Stockholm syndrome isn’t real. In a striking interview, criminal behaviour analyst Laura Richards dismantles one of psychology’s most persistent myths. She’s talking about the 1973 bank heist in Stockholm, Sweden — where four people were held hostage in a vault for six days. One of the female hostages, while speaking to the Swedish Prime Minister, said she trusted her captors more than the police. That single statement led psychiatrist Nils Bejerot to coin the term 'Stockholm syndrome' — suggesting the hostage had bonded emotionally with her captor. But what we do not know is that the woman went on a radio interview admitting, "I had no feelings at all other than fear to the man with the gun to my head. I paid attention to him because he was the threat."
Laura explains how women are actually very active in their own risk management. Across time and geography, they have been forced to tiptoe around the male ego to survive — not just in bank vaults, but in workplaces, households, and on the street. Sometimes they’ve said ‘yes’ to avoid a confrontation. Sometimes they’ve smiled politely while planning their exit. There are too many stories of men who couldn’t handle rejection where women paid the price.
That unspoken reality finds expression in GLASS, the new single by Indian-American artists Akshara and Avara. The track is a slow-burning deconstruction with the fragile male ego that "shatters like glass". The sound is a measured blend of Indian classical with R&B; melodic yet ominous. It unfolds with the same feminine grace that it takes navigating a confrontation with a man.
Yet it's with this tenderness that the tracks subverts a position of vulnerability into power. It allows, through artistic expression, a justice for women who manage the emotional volatility of men while suppressing their own grief, anger, and exhaustion, making way for them to stop contorting themselves to make someone else feel secure.
Directed by Elise Schatz, the music video is a visual metaphor for that refusal. Shot in a shadowy forest, the narrative follows the singer pursued by a man. But the moment she stops running and turns to confront him, he shatters upon touch. Around her, other women perform Bharatanatyam — a classical dance form that here becomes a symbol of inherited strength, grace, and defiance.
While GLASS speaks to the fragility of men, its heart lies in the solidarity between women. It gestures toward a social language that women have long cultivated — one built on intuition, empathy, and diligence, but also on courage. Their reliability and faith on each other forms the root of their collective power.
"I grew up watching women in my family practice being very gentle with a man's ego and hiding the more fierce, angry parts of them", shares Akshara. "I love that this song and this video were able to show you that a woman can be as soft as her gaze demands and yet unexpectedly powerful and full of rage. And when her heart inevitably shatters, she'll always have her girls to help pick up the pieces."
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