If you’ve been on social media any time within the past two weeks, you’ve probably been a witness, or even a contributor, to a certain celebrity receiving a huge amount of hate. As someone who prides myself on believing victims, I recently have had to take a social media break because it’s been really hard for me to see someone whom I look up to being subjected to horrific misogynistic and homophobic abuse.
Chappell Roan, my favorite Midwest princess and openly lesbian pop-star, has been the next victim of another huge internet smear campaign for committing the worst crime a woman can commit — sticking up for herself? Setting boundaries? I am not honestly sure what her big scandal is, because to me, all I have seen her do is stand up to vicious harassment from “fans” and paparazzi. However, witnessing this hate train is not new to me in the slightest.
This situation is giving me horrendous déjà vu of being the only person in the room who defended Megan Thee Stallion in 2020, Amber Heard in 2022, and then Blake Lively in 2024; the list goes on. But every time, I am still left asking the same question: why does everyone keep falling for smear campaigns?
In 2020, Megan Thee Stallion was shot by rapper Tory Lanez. In court, she expressed deep regret about coming out about this because of the visceral hate she received from social media, which claimed she lied about the shooting to defame Lanez. She was painted as the “aggressive black woman” by the media because of this situation, while Lanez still has tons of loyal fans.
Then, in 2022, I witnessed this again with Amber Heard. People blindly believed that Heard, a girl in her mid-twenties who was new to the film industry, physically and emotionally abused Johnny Depp, a much older, extremely rich and successful actor with ties to Marilyn Manson, Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, and more, and has also racked up multiple abuse allegations from many others. Then, just when the tides began to change for Heard years after the trial, she was replaced by Blake Lively, who came out about the sexual abuse she endured from the director of It Ends With Us, Justin Bladoni, who coincidentally hired the same publicity team as Depp. This continues to be an ongoing cycle, with Chappell Roan as the next victim.
It has been really hard recently seeing people I considered friends, blindly contributing to this smear campaign just because Roan is the internet’s current meme. However, these “harmless” jokes are silencing victims and are the reason women, not just celebrities, are not believed. These jokes contribute to rape culture, even if you don’t realize it. Roan and many other celebrities have come forward about being sexually assaulted in public by fans. Roan has spoken out about someone forcefully grabbing her face and kissing her, as well as being stalked and followed, which is why, in 2024, she posted the video to her Instagram, calling out creepy fan behavior.
While she is receiving an extreme amount of hate now, it all started to brew after she posted this, which is really strange to me because I saw nothing wrong with this post. Female celebrities do not owe you their time. Unfortunately, I have to clarify ‘female’ because I have never seen a man receive this treatment when they speak out against creepy fans or paparazzi behavior.
When Justin Bieber, Jacob Elordi, Tyler the Creator, Toby Maguire, and many others rightfully yell or even physically harm paparazzi, they are sympathized with. Almost as if people can only see how awful paparazzi really are if they are harming men. I also find it funny that some male celebrities have made a brand out of being actually rude to fans and interviewers, and people pass it off as just their humor. Whereas when Roan calls out people who have harassed her, she is the one who’s labeled as mean.
It’s unfortunate, but the reason you think she’s mean or difficult is that the internet convinced you she is. It’s textbook misogynistic rhetoric that women are emotional or crazy for setting boundaries. Especially since many real fans of Chappell Roan have confirmed how sweet she is, and yes, even willing to take a photo, as long as you treat her with respect. There is literally no evidence of her being rude to actual fans.
In the recent video that has been surfacing on social media of her recording paparazzi and telling them to go away, a “fan” is also seen asking for an autograph. If people did about five minutes of research, they would find out that he was a scalper. He was not just an innocent fan who was one of Chappell Roan’s victims.
After this video dropped, Brazilian soccer player Jorginho Frello posted to his Instagram story about how Roan forced her security guard to approach him and his family’s table at a hotel to call them out, after his 11-year-old daughter passed Roan’s table while she was eating. I know how bad the hate train against Roan is right now, so I know people would want to profit off this, and I did not believe this at first.
Turns out, I was right. Roan quickly posted a video to her Instagram explaining that she never saw his daughter, that the security guard was not part of her team, and she had no knowledge of the situation. But unfortunately, people keep finding reasons to hate her, digging up fake news from her past, and dissecting every facial expression she makes to find anything to make her seem unlikable. When in fact, she is very nice to fans and is more outspoken about global issues than most celebrities.
Roan has been outspoken about her support for Palestine and reproductive rights, and has even started her own foundation, The Midwest Princess Project, in order to uplift trans youth, which has raised well over $500k last year. She is not the bad guy the internet paints her out to be; in fact, the bad guy is anyone who falls for the misogynistic and homophobic spear campaign against her.
Imagine If It Was You
Think about these women’s positions. Imagine if you were harassed, shot, abused, or sexually assaulted, and when you spoke out about it, you were met with people calling you crazy, mean, or difficult. People saying “you should’ve been nicer,” or “that’s just part of the job.” For a culture that is so adamant about believing victims, it is rare that I actually see victims being believed.
These smear campaigns are the reason victims don’t come forward. They are the reason male celebrities can do whatever they want, while female ones are watched under a microscope. So next time you think you’re joining in on a “harmless” joke about Roan’s boundaries, or Heard’s crying face, or even streaming Lanez’s music, think about how “harmless” it really is.