Every week, we come across the age-old curse of being the new “pop it girl”. A headline, tabloid, or Instagram post tears apart a pop girl. Taylor’s dating life, Olivia’s outfits, Sabrina’s concert and lyrics, Lana’s weight. This isn’t new; it’s an industry pattern which is exhausting. While their music club charts, tabloids pick apart their choices like they owe us moral perfection. But do they?
The Burden of Being a “Role Model”
The industry messes up the idea of being a female pop icon with being a “role model”. Each step, move is measured, scrutinised and weighed on a scale of wrong or right.
It’s almost comical. Male stars are free to stumble through scandals, lawsuits, and chaotic afterparties with little more than a shrug from the press. Travis Scott’s crowd tragedies didn’t spark an international debate on whether he should be raising your kids. Drake texting teenage actresses never became a “What Will This Teach The Children?” headline.
But women? The second they step out of line, suddenly they’re not just artists, they’re cautionary tales.
Internalised Misogyny, Served Daily
Here’s the disappointing reality: the scrutiny does not just stem from media outlets or moral watchdogs. It comes from us. From the very fans and audience who claim either to love them or love forming opinions on them.
Think about the endless “good girl vs. bad girl” narratives that pop culture shoves down our throats. Taylor Swift, the meticulous planner with the good-girl image, was constantly contrasted with Miley Cyrus, the rebellious wild child. Olivia Rodrigo’s melancholic ballads were once rumoured to be about Sabrina Carpenter, and even though they’ve moved on, their existence is still made up to be a competition.
It’s internalised misogyny on replay, the idea that for a woman to be worthy of respect, she must be either flawless or flawlessly rebellious, but never both, and never fully human.
The Myth of Responsibility
Let’s be real: pop girls aren’t your babysitters. They’re not raising your children, nor should they be expected to. They’re artists, not guidance counsellors.
This narrative isn’t new. Madonna was crucified for her performance in the ’80s. Britney Spears was hounded in the 2000s for being simultaneously “too sexy” and “too irresponsible.” Taylor Swift was continuously dissected in the 2010s for the radical crime of dating in her 20s. Now, newer stars like Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter are caught up in the same suffocating cycle.
The real responsibility lies with the society that should know better than to outsource morality to celebrities. Expecting women in pop to raise the next generation is lazy at best and misogynistic at worst.
Why It’s Dangerous
Here’s where it gets scary: holding women to this impossible “role model” standard doesn’t just shape headlines, it shapes culture. It shrinks women.
When women in pop are punished for imperfection, they’re taught to play smaller, safer, quieter. Meanwhile, men are rewarded for chaos, excess, and even violence. Male freedom is celebrated as “rockstar behaviour.” Female freedom is vilified as a “bad influence.”
It’s a cultural double bind that not only limits the women we watch on stage but also reflects onto every girl who grows up consuming this media.
Reframing Role Models
The question isn’t whether pop girls are “role models” in the traditional sense. It’s about redefining what that term means.
Being a role model isn’t about perfection; it’s about visibility. About showing the full spectrum of being a woman, messy, bold, contradictory, ambitious, sometimes chaotic, always human.
In that light, Madonna’s defiance, Britney’s survival, Taylor’s reinventions, Sabrina’s playfulness, and Olivia’s honesty about girlhood all look less like bad influence and more like radical representation.
The Radical Role Model
So, are pop girls really our role models now?
Yes, but not because they’re flawless paragons of virtue. They’re role models precisely because they aren’t. Because they show us that women don’t need to be perfect, or pre-approved, to take up space.
They’re not here to raise us. They’re here to remind us that being fully human with contradictions, chaos, and courage is allowed. And maybe that’s the most radical role model of all.
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