It's All About Popular

When I see depressing creatures, with unprepossesing features, I remind them on their own behalf to think

I saw a TikTok of a mom singing her own version of the song “Popular” from Wicked to her child. The original song is about Glinda teaching her green-skinned roommate, Elphaba, what she needs to do to be popular and why it’s important. In the TikTok, the mom changed the lyrics to emphasize that it doesn’t matter if her daughter is popular. She doesn’t need to know how to flirt and flounce, talk to boys, have the right cohort, or be good at sports—she just needs to be herself. I can’t find the original video, so I can’t quote it verbatim, but that was the essence of the mom’s version of the song.

I wonder if the mom had seen the musical or perhaps even read the book. Elphaba, who is arguably the most powerful witch of her generation, basically loses everything in the end because she refuses to do what it takes to gain power and enact real change for the rights of sentient animals. She refuses to be popular, rejects Glinda’s help, and even declines to take political power that was rightfully hers by birth. Elphaba had all the chess pieces to make her world better immediately, but she was too idealistic for any of it. Instead, she chose terrorism and guerrilla warfare (if I remember correctly in the latter part), which didn’t ultimately change much.

Glinda, on the other hand, isn’t very powerful in terms of magic and comes from a less prestigious and less wealthy family than Elphaba. But she understands how to be popular and manipulate public opinion—she knows she needs people on her side for real change to happen. In the end, she advocates for what’s right and becomes the ruler. To me, Glinda is the true hero of Wicked. Elphaba serves as the cautionary tale.

Being popular isn’t essential if all someone wants is a quiet, soft life. Having a strong sense of self-worth outside of external validation is crucial for happiness. But if someone is trying to achieve something bigger than themselves, they need as many people as possible aligned with the same goal. Being a lone wolf—or in this case, a lone green witch—is a waste of effort.

There is the world as we wish it to be, and then there is the world as it is. In my experience, it’s impossible to win if you’re exclusively operating in the world that doesn’t exist right now.