Chappell Roan’s Thematically Aligned Trio of Songs: “Femininomenon,” “Good Luck, Babe!” and “The Giver”

Although Chappell Roan has just one studio album, it feels as though she’s been omnipresent ever since The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was released back in September of 2023. Not only because singles from the album (including “Pink Pony Club,” “Red Wine Supernova” and “Hot to Go!”) kept coming, but because, in addition to those singles, Roan also released some standalone ones during the increasingly long period since TRAFOAMP came out. Namely, 2024’s “Good Luck, Babe!” (the song that really put her over the edge, international superstar-wise) and, now, 2025’s “The Giver.” It is the latter two that fortify Roan’s sense of commitment to a particular theme. Specifically, the theme that reminds a female object of her affection that she’s made a huge mistake in abandoning vagina (i.e., Chappell’s) for dick. 

Appropriately, this was a motif that Roan established on the first track of TRAFOAMP (yes, it sounds like an LGBTQIA+ acronym): “Femininomenon.” An anthem that kicks off with bittersweet, yet dreamy-sounding violins just before Roan delivers her vocals in that “spinning the yarn” sort of manner she’s now known for in terms of her songwriting style. So it is that she paints the picture, “Same old story, time again/Got so close, but then you lost it/Should’ve listened to your friends/‘Bout his girlfriend back in Boston/You sent him pictures and playlists and phone sex/He disappeared the second that you said,/‘Let’s get coffee, let’s meet up’/I’m so sick of online love” (this frustration also providing the inspiration for “Casual,” a key link between the trio of songs discussed herein).

And it’s through the story of this unfortunate girl doing her best to be hetero in a world full of shitty “hetero” men that Roan then wonders, “Why can’t any man—/Hit it like/Get it hot.” And while the latter two declarations are meant to be separate from the “Why can’t any man?” question, they’re also attached. As in, “Why can’t any man give a woman sexual satisfaction?” A query that will come up as more of an assertion on “The Giver” when Roan boasts, “Other boys may need a map [some blatant shade-throwing at how men can never seem to find the “mysterious” G-spot]/But I can close my eyes/And have you wrapped around my fingers like that.”

But before that heightened level of braggadocio, Roan sounds more doleful on “Femininomenon” as she persists in describing how things will play out for the girl she initially talks about in the first verse. And yes, it is very much the kind of tale that will come up again on “Good Luck, Babe!,” with Roan having her first “told you so” moment via the lyrics, “You pretend to love his mother/Lying to his friends about/How he’s such a goddamn good lover/Stuck in the suburbs, you’re folding his laundry/Got what you wanted, so stop feeling sorry/Crying at the nail salon.”

As the song reaches its final minute, Roan changes the tone of her voice in a way that makes it sound like Desire’s lead singer, Megan Louise, on “Under Your Spell” (the part where they sing, “‘Hey’/‘Yeah?’/‘I was wondering, do you know the difference between love and obsession?’/‘No’/‘And what’s the difference between obsession and desire?’/‘I don’t know’/‘Do you think this feeling could last forever?’/‘You mean, like, forever-ever, forever-ever, forever-ever, forever-ever? Sure”). And in that tone, Roan keeps insisting, “‘Ladies, you know what I mean/And you know what you need/And so does he/But does it happen?’/‘No’/‘But does it happen?’/‘No’/‘Well, what we really need is a…femininomenon’/‘A what?’/‘A femininomenon.’” In other words, more than just a feminine (/feminist) revolution, Roan feels that there should be a revolution vis-à-vis “straight” women still trying to find satisfaction (whether emotional or sexual) in a man.

While “Femininomenon” left more ambiguity regarding the subject’s sexuality, with “Good Luck, Babe!,” Roan decided to leave no room for interpretation as she dissects an ex who essentially used her as part of a so-called phase (you know, the sort that Katy Perry would problematically mention on “I Kissed a Girl”). Or, as Roan put it in her ’24 interview with Rolling Stone, it’s about “wishing good luck to someone who is denying fate.” Not just the fate that Roan sees in terms of them being together, but the fate of this woman to be a lesbian full-stop. Yet she can’t just admit it “loudly and proudly,” instead suppressing those feelings (both general and specific) in favor of being “normal.” A word and concept that is still, to many people, meant to connote a life with less suffering. Not understanding until it’s too late that there is nothing more painful than living a lie. 

Hence, Roan’s full-tilt evolution into her complete authentic self by the time of “The Giver” being released, a song that further subverts the association of her Midwestern roots being oppressive and stifling by “reappropriating” country as a genre suitable for narratives about lesbian trysts. And yes, once again, Roan is performing a “mating call” (a term she uses in the song) to beckon to a woman who’s clearly got “proclivities,” yet is still wasting her time on trying to be pleased by a male lover (and surely, ultra-conservatives’ takeaway from this song is: “Chappell Roan is turning our women gay”). When, to Roan, it’s so obvious that she could give up all that suffering in favor to letting go of her (and society’s) antiquated notions of “normalcy.” Such relinquishment leading to the pleasure that’s been missing from her life for so long. Further proof of Roan’s evolution of this theme on “The Giver” is that the woman she’s now pursuing is more, er, open to, um, receiving Roan’s love (and various other “gifts”). Thus, freely urging her, “When you need the job done/You can call me, baby/‘Cause you ain’t gotta tell me/It’s just in my nature/So take it like a taker/‘Cause, baby, I’m a giver/Ain’t no need to hurry/‘Cause, baby, I deliver/Ain’t no country boy quitter/I get the job done.” 

In contrast, the rage and resentment of being rejected by a girl during the early stages of her outness are still present on “Good Luck, Babe!” Particularly the haunting, accusatory bridge, “And when you wake up next to him in the middle of the night/With your head in your hands, you’re nothing more than his wife/And when you think about me, all of those years ago/You’re standing face to face with ‘I told you so’/You know I hate to say it, I told you so” (said like someone who actually really loves to say “I told you so”). And yes, there’s no denying that “Casual” was also a blueprint for the sentiments of “Good Luck, Babe!,” with Roan cementing the idea that it referred to a queer relationship by making a video for it that she characterized as “Aquamarine, but like, gay.”

At the same time, there’s hints of her contempt for the straight man’s inability to get a woman off when she sings, “Bragging to your friends, I get off when you hit it/I hate to tell the truth, but I’m sorry, dude, you didn’t” (crystallizing those feelings by telling Teen Vogue, “[Dating a boy is] just literally not fun. It’s not fun. It’s not hot. It’s not interesting. It’s boring”). And as an erstwhile “hetero” woman familiar with that level of dissatisfaction, Roan speaks (ironically enough) straight to the heart of queers and lesbians still posing as “normal.”

And it’s highly likely that she’ll continue to write about this theme as her career goes on, for it’s very clearly a way for Roan herself to process what might have been had she chosen to deny her own authentic self. Something she likely could have done if she hadn’t felt the pull of Los Angeles and, instead, opted to stay in her small Midwestern town. So yes, in many regards, this trifecta of songs is addressed to herself as much as any repressed homo.