The polished surface of pop is part of its pleasure. Costumes, precision, confidence, and scale let a performer become larger than ordinary life for three minutes. The trouble begins when the public image is treated as proof that the person inside it has no needs.
“Empowerment includes the right not to turn every wound into content.”
A compelling girl group lets us see the labor behind the image without mocking the image itself. Rehearsal can be beautiful. Discipline can be chosen. Glamour can be joyful. At the same time, fatigue, doubt, appetite, anger, faith, humor, and privacy must have somewhere to live.
I want the women of Hidden Tide to possess rooms the audience cannot enter on demand. Their mystery should come from interiority, not from withholding basic characterization. Empowerment includes the right to perform magnificently and the right not to turn every wound into content.