Despite the fact that people love labeling western countries as meritocracies, they are not. In most cases, children born in families from a low socioeconomic background have a hard time competing academically with children of middle and upper-class families.

There are things that a child living in an affluent family will never have to even think about. And I’m not even talking about higher education. No, it starts from childhood. For children from affluent families, the cost of tutoring in one or every subject is not a drawback. Their parents have money. If they struggle with a subject, it is easy for their parents to find tutors for them. Sometimes, they don’t even need to struggle for them to receive tutoring.

In high school, I knew someone who worked her arse off in order to pay for tutoring. She worked like crazy, studied like crazy, and rarely slept even close to a healthy amount. As a result of overworking, she was absent from school 50% of the time. On top of this, she was struggling with her mental health and her family. And despite this, she still managed to be the top of her year while doing exceptionally difficult subjects.

While I commend her and was often intimidated by her, I also acknowledge that she is not the norm. She is an exception. The vast majority of people in her shoes would not even be able to complete high school. (Trust me, I haven’t even mentioned a fraction of what she went through. And unfortunately, I cannot go into detail because I don’t want to disregard her right to privacy). Let alone continuously be the highest-ranking student in each of her subjects.

The unfortunate fact, though, is that people use experiences like hers in order to parrot the idea that all it takes to succeed is natural talent and persistence. And that simply is not true. The world is not a meritocracy. It is not enough to have talent. It is not even enough to be persistent. One needs resources in order to succeed.

The girl I just mentioned half killed herself but she also had access to tutoring. I’m not trying to minimise what she went through but I have to acknowledge that despite her incredible talent and persistence, if she hadn’t worked her arse off to pay for tutoring, she would not have done as well as she did.

Most people in her position, however, either 1. don’t have the capacity to completely disregard their health in order to work and study like a robot or 2. will likely have other commitments. When you come from an affluent family, it is unlikely that you will have to dedicate too much time to look after younger siblings or the house, especially during exam periods. A lot of my classmates (in high school) had to look after younger siblings and some even had to help out in the family business.

Talent alone is not enough to succeed. Not without resources and especially not when one has additional commitments. It is not fair to expect a person from an affluent family and a person from a low socioeconomic background to perform at the same level just because their skill level is the same or even similar.

Yet so many people disregard this. It frustrates me when people hold up once in a generation prodigies as an example of meritocracy. It is so easy to simply parrot the idea that talent and persistence is all one needs. Especially if the person parroting these beliefs does not come from a low socioeconomic background.

But what we need, if we ever want to achieve a semblance of equal opportunity is for everyone to acknowledge that the world is not a meritocracy. People from low socioeconomic backgrounds will likely never have the opportunity to realise their full potential. Especially if their talent requires money and resources to develop.

Suzue Miuchi’s “Glass Mask” understands this.

Synopsis

13 year old Maya Kitajima is a once in a generation acting prodigy. She is filled to the brim with natural talent and an insatiable desire to perform. Every time she gets on a stage, without fail, she mesmerises the audience and often outshines even professional actors and actresses. However, she is also the child of a poor single mother.

At first, her talent is completely disregarded for the fact that she has no technical skill (which is a result of her never having the chance or resources to learn acting).

She is continuously taken advantage of and exploited by people. Despite being an acting prodigy, she has to work her arse off to even be noticed. Her life is filled with tragedy after tragedy and yet she continues to act. And it is only once she receives numerous awards and is seen by large audiences that she is even taken as a serious threat to her fellow actors.

AN: Spoilers for the manga “Glass Mask”.

The Exploitation Of A Poor Child Actress By:

Let’s face it, Maya gets exploited by basically everyone. She is abused, manipulated and cut off from her support networks: the first one being her mother. She is treated so badly that it is a wonder she can even act. And it all comes down to the fact that she is poor and therefore does not have the ability to defend herself.

Tsukikage Sensei

While I was initially inclined to sympathise with Chigusa Tsukikage, I cannot in good conscience feel any sympathy for her after seeing her exploit Maya. Tsukikage sensei actively works to isolate Maya. The first clear instance being ripping up the letter from Maya’s mother so that Maya will feel that her only choice is to act. This results in her forever thinking that her mother cut her off. She doesn’t get to see her mother again and finds out years later that she’s dead.

I understand that Maya’s mother is also abusive but Tsukikage’s actions are not the result of a concerned guardian. Even though she protected Maya and ended up being showered with boiling water, it wasn’t out of concern for the child. It was because she had hopes of making Maya part of her legacy. If Maya’s face got burnt, she wouldn’t be able to become Tsukikage’s successor. Therefore, her ripping up the letter is a calculated move.

