Why can’t we be normal about celebrities?

Nethra Pai, Editor-in-Chief

Chappell Roan is this summer’s newest pop star, with her shiny costumes and drag-inspired music. Her career began almost ten years ago, but in the past few months, Roan has become everyone’s favorite artist with songs like “Good Luck, Babe” and “HOT TO GO”. But as she becomes more and more famous, she’s also been struggling with the sudden, often unwanted, attention.

According to dictionary.com, a parasocial relationship is “a relationship that a person imagines having with another person whom they do not actually know, such as a celebrity or a fictional character.” Fans sell out stadiums because they form connections with celebrities who don’t know them individually. Parasocial relationships aren’t always a bad thing, since research has shown that parasocial relationships can help form an identity for adolescents, boost confidence in those with low self-esteem, and provide a sense of companionship. The real issue arises when people expect more from these relationships.

Oftentimes, fans meet their idols and expect them to reciprocate the love and excitement that they have. Fans have always treated celebrities more like objects than people because they’re marketed as such. The perfectly manufactured facades and shared experiences are carefully released in order to make fans feel a connection. By interacting with a celebrity’s persona, we feel like we know that person. And for most people, it stops there. We still understand that we are interacting with a famous person that we can choose to admire from afar.

Roan is a unique celebrity; often, she’s praised for her lack of media training, which makes her more relatable. She’s particularly active on TikTok, and because of all of this, her public persona especially feels like her real personality, despite the very real divide between herself on and off stage. 

Social media has increased the prevalence of unhealthy parasocial relationships. Artists like Roan feel like they’re sharing a glimpse into their own lives every day, from their favorite music to their outfit of the day. These people seem less filtered and more like your everyday person posting their perfectly normal lives. 

Most recently, Roan expressed her personal boundaries, asking that fans don’t ask to take pictures with her off-duty, hug her, and stalk her. While many have been supportive of the post, many others have taken to complaining that she was lumping in normal fan behavior with crazy people, slinging insults at her, and claiming that she was obviously never meant for fame. But her request is not all too unreasonable-- if any other person did not want to hug a stranger, it would be completely normal. But because she feels like a friend, people feel entitled to all of the similar friendly activities.

Roan is far from the first to call out parasocial behavior. Doja Cat was accused of sabotaging her career just a year ago. Before them were Kit Connor and Michael Jackson. At the end of the day, all of them are perfectly within their rights to ask for their privacy. We can admire and support them, but at the end of the day, we don’t own celebrities. After all, respect is a far better show of loyalty than entitlement ever could be.