Chappell Roan and the trap of the so-called "mean lesbian"

Heaven forbid a real, flesh-and-blood woman pushes back against the cult of docility forced upon her.

People can’t stand a real ass bitch.

Specifically, people cannot seem to stand a lesbian woman artist who speaks her mind — unfiltered, brash and brazen. 

News of the ingénue of the moment, Chappell Roan, a stratospheric popstar in the making, has been at the edge of everyone’s tongues, fingertips and, dare I say, thoughts — from fellow Gen Z to generations beyond. With breakneck speeds, headlines and social media posts about what The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess singer has said (or not said) and done (or not done) have sprung up overnight, generating nauseating circuitous discourse about how a woman of her status, fame level, identity and political bend should act. The fact that none of these postulators know her at all — and perhaps the meaning of words, in general — is neither here nor there. I compiled 16 pages of Google Docs research notes for this article, so just imagine how tired she is.

First, some background: As the chart seen round the world indicates, a year and change has brought up her Spotify listeners to 45 million and counting, from just one previously. Viral appearances at NPR Tiny Desk, well-timed late-night promo, a banger Coachella set and an earworm of a track in ‘Good Luck, Babe!’, catapulted “your favorite artist’s favorite artist” to the top of the Billboard charts — as well as everyone’s shitlist. Now, with a VMA appearance in tow, upcoming stint at Saturday Night Live and a Best New Artist trophy setting her up for a big Grammy push, Roan’s persona has careened, or rather been wrenched out of, her control. 

The general treatment of the record-breaker is not entirely unfamiliar, reminiscent of the bubblegum strain of pop misogyny of the 2000s — think Britney Spears and the insipid yet vile tabloid scandal-mongering. However, it is, of course, coloured by much more than that, namely, the queer dynamics of the so-called “mean lesbian” image in media, at once exalted and viciously reviled, an impossible standard upon which desire, access and heterosexism can be projected.