Why Sabrina Carpenter’s Album Cover Controversy is Ridiculous
Can a woman be hot in peace?
Sabrina Carpenter has been a global pop princess for well over a year now, and like all successful women are fated to do: she’s getting her first big dose of backlash.
Unfortunately for Sabrina, she can’t seem to simply exist without upsetting everyone on the internet, whether it’s for being fun and flirty or feeling confident in herself. This time around, people are claiming she’s setting women’s rights back after she dropped her new album cover.
In the midst of a sell-out tour and with Short ‘n Sweet still in the charts, she announced her seventh album, Man’s Best Friend. She’s really proving herself to be a busy woman, and it seems it’s just too much for critics to handle.
She’s since been labelled as male-centred, anti-feminist and any other way you want to put it online following the release of her new album cover.
Sabrina’s raunchy new picture shows her kneeling down while an anonymous male figure grabs her hair. Scandalous? Yes. Putting feminism back 50 years? Oh, come on.
Sabrina finds the whole thing hilarious
Shutting down the hate, Sabrina has since defended her divisive album cover in an interview with Rolling Stone, explaining that “those are the songs that you’ve made popular”.
“It’s always so funny to me when people complain,” she said. “They’re like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’ But those are the songs that you’ve made popular. Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it.”
She continued: “It’s in my show. There are so many more moments than the ‘Juno’ positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on.”
Honestly, the hate is getting old
Sabrina’s whole brand is all about embracing sexuality and confidence as a 26-year-old woman. Why would she tone it down in the peak of her career? Your 20s are your years to be messy, sexy, and to figure out who you are. She just happens to be navigating it all in the public eye.
Let’s also not forget who Sabrina is selling her music to. She’s undoubtedly marketing herself towards women and has been doing so for years. Remember the Feather music video? And the Taste one? She’s repeatedly proved she’s the queen of satire, and as an independent woman with a successful career generating thousands of dollars for herself, the last place on earth she’d honestly be is throwing it all away for a man.
Critics calling the image “male-centred” miss the point entirely: it’s a visual satire that plays with power dynamics, not a submission to them.
Also, when did “male-centred” start becoming a new, ‘progressive’ term for slut shaming?
The double standard for ‘reinvention’
Let’s talk about reinvention. It’s something the queen of eras, Taylor Swift, has addressed publicly before.
In her 2020 Miss Americana documentary, Taylor said: “Female artists have to reinvent themselves so many more times than male artists, or else you’re out of a job. Live out a narrative that we find interesting enough to entertain us, but not so crazy that it makes us uncomfortable.”
It’s undeniable proof that women are still subjected to higher standards in the music industry and public opinion.
Why should Sabrina have to reinvent herself every time she releases music if she knows her sexy, confident brand works?
Thousands of sexy women AND men have made far sexier album covers. 2000s Britney Spears would have put every one of these haters into a coma. Please, please, please, let’s not set ourselves back as fans by tearing down another successful woman at the height of her fame.
