From Punching Cameras to Swinging Umbrellas: Why you should support celebrities defending their personal privacy

Celeb-badgering culture has been repeatedly normalized by news outlets like TMZ, parasitical paparazzi, and gossip publications like Deuxmoi, which publishes celebrity gossip submitted and corroborated by the public. Celebrities don't need to stray from the personal lines they draw, the media and superfans must change the way they view celebrity personalities. Between celeb stalking culture, "stan" obsession, PR relationships, and gossip publications, becoming famous seems like a less desired position to be in mainly due to the major privacy risk the lifestyle entails.

Chappell Roan’s “Crash Out”

Chappell Roan isn’t afraid to give fans and paparazzi a piece of her mind, but not without ending it with “Good Luck, Babe!” Folks who cross her boundaries after the many stern talking-tos she gave the public are going to need all the luck they can get after she’s done with them.

Before she finished just one year in the top spot of the limelight, Roan made several attempts to draw a line with entitled fans and media outlets who have disregarded the fact that she’s human and needs privacy just like everyone else. Roan adds that “women don’t owe you s**t,” and the close-call physical interactions she’s had with fans are eerily reminiscent of Bjork and Selena Quintanilla’s fan-stalker situations. She published lengthy Instagram posts to speak her mind from a safe distance, yelled at disrespectful paparazzi while walking the red carpet during the VMAs, and even chose to use her Grammy “Best New Artist” speech to tell record labels, “We got you—but do you got us?”

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Fans were naturally divided in every instance of Roan putting her foot down, but these “crash out” moments sparked a conversation bigger than Roan herself: Do celebrities owe the rest of their lives to the folks who gave them everything? Well, we think it’s more complicated than that.

Paparazzi’s Long-Standing Feud with Celebs

Celebrities have been frenemies with the paparazzi for decades. It would be unfair not to mention three of the most-harassed celebrities in 21st-century pop culture: Justin Bieber, Kanye West, and Britney Spears. The celeb trinity has had some of the most publicized, negative run-ins with the paparazzi in the last two decades, and that’s likely because of their insane public influence (in addition to their rather eclectic personalities).

Justin Bieber rose to fame in 2009, becoming an overnight pop sensation. The “Bieber Fever” phenomenon will likely never be forgotten because of how quickly and effectively Bieber’s label marketed him to the public. Within weeks of dropping his debut EP, My World, Bieber snaked his way into everyone’s hearts. With great power comes great responsibility, and for a 15-year-old kid with millions of crazed fans, things are bound to go south. Bieber was, relative to so many pop stars at the time, a baby. He was thrown into the media, a figurative pacifier in his mouth. Even still, he was not primed enough for how bad the public’s entitlement to his life would become. Nobody is primed for life in the limelight, really, because it’s not humanly possible to be truthfully okay with having all eyes on you at all times. 

In the early 2010s, Bieber “lunged” at paparazzi after having about four years in the music spotlight under his belt. After a rough concert the night before where Bieber collapsed on stage, the 19-year-old was harassed by paparazzi shouting obscenities at him, which resulted in a near-physical altercation. Media outlets painted him as one of the most entitled stars in the music industry because the paparazzi lit a fuse they couldn’t put out. To this day, almost 12 years later, Bieber is still harassed by paparazzi daily. Now, however, he makes a point to converse with the cameramen about boundaries, some of whom he even knows on a first-name basis. Kanye West has similarly had negative run-ins with the paparazzi, namely one instance where he calls the paparazzo a “bl00d sucking mosquito.” Britney Spears’ infamous 2007 altercation with the paparazzi, which resulted in her busting a videographer’s car window with an umbrella, was a reaction to years of media harassment during a sensitive time in the star’s life.

The media capitalizes on the negative effect they have on celebs which is evident in the many “news” outlets still running today like TMZ, The National Inquirer, and Us Weekly. That’s why when stars fight back, the media still cashes out a fat check.

The Celebrity Gossip Publication Deuxmoi

The infamous gossip publication and panopticon-esque online entity, Deuxmoi, rose to prominence in 2020 but has been around for about a decade. The NYC-based anonymous “blind item” publisher writes about all things celebrity gossip. “Blind items” are pieces of celebrity gossip submitted to Deuxmoi by the public, often using pseudonyms to allude to a celebrity. If you’re wondering if Hailey Bieber’s got another bun in the oven, Deuxmoi will know it first. Which TikTok influencer is dining in Lincoln Center this Saturday night? Email her and she’ll let you know. Deuxmoi is very similar to the fictional website in the classic CW series Gossip Girl—and, as Gossip Girl thrived on the prying eyes of private school socialites on the Upper East Side, Deuxmoi relies on entitled “fans” for “blind items” spoken in a strange, gossipy lexicon that is difficult to understand.

This subgenre of publishing is reliant solely on the public eye (and opinion) and with that comes biases that are irrefutable. Tuning into Deuxmoi would be a mistake for that reason specifically, along with the fact that thousands of “average Joes” have made it their mission to spy on unsuspecting stars trying to grab a coffee in the AM with their non-famous one-night stand. Isn’t anything sacred anymore?! Deuxmoi perpetuates the privacy risk that many celebrities deal with daily—and her “blind items” are often on the nose or somewhat correct and published weeks before major media outlets get a taste of the story. Normalizing this blatant invasion of privacy is why many celebs like Chappell Roan and Justin Bieber call it out and continue to do so. Such is the issue with the major disconnect between the celebrity lifestyle and “average Joe” individuals—you don’t know it unless you’ve lived it.

“Stan” Culture, Its Origins, and Its Subtle Hypocrisy

The famous rapper, Eminem, is no stranger to superfans or “stans.” The rapper actually coined the term himself when he released the song “Stan” at the beginning of the millennia. The song tells a fictional story about an obsessive, intrusive fan named Stan who ultimately cuts his and his family’s life short when Eminem fails to respond to Stan’s fan mail. Though Eminem states that the song is fiction, it is still based on super fans who display concerning behavior as a result of a parasocial infatuation with artists and celebrities. Since the song’s release, the term “stan” has been used to describe devoted fans of celebrity personalities and is now a part of the Oxford English Dictionary. 

What’s the difference between supporters and super “stans?”

Backtracking to Bieber again, the pop star has had countless instances of begging fans to leave his property. Like anyone else, he deserves to come and go from his home as he pleases without stopping to speak to fans who believe they’re entitled to five minutes of his time when he’s not working. If every fan was given five minutes, Bieber would be outside his property all night. To claim to care about an artist's well-being and demand their time when they don’t want to give it to you is hypocrisy. Drew Barrymore’s infamous stalker who claimed to be her “biggest fan” rushed the stage during a broadcast of her own talk show. Devoted Swifties, who are infamous for having irrevocable devotion to Taylor Swift, wait outside of her NYC apartment hoping to catch even a glimpse of the star. To reiterate Chappell Roan’s point and an eerie sentiment that shouldn’t have to be muttered time and time again: “Women don’t owe you s**t.” Obsessive “stans,” evident in the many instances of privacy invasion, clearly do not care about their idols if they are willing to disrupt and go against what their beloved celebrities are asking of them. Period.

The bottom line here is that obsessive “stans,” media outlets, paparazzi, and even celebrity employers are not entitled to a celebrity’s entire life and time. Chappell Roan is only one of many celebrities labeled as having a “crash out” because they beg the public for human decency and respect. There’s nothing hysterical about asking for privacy and defending one’s right to respect and decency—and if you don’t respect it, well, good luck, babe.