Singer Chappell Roan has condemned the “predatory behavior” she’s faced while in the spotlight.
“For the past 10 years, I’ve been going non-stop to build my project and it’s come to the point that I need to draw lines and set boundaries,” Roan, 26, wrote in a lengthy Instagram statement on Friday, August 23. “I want to be an artist for a very long time. I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you s—t.”
According to the “Hot to Go” singer, she chose a career in music solely because she loves “art and honoring [her] inner child.”
“I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it,” Roan wrote. “While I’m on stage, when I’m performing, when I’m in drag, when I’m at a work event, when I’m doing press … I am at work. Any other circumstances, I am not in work mode. I am clocked out.”
In those instances, Roan doesn’t feel obligated to a “mutual exchange of energy, time or attention” to strangers that she doesn’t already know or personally trust.
“I am specifically talking about predatory behavior (disguised as ‘superfan’ behavior) that has become normalized because of the way women are well-known have been treated in the past,” she explained. “Please do not assume you know a lot about someone’s life, personality and boundaries because you are familiar with them or their work online.”
Roan continued, “What I do not accept are creepy people, being touched and being followed. … I want to love my life, be outside, giggle with my friends, go to the movie theater, feel safe and do all the things every single person deserves to do.”
Roan further implored her social media followers to “stop touching” her and “stop being weird” toward her friends and family.
“Please stop assuming things about me. There is always more to the story,” she stressed. “I am scared and tired. And please — don’t call me [by my given name] Kayleigh. I feel more love than I ever have in my life. I feel the most unsafe I have ever felt in my life.”
The musician continued, “There is a party of myself that I save just for my project and all of you. There is a part of myself that is just for me, and I don’t want that taken away from me.”
Despite Roan struggling to deal with unwanted harassment and attention, she is still grateful for her true fans’ “understanding and support.”
“This has nothing to do with the gratitude and love I feel for my community, for the people who respect my boundaries and for the love I feel from every person who lifts me up and has stuck with me to help the project get to where it is now,” she concluded.
Roan’s message has already been cosigned by other musicians, including Maren Morris and Paramore’s Hayley Williams.
“This happens to every woman I know from this business, myself included,” Williams, 35, wrote in a Friday Instagram Story upload, resharing Roan’s post. “Social media has made this worse. I’m really thankful Chappell is willing to address it in a real way, in real time. It’s brave and, unfortunately, necessary.”
