Katy Perry seemed poised for a comeback. The singer’s early output has undergone a favorable critical reevaluation of late, and her Video Vanguard performance at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards was a reminder that, just a decade ago, she was capable of churning out a seemingly endless stream of radio hits. Perry’s style of maximalist pop, no longer in vogue by the late 2010s, has been experiencing a revival, as evidenced by the breakout success of artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan.

But such hopes were quickly dashed when Perry dropped “Woman’s World,” a platitude-filled exercise in feminist sloganeering that found her reuniting with longtime collaborator Dr. Luke (she temporarily ceased working with the producer until after his legal dispute with fellow pop singer Kesha was resolved). It didn’t help that TikTokers noticed similarities between Perry’s declarations of “sexy, confident, so intelligent” and...