Female singers don’t owe us anything

Same old story, time again – as a new female pop star rises, she's subjected to invasive and entitled fans. 

Same old story, time again – as a new female pop star rises, she’s subjected to invasive and entitled fans. 

Chappell Roan is a bonafide popstar in the making with hits like the comphet anthem Good Luck Babe, and Hot To Go, becoming some of the biggest hits of the year. From her record-breaking show at Lollapalooza, to her iconic NPR Tiny Desk performance, it is clear that Chappell’s star is only getting bigger.

But all of this fame is coming with a creepy and unwarranted price.

Recently, Chappell posted a TikTok detailing some of the creepy things that her supposed fans have done since her rise to fame, including stalking her and her family. In July, Chappell stated in an interview on Drew Afulo’s podcast that she always intended on stepping away from music if her fame was endangering her family, and she acknowledged that she was already at that point.

But this is not an isolated incident of fan hysteria risking the comfort, safety, and sanity of female musicians – sadly it is all too normal. 

In an interview with The Guardian, indie songstress Ethel Cain stated her desire to have a smaller fanbase as she began to feel like “a dancing monkey in a circus”. Singer Ashe, famous for her hit Moral of the Story, left the internet for two years at the peak of her burgeoning career citing mental health issues. The Voice star and Youtuber Christina Grimmie was murdered at a meet and greet by an obsessed fan whose motive was described by the Orlando Sentinel as “If I can’t have you, then nobody else can”.

Fans are far too entitled to female artists, as they feel entitled to their minds, their time, and their bodies in a way that is not as common for male pop stars. When Chappell exclaims “that’s not normal” in her TikTok, I would have to say yes and why do we as a society feel so entitled to female singers?

Most singers write about things that have happened to them, and their songs can be viewed as a diary of sorts. When female pop stars share their experiences through songs, they can validate their fans’ emotions in a world that is constantly trying to discredit them. Due to how deeply personal music is, fans can experience a parasocial relationship with singers, which at times results in unhinged and creepy behaviour, like what Chappell is now experiencing.

Upon the brat album artwork release, to say that many of Charli XCX’s fans were not happy with the now iconic album cover, would be an understatement. Charli responded to the backlash with a tweet stating “i think the constant demand for access to women’s bodies and faces in our album artwork is mysoginistic [sic] and boring.”

Being a fan has become something of an online identity in recent years, with our aesthetics often feeding into what fandoms we belong to. If you are the anti ‘clean girl’, and do poppers, you are brat. If you wear bows in your hair and maxi skirts, you are a Gracie Abrams fan. But if you are a queer person with coloured hair and a carabiner, Chappell Roan is clearly your favourite artist.

Fandom is such a large part of many people’s identities and often fans find their community and friends through these subcultures. But there is a line between being a fan and being a creep, and unfortunately many people are crossing that line.

Parasocial relationships are par for the course of being online in 2024, but it is not as if social media is to blame for how creepy and unhinged fans can be. Let us all remember Queen of Tejano Music Selena Quintanilla’s tragic murder at the hands of an obsessed fan in 1995.

Harassment by entitled fans should not be normalised. Singers being afraid to leave their homes due to stalking is not something anyone should be proud of. Just because we can relate to these people’s music, does not give us access to their personal lives. They are storytellers doing their job, not our friends. So let’s just please be normal to singers.

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Allie Daisy King

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