Chappell Roan is the only artist I can confidently say I’m an OG fan of. Around mid-2022, I came upon a TikTok of a fan passionately lip-syncing Chappell’s newly-released “Casual”, complete with a lesbian flag hanging behind them — I went to Spotify, hit play, and knew it was only a matter of time before she became a sensation.
Sure enough, Chappell’s iconic Coachella performance and the release of “Good Luck, Babe!” in April 2024 propelled her to superstardom. But faced with a meteoric rise in popularity and a huge influx of people wondering where the hell she came from, Chappell was primed for the Internet to turn on her. It wasted no time doing so.
I’m not here to dissect every Chappell-related controversy, so here’s the gist of my opinions on her hate train’s previous stops: 1) putting yourself in the public eye does not warrant harassment and no one is “built for fame,” 2) endorsing and voting are different and you probably shouldn’t expect an outspoken supporter of Palestine to endorse a Democrat who’s received over 9 million from AIPAC, and 3) Chappell’s partnership with MAC was disappointing and I hope she makes a statement when her contract dries up, but you can’t convince me that her haters actually care about it.
All things considered, I’m a Chappell fan through and through. So the moment this latest controversy sparked, I cleared the decks and got ready to defend her.
So, Here’s the Situation
On March 21, Brazilian footballer Jorginho posted an Instagram story accusing Chappell of sending her security guard to berate his 11-year-old daughter after she walked past Chappell at a hotel in São Paulo. Thanks to tweets by drama accounts like PopBase, people were quick to turn on Chappell and take Jorginho’s word as law. (Speaking of law, the daughter’s biological father is Jude Law and, for some reason, people cared.)
Chappell’s haters admonished her for the incident, citing her firm stance on celebrity-fan boundaries as proof that she would yell at a child for smiling at her. They assumed her shoutout to her crew, security, and band on stage at Lollapalooza Brazil was a shady endorsement. The mayor of Rio de Janeiro banned Chappell from performing at music festival Todo Mundo no Rio.
Patently ridiculous.
One day later, Chappell shared her side of the story: the security guard was not a member of her team and she hadn’t seen a woman or a child at the hotel. She apologized to both the kid and her mother (Irish singer Catherine Harding) for the security guard’s actions and made it clear that she does not hate her fans, nor does she hate children. The smile on her face said it all — this situation was ridiculous, but it had nonetheless gotten out of hand.
After, Harding posted a gratuitously long Instagram story and expressed her certainty that the security guard belonged to Chappell’s team. Three days later, the security guard himself (Pascal Duvier, who works for an artist he did not name but who is most certainly not Chappell) took full responsibility for the incident, which finally proved to most that Chappell had no involvement.
Here’s the nail in this nonsensical coffin: a recent report found that bots accounted for more than 23% of posts regarding the incident, suggesting proof for the targeted smear campaign we should all recognize by now.
The Internet Really, Really Hates Women
Should we really be surprised that it took the security guard stepping in for the hate train to die down a little? After all, a man’s word started it, so of course the Internet would need another man to clear it up. The word of the woman who was targeted and smeared doesn’t matter; many won’t see Duvier’s comments, and many more just don’t believe her.
While all of my friends, Chappell fans and otherwise, instantly knew this conversation wasn’t worth engaging in, my Twitter timeline fractured into pro-Chappell or anti-Chappell teams. If it’s not clear which side I’m on, just know I didn’t believe a single word of Jorginho’s story from the jump. But I wasn’t shocked that so many people did.
It’s astonishingly easy for the Internet to turn on women, particularly those who showcase any modicum of personality. As a lesbian myself, it’s not hard to draw a line between the vehement Chappell hate, her queerness, and the fact that she’s a woman. Jameela Jamil sarcastically put it best: “I just wanna say I agree with all the [Chappell Roan] hate…She’s pro trans. She’s gay. She’s anti establishment. She decenters men in all of her rhetoric and empowers millions of young people…This is not to send a warning to other women to not try being outspoken and disobedient. Women are not supposed to have boundaries ever.”
Logic doesn’t operate on the Internet because hate trains are easy fodder for bots, drama accounts, and losers to make money. And like many things in our misogynistic society, they do it off the backs of women.
I’m sick of this happening and I refuse to engage in it anymore. I don’t even care if it’s about a celebrity I dislike — you won’t find me hating on Blake Lively and you certainly won’t catch me completely ignoring the mountain of evidence against Justin Baldoni. Contributing to bad-faith controversies is the easiest way to give misogynistic losers another avenue to hate on women.
I can only hope Chappell has a strong support system helping her deal with the aftermath of a controversy she played no part in. The best advice I can give to you, whether or not you fell for this particular smear campaign, is this: Before hating on the latest female celebrity caught in the crossfire, ask yourself, would people be so riled up if the person under fire was a man?