the pre-social media era, Spears’ tightly controlled career was overwhelmed by paparazzi and executives to the point of a public breakdown.

Roan is now turning her attention to fans who, thanks to social media, are able to form parasocial relationships – a psychological term describing the illusion of friendship or connection with a celebrity they have never met.

According to Ditum, for this generation, fame is particularly intense.

“In some ways, social media is an incredible power in their hands. They don’t have to go through potentially hostile press and they can speak directly to their audience on their own terms.

“But it also gives incredible power to the audience.”