If you’re waiting for Chappell Roan to apologize for being unapologetic, you might want to get comfortable. The pop firebrand, best known for “Pink Pony Club” and a slew of rebellious, glam-infused anthems, isn’t backing down — not from Twitter critiques, not from uncomfortable questions, and certainly not from the role the internet seems hellbent on casting her in: the villain.
But as Chappell Roan herself makes clear in her recent appearance on Outlaws with TS Madison, the only crime she’s guilty of is refusing to contort herself to fit into the pop industry’s pre-approved archetypes. Sitting alongside Sasha Colby and Madison, Roan speaks with a clarity that’s both cutting and refreshingly adult: “I didn’t become ‘famous’ until I was 26,” she says, “so I had a lot of time to realize… this is what it’s like to be an adult.” Translation: She’s not here to play nice for a system that’s rarely been nice to women like her.
Her words on the podcast aren’t cloaked in PR polish. They’re raw, self-aware, and direct — everything that makes Roan a compelling figure in a pop landscape too often afraid of real messiness. “I think I’ve had three villain eras in the past nine months,” she laughs, and the number almost seems low given how rapidly online discourse turns any form of defiance into a spectacle.
What’s wild is how little she’s actually said that’s controversial — unless, of course, you’re uncomfortable with a woman in pop who’s not interested in being agreeable. Her real “sin”? Asking for better treatment. Speaking up. Existing with boundaries in a space that often devours its stars.
We love to see our pop icons “unfiltered,” but the moment that filter shows a woman with teeth, with opinions, with something other than a vague platitude, she becomes a problem. Chappell Roan is that “problem,” and thank God for it. In a genre that’s desperate for new voices but terrified of losing control, Roan is both the future and the reckoning.
And if that makes her a villain? Well, maybe the world needs more villains like her.