Once that first step is done, Tsukikage does not hold back in her abuse of the girl. She slaps the girl, locks her up away from everyone else for not being able to do a role and then abuses her in order to derive from her the emotions needed for whatever role Maya is playing. The abuse is so bad that when Maya comes face to face with a director who is so harsh, he makes pro actors and actresses quit, she doesn’t even blink. In fact, she goes so far as to say that Tsukikage sensei is worse. Maya is so used to being abused, looked down upon and exploited that she thinks being abused by the director is normal.

Tsukikage very clearly does not care about Maya. She only cares about her legacy. I doubt she even sees Maya as a child rather than just at best: her successor and at worst: a commodity. And she is only able to abuse Maya in this way due to the fact that Maya is 1. destitute and 2. cut off from her only family.

Once Tsukikage starts teaching Ayumi (an established actress with famous parents) alongside Maya, she downgrades from abusive to harsh. The only instance where Tsukikage treated Ayumi in a similar fashion to how she treated Maya is when she locked them both up in a freezer so they would understand the climate of a northern country. Even that is tame compared to actively isolating Maya from her mother, assaulting her when she can’t act the way Tsukikage wants her to and completely disregarding her feelings and her mental health at every stage.

Maya lost her mother and the mentor she looks up to cares more about her learning to act than her wellbeing. Maya has no one and so she tries to get comfort from her teacher but her teacher refuses to even meet her. She is given to Daito (a company she hates and would never willingly work for) as a part of a business deal.

At every stage, it is clear that Tsukikage is intentionally tormenting the girl so that she would be overwhelmed by negative emotions. This is all done for the sole purpose of her developing her acting ability. This is the emotional equivalent of Tsukikage whipping her over and over so that she would develop tougher skin. And Maya, the daughter of a poor single mother, is so used to being hurt, abused and degraded by everyone that she doesn’t even realise how messed up this is.

This sort of treatment would never be possible if she had a family to support her and the money to support her acting career. I think Tsukikage probably chose her partly for how vulnerable she is. Tsukikage probably realised that a girl like Maya would be easy to mould and manipulate. She probably realised that no matter how much she hurt the girl, there likely wouldn’t be any consequences.

That’s why Maya is the only student that she physically assaults. She knows Maya is too vulnerable to fight back. Too vulnerable to even understand that what is being done to her is wrong.

Masumi Hayami

Masumi’s actions are truly terrible. In order to promote Maya as an actress, he locks up her, recently blinded by tuberculosis, mother (Haru) in an institution and then tells the press that she’s missing. Haru finds out about this and then escapes the institution to go look for her daughter. She is hit by a car but eventually makes her way to a movie theatre where her daughter’s newest film is playing. She dies in the middle of watching.

This obviously devastates Maya. Her mother, the one person she wanted more than anyone else to watch her act dies without ever being able to see her. And then she soon finds out Masumi’s plot and is then plagued by the guilt that her mother died in the attempt to promote her.

What’s worse is that Masumi Hayami is known for being ruthless and cold-hearted. He is known for treating actors and actresses like commodities, something even he admits. Tsukikage would have known this. And yet, she still signed Maya over to his company. That is very clearly exploitation of the worst kind.

Maya lost her mother because of the scheming of these two people. If Tsukikage had not ripped up Haru’s letter, Maya would’ve been able to have a relationship with her mother. If Masumi had not locked up Haru for publicity, she wouldn’t have died. Maya would not be an orphan if the people in charge of her had stopped to see her as a person and not a commodity.

Integrity In Competition: Maya and Ayumi

Maya and Ayumi’s relationship dynamic is my favourite part of the story. They both genuinely respect the other as an actress and yes, they are rivals but they never do anything underhanded to win. They value each other as people.

Ayumi Himekawa has been acting since childhood. Her father is a director and her mother is an actress. She is wealthy and has never had to worry about money. Due to the resources and opportunities constantly thrust at her feet, she has a great deal of technical skill. And unlike Maya, she also manages to excel academically. This is due to her wealth. She has the resources to excel in both acting and academics. Yes, she is incredibly talented but much of that has been developed by her family’s wealth.

And she is able to recognise this. While her peers, co-workers and employers fails to see Maya’s talent in their bid to degrade her, Ayumi is the only one who recognises it. She is the only one who is able to look beyond Maya’s poverty and see a girl who is exceptionally talent and exceptionally committed. That’s why she’s my favourite character.

If the world was filled with people like her, maybe meritocracy would have a chance of being realised.

Final Thoughts

Even though Maya is a once in a generation prodigy, she still struggles at every point. She is devalued and exploited by almost everyone. She is poor and therefore either seen as an easy to mould commodity or treated like dirt.

And this is often the reality. It’s not fair to deny the institutional problems that stop people from low socioeconomic backgrounds realising their full potential. It’s not fair to look at the experiences of a few in order to argue the world is a meritocracy. Most people can’t increase their socioenomic standard. It’s not because people from low socioenomic backgrounds are less talented or have less potential, it’s because they face challenges a person from an affluent background would never have to.

This is reality. And until we can acknowledge this, we will never be able to change it.