Since her meteoric rise to pop stardom last year, Chappell Roan has spoken out on several occasions about the constant dehumanization she experiences both online and on the red carpet. Despite repeatedly stating that fan harassment has worsened her mental health, Roan’s unfiltered TikTok missives quickly earned the 27-year-old a reputation for being a diva. But in an interview on Ts Madison’s Outlaws released Monday, Roan explained that protecting her privacy — even at the risk of being labeled a “villain” — is the only way she’s going to survive the music industry’s demands.
As part of a regular segment of the podcast, Outlaws host Madison prompted Roan to identify her “villain era,” and asked what she has learned from it. “My villain era? I think that I’ve had like three in the past nine months probably just because I was the new girl in the pop game, where I was like, ‘I don’t give a fuck what you say to these girls who have been doing this since they were 10 and have been told this is okay how you’re treated,’” she said.
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Recalling the media’s “evil” behavior toward Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton in the early aughts, Roan noted that “that behavior” is still the norm. “Do you want me to just get to the point where I become agoraphobic? Or so stressed out or so anxious to perform?” she said. “If I do not stand up for myself, I will quit because I cannot bear this: I cannot bear people touching me who I don’t know … I cannot bear people following me.” Looking back on the time she spent working at a doughnut shop after being dropped by her record label, she said, “I’ve been treated better at my doughnut-shop job than I have on a fucking carpet. People on the news treat me worse than how customers did.”
Ultimately, it sounds as if Roan is fine with losing some fans if it means prioritizing her well-being. And just because she has asked people not to speak to her unkindly, she added, “doesn’t mean that I’m a villain or ungrateful for what I have.”
