“It’s not a woman’s duty to suck it up and take it; it’s the harasser’s duty to be a decent person, leave her alone, and respect that she can wear whatever she wants and still deserve peace in the world.” (From Chappell’s powerful Instagram message)
Chappell Roan has had a massive rise to fame since her No.1 2024 summer hit, ‘’Good Luck, Babe!’’ Sometimes a rise to fame and success isn’t all that it seems. With her rise to stardom, she started to get stalkers who would yell at her on the street, visit her parent’s home, leak her parents’ phone number, harassed her at an airport for her autograph, and even follow her to her hotel room.
For the instances listed, Roan released two posts expressing her boundaries on Instagram and TikTok. “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. I want to be an artist for a very long time. I’ve been in too many non-consensual physical and social interactions and I just need to remind you, women don’t owe you shit. I chose this career path because I love music and art and honoring my inner child, I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it.” (Excerpt of Roan’s Instagram post.) She expressed some of the feelings and emotions about fame she held in for a long time. Stardom can turn who you are and your own identity into a spectacle shining in the night and burning in the daylight.
If there is one thing Roan is known for doing, it’s turning trauma into a masterpiece. In her VMA’s performance, Roan used her theatrical performance skills and Kate Bush like vocals to create a moment that will last for decades to come . The entire stage lights up like Broadway Musical, with our knight in shining armor singing in the middle of a burning castle. A flaming arrow can bring a kingdom to its knees. With a masterful stage performance similar to the red wedding in “Game of Thrones”, we can visually see how violence, pain and struggles can be seen as something beautiful to an audience, even if Roan risks getting burned in the process.
The performance starts with Roan walking out of her castle with a crossbow in hand. Gladiators with cold gazes and battle-ready glares prepare for the fight of their lives as Roan glides past them. Resembling the precision of Katniss Everdeen from “The Hunger Games”, Roan releases a fiery arrow into the heart of the castle, bursting into flames. The battle starts with a Roan laden with heavy armor and her deafening range of vocality. Her soldiers draw their swords and aid her with a mic in hand. For every lyric, the men change their battle formation to gain Roan’s attention. One of the biggest changes is when the meaning behind the song comes into focus. As Roan sings the lyric, ‘’You can kiss a hundred boys in bars; shoot another shot; try to stop the feeling,’’ her soldiers mindlessly slash the air with their long swords, showing their strength to Roan yet, she doesn’t even show interest in them.
Graphic Courtesy of Chappell Roan’s Instagram
Roan uses the burning arrow as a catalyst to divert the audience from the truth. Contextually, “Good Luck Babe” focuses on how sometimes we throw ourselves into things to avoid who we truly are. More specifically, how some people sacrifice their queerness to be loved by others. Roan sings about how she was left heartbroken by her ex that wouldn’t accept her own sexuality. So, this love interest dates men to avoid her queerness and tries to do all that she can to avoid coming out. The roles are switched, with Roan acting as a knight sworn to living her last days with men and not her true love. During the Medieval Ages, not following the domestic sphere could mean the death of you. Joan of Arc is an example of a woman who fought with her soldiers to help Charles of Valois rule as king and died for being a woman who could communicate with God and was “cross-dressing.” Being someone other than the norm in fashion, religion, and more could have easily gotten you harmed or killed. Roan holds more than the weight of her armor and vocality. She holds the weight of surviving.
Another scene shows Roan holding back her soldiers from violence as she belts out, “You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.” Not only is Roan pushing back, she’s trying to buy time so she can “stop the feeling.” She knows she must accept who she is before it burns her alive. As they try to advance, she pushes them back from her. As Roans’ soldiers go back to showing off for her affection, she states she needs “a little lovin’” and “a little air” from this love affair. Her Instagram statement showed that she just wants 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.” This adds another dynamic to her performance because, stage-wise, her soldiers show actions that are reminiscent of the “predatory behavior (disguised as “superfan” behavior)” she discussed in her Instagram messages.
Her gladiators act as if they are protecting her but show, through drawn swords and attempted ways of overpowering her, they want to force her into their arms that are full of false love. The complete power imbalance between men and women during the Medieval Ages takes place with these men abusing their power to belittle and force their crush into a domestic sphere.
As we get near the final bridge of the song Roan sings, “And when you think about me, all those years ago, you’re standing face to face with “I told you so..” We are faced with friendly sparing between the soldiers shifting into a brutally violent battle with our heroine in the middle of the madness. As soldier by soldier goes down, she engages with her audience by shouting out “Good luck, babe,” wishing her enemies well as they metaphorically burn down and reap what they’ve sown. The song slows down from an anthem to a mellow pace as she repeats the chorus. This part makes her message even rawer than before. The anarchy dwindling down as she sings leaves viewers with a heroine broke free from the structures that kept her from being who she is. Roan kneels to her audience’s waving hands as her performance comes to a masterful stop.
Roan’s character comes to the realization that your feelings of love and emotions will never end. The performance’s conclusion shows that your truth will never go away. It will burn with the blaze of a thousand suns and scorch anyone who tries to put her fire out. Somewhat like a record player, “You’ll have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.”