A short treatise on the foid condition, through the scope of Kate Winton's hit song "I'm Still Here"

I have attached the song in question for reference as I imagine nearly all of you are even more out of touch than I pretend to be. I actually quite like this song, it's catchy and fun. I am also attaching a picture of Kate Winton because she's nice to look at:

Now that the preamble is out of the way with as efficiently as possible, I'd like to draw your attention to the chorus:

At 15 I wanted to die

At 16 boys made me cry

At 17 didn't know how to cope

And at 18 I lost all hope

From 19 to 23 I was the worst version of me

Then I got to 24 and realized that I deserve more

Pretty milquetoast female/youth empowerment stuff at face value. The universal relatability of trifling nonsense seeming like the end of the world during your teenage years is, well, universally relatable. Everyone gets it, it's an utterly inoffensive and guaranteed pop hit. What frustrates me to no end every time I hear it, though, is the last line "Then I got to 24 and realised that I deserve more". This line in itself sums up more or less the entirety of the absolute spiritual rot that has encompassed contemporary mainstream femininity.

Why do you deserve more, Kate? The past 9 years of your life as recounted by the chorus have been nothing but juvenile follies, and the most recent five ("from 19 to 23 I was the worst version of me") are, by your own admission, the worst you've ever been. Further, they're the sum of your adult life. The worst version of you has been the entirety of your life when you're actually in charge of what you do. If you've never been worse than that, why do you suddenly "deserve" more? What could possibly have led to this conclusion? Obviously this isn't specific to Kate, she's just writing for an audience, but that's exactly the issue: why is this seen as relatable and empowering? "Yeah I've always sucked to everyone around me and I'm shit, but you know what, I exist, therefore I deserve success" or whatever? Why???? Why do you intrinsically deserve anything at all????????????? There's absolutely nothing merit-based in this, it's literally just existence warranting success. And women have been conditioned to relate to this. "I deserve to be happy, I am deserving of success, I deserve to enjoy life, daily affirmation, blah blah blah" even in a vacuum is ludicrous, but this song spells it out outright that one still deserves these things even if one has been a wholly reprehensible person their entire life. The universe owes it to you.

Why?

Why isn't the line "that I could be more"? That's empowering. That provides agency to the listener relating to the song. That suggests positive change, for oneself and others, and that it's within one's ability to enact this positive change. But that isn't how it goes. This is a deliberate choice and it is very intentional messaging. Not just from Kate; she's not nefarious here or anything, it's just the end result of decades of insisting these things are true, that there is some universal debt owed to the woman by virtue of her breathing.

I like women, I like the song, but I hate this shit.

Play me off @longpostbot