Is she rude or is she setting boundaries? In the media, celebrities, particularly women, have been continuously portrayed as rude, hard to work with and uptight because they set boundaries. Women like Chappell Roan, Meghan Markle, Billie Eilish and many more have been attacked for setting restrictions and limits. Things like not wanting their children to be taken pictures of, telling fans not to touch them, and calling out normalized behavior that makes them uncomfortable are frowned upon. These women get in trouble for simply living their lives how they want to live them, and asking their fans to respect them.

This is not to say that some celebrities aren’t rude, or they don’t have their moments. Of course they do. The only thing is that this “rudeness” is particularly called out in female celebrities who are looking out for themselves. As normal, not famous people, we have our own personal boundaries that we set with our family and friends in everyday life. Things like a personal space bubble, which is taught from a very young age, and respecting other people’s need for privacy. These should transfer to celebrities as well, but parasocial relationships, along with other aspects of fan-celebrity relationships, cause people to forget that celebrities are real people with the same boundaries as us.

Parasocial relationships are extremely common with fans and celebrities, and they tend to result in fans feeling like they have authority over their favorite celebrities’ lives. They deserve their own privacy in their personal lives, and while being a celebrity inherently means giving up some of that privacy, it should not mean that all respect for them is lost.