In March of 2026, Chappell Roan performed at Lollapalooza in Brazil, but her incredible performance was quickly overshadowed by the accusations of Brazilian soccer player Jorginho Frello, claiming that her security guard was rude to his daughter. Roan quickly took to her Instagram story and explained that the alleged security guard was not on her security team, nor had she asked him to approach the family. A few days later, the security guard in question took full responsibility for the interaction, and admitted that he is not a part of Roan’s team. However, their statements did not change the fact that Roan has become yet another example of a man’s covert way to shrink a woman’s success, and attempt to shift the public’s view on her.
Chappell Roan is no stranger to bad press and hate revolving around various aspects of who she is. Prior to this situation, she has been scorned online for demanding privacy and respect from both the paparazzi and public, leading to the accusations that she is “rude” and “ungrateful” to her fans. So, when Frello released his statement regarding her behavior towards his daughter, many people were quick to jump on the hate train, because they viewed this as a confirmation of the rude personality they believed her to have.
A week after the publishing of Frello’s statement, BuzzFeed did some digging on who exactly was fueling this hatred towards Roan online. They spoke with GUDEA, a research company that analyzes how information is spread through online spaces, specifically misinformation, who revealed that “4.2% of users contributing to the Chappell conversation at this time were ‘non-typical’ – i.e. were very likely to be bots.” They then continued to report that bots “accounted for over 23% of the posts”, suggesting that many of the contributions made to this discourse were crafted by bots, rather than real people or fans.
The question then arises of why there were so many bots involved in this conversation online. GUDEA’s report continues to explain that “Discourse ranged from legitimate fan criticism and debate about celebrity privacy vs. fan treatment, to coordinated attack campaigns and considerable satirical/humorous content that blurred the line with misinformation,” according to BuzzFeed. The involvement of the bots spurring this conversation is speculated to be an example of a smear campaign against Roan.
Smear campaigns are something that have always been targeted towards people in political and public spaces, and are intended to purposefully tarnish their reputation and character. While smear campaigns can be targeted towards people of any gender, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that “Attackers disproportionately target women, journalists, from minority backgrounds, and those on particular beats, such as climate change, health, politics, and gender.” That being said, smear campaigns have played a large role in pop culture and how the public perceives certain female celebrities and artists during periods of controversy or discourse involving them.
Aside from Chappell Roan, another prime example of smear campaigns being deployed against women in music is the hatred towards singer Megan Thee Stallion during her trial against social media blogger Milagro Cooper in 2024. Four years prior, in July of 2020, Megan Thee Stallion, legally known as Megan Pete, was shot and injured by rapper Tory Lanez, sparking a large amount of discourse regarding the incident. Pete began receiving mass amounts of harassment online, including social media users accusing her of lying about her testimony against Lanez.
Cooper played a massive role in these targeted attacks Pete was facing online. During her trial in 2024 against Cooper, she testified that she “participated in a targeted and coordinated social media campaign to harass, intimidate, and defame her” and that “Cooper was a ‘paid surrogate’ for rapper Tory Lanez and spread lies on his behalf” according to ABC News. Cooper was found guilty, and was proven to have been behind false claims regarding the shooting incident and AI-generated pornographic images of Pete that had spread across the Internet primarily during the trials against Lanez.
The posts and conversations that Cooper would upload during this time period only fueled the ever-growing fire of misogyny and racism that Pete was already facing online. Systemic racist beliefs that exist within our society have continuously shown up in how people respond when Black women come forward as victims of abuse, and who they choose to believe when these stories are shared. As ACLU states, “This perpetuates a long line of impunity for violence against Black women, girls, and non-binary people.” By feeding off of these systemic issues, Cooper’s campaign against Pete continued to push people away from taking her side and standing with her, and the traction of Lanez’ support only grew.
Chappell Roan and Megan Thee Stallion are only two women of thousands who have been targeted through smear campaigns by people for speaking up for themselves, or just simply existing as successful, strong, and powerful women. It’s no shock that men feel threatened by women’s success, and will take any opportunity to bring them down and destroy the careers and accomplishments they have worked so incredibly hard to build.
That being said, it’s important to think critically when it comes to hatred that exists towards women online, and really dig deeper into what you are engaging with. Social media is riddled with misinformation, so it is incredibly important to do your own research and truly learn about the topic at hand before forming an opinion on it and jumping on the hate train. Regardless of the posts and quotes you are seeing online, I implore you to look deeper beneath the surface, and understand what systemic and stereotypical beliefs may be at play during these controversial incidents.