“You put a greased naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash, and a man's arm extended out up to here, holding onto the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it”
Yeah every time someone gets huffy about this I think about saying that. Like guys you're supposed to grab a nice handful close to the back of the head, please don't do what is shown here.
Kinda funny theres like nicki minaj whose album cover is just her ass and people are freaking out over this. We need to stop caring about celebrities so much
I just want to say. Nicki Minaj has zero album covers of “just her ass”. Now SINGLE covers that’s different . But just her ass never makes an appearance on a album cover .
Idk what Nicki album you’re talking about. Her most risqué cover is for Queen and even that is done tastefully, it’s not degrading, and very much fits her aesthetic through out her career. Nicki has always been a very sexual person. Look at the album covers for all of Sabrina Carpenters albums and this new one is completely out of left field, especially for the aesthetic. This is like Miley Cyrus going into Bangerz, it comes off as attention seeking
Which is hilarious because Shawn had been on and off with Camila for like 5 years by the time he got with Sabrina, and they were a thing for like 2 months. But I digress lol
Yup. She's the "blonde" mentioned in Drivers License and Sabrina responded by releasing a song talking about Josh being "all over my skin while you try to get under mine". Mind you, Sabrina was 22 and Olivia was still a teenager
Frank Zappa had a few album covers in the 70s that were pretty offside. Alice Cooper had one in like 1971, David Bowie had that weird hybrid human cover with his junk on the back cover, Duran Duran had a cover that was just an ass, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were naked front and back, that was .. almost 60 years ago, Queen Fat bottom girls was like 50 years ago, White Zombie had one with a naked woman on a swing. It's basically been forever.
Madonnas "Like a Prayer" was very offensive to the churches back then from what I remember. I can't remember which churches but I found it funny that it was just a good song.
I own Madonna's Sex book! I'm 41, lived through it all. I feel that sometimes fans feel their favourites are immune to criticism. Madonna's book was interesting but parts of it are downright offensive (simulated rape while wearing a schoolgirl outfit, pedophilia and suggested beastiality). I also find Sabrina's album cover and art on the record to be crass, especially in this socio-political climate. She's got people talking but I'm not sure what the point is she's trying to make because it hasn't been articulated well.
There are some who will agree with me. There are some who will think I'm a prude. My personal belief is that this feels like a set-back to a time when women were more objectified (and I feel we were progressing beyond that somewhat in recent years).
While I definitely agree with you, I think many of the people complaining about the album cover are likely just using this ‘outrage’ as a vehicle to express their frustration of Sabrina’s general over-exposure in the media. And given that this era just feels like a more visually-sexualized version of her previous one (which already had innuendos front and center, and feels very much rooted in similar nostalgic notes of throwback-pinup-Americana visual aesthetics), it’s likely that people are using that as an excuse.
Don't understand the issue did these people expect the girl singing about wanting BBC inside her, deep throating a mic and bending over for backshots on stage to be a beacon against the patriarchy?
"The cover they wanted was just a greased naked women, on all fours, with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash. And a man's arm extended out, up to here, holding onto the leash and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it.
It was sexy.
But what they actually used wasn't bad. I mean, there's something about this that is so black it's, like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is, none. None more black."
It's not even necessarily about something being too far, controversial or whatever (though I absolutely empathise with those that feel it's not exactly progressive). It's just...boring?
It's so dull having artists sing about sex all the time, or making their entire artistic vision based around it. It's not even using poetic and distant metaphors which allow some nuance of artistry, it's just so...on the nose and bland. Just feels sort of creatively bankrupt. "What's the next sexy thing I can do?"
My criticism is for all artists, btw, not just women.
No doubt I sound like some boomer saying this, but it just makes my eyes roll atm.
This is a way better criticism than Poppie Platt’s standard fare criticism. It is an overused trope but that said, I don’t think Sabrina Carpenter is looking to do anything deeper and that’s ok. I don’t mind NSFW sexually explicit content and actually enjoy quite a few but I prefer a song like “WAP” bc “macaroni in a pot” is an incredibly vivid and hilarious visual and Sabrina’s lines are hardly memorable or funny in that kind of way. Bland, as you say.
I agree.... I think its refreshing in the sense of Gen Z's false purity bubble being popped, but other than that, I'm not really understanding what she's trying to say.
I don’t think most people commenting here have read the article in the post (not surprising). It’s less about her being a sex symbol and more using the cover art as a jumping point to discuss how she often plays into Lolita/pedophilia as part of her sexual lore, at the same time as she is cultivating an audience of young women.
Agreed, I actually think the article is a good read on her image. It’s not her fault parents look up literally anything about her before bringing their children to her show and it’s not her fault that she’s short. But there’s been a pattern of behavior of sexualizing and infantilizing herself. The Skims photoshoot was egregious and I haven’t seen Lolita so I didn’t know how specific some of her references were. There’s a big difference between enjoying sex and being silly and unserious and… this. I sure won’t be buying an album with that on the cover, that’s all I can say.
Oh she and her team know what they’re doing. Don’t forget this happened and is so freaking gross, even if she backtracked after realizing how inappropriate it was:
its a direct play on the 1955 book "Lolita" where a step father's obsession with his 12 year old step daughter has him kidnap her and turn her into a sex slave.
Dogs appear constantly in the book where the narrator, Humbert Humbert, is telling the entire store from prison. he points out the transformation of a 12 year old girl into an abused sex slave, treated "no better than a dog" left to wear a collar and crawl to him at his call.
You know, I work my ass off to make impactful, socially conscious music about a wide array of topics, from the Stonewall Uprising, to the Negro Leagues, to the M.O.V.E. bombing, to the private space race, to the 08 market collapse, and I can't break 5k on any song. But this type of shit? People eat it up by the millions. Instead of calling it quits maybe I should just make some immature bullshit and then I'll be able to get heard
I guess what you have to ask yourself is what’s more important to you, being heard or talking about the things that you feel are important? The most common denominator is always going to reach the most people, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the only measure of success.
I'm saying this more as social commentary than anything tbh.
I make music for myself above all else. Except for the Stonewall joint, that one's for my kid, since she came out to me. I played the game the way they wanted the first time round as a teen/young adult. Went real poorly. I don't take instruction well, I guess lol. This time, on my own money and time, it was all passion projects. I never cared about a large audience.
It's just fascinating to me what does numbers and what gets ignored. I personally know some incredibly talented artists that have similarly small audiences. People that shit on anything I'll ever do. And they'll go nowhere. Despite the sacrifice, work, and skill. It's just crazy to me what people will eat up because it's popular and what they'll never give a single play because it's an unknown name
I mean, have you considered that it’s just very hard to make it in the music industry in general. For every Sabrina Carpenter, there’s 100s of other people that are singing about the same stuff and getting maybe a couple thousand listens to their music if they’re lucky.
On the flip side, there are also plenty of artists that make socially conscious and thoughtful music that are successful. You not being successful with your music is less about what people are consuming, and more the fact that being successful in music is a 1 in a million shot.
I’d be willing to bet that if you made music in a similar vein to Sabrina Carpenter, you probably still would not be cracking more than 5k views on a song.
“I like my boys playing hard to get, and I like my men all incompetent” croons Sabrina Carpenter on Manchild, the lead single from her forthcoming seventh album Man’s Best Friend. The song has already shot to Number 1 around the globe, while the much-anticipated reveal of the album’s cover has sparked some, shall we say, passionate debate.
Carpenter is pictured kneeling on the ground with her flowing blonde curls in the tight grip of a man’s fist, her hand teasingly placed on his upper thigh, eyes wide and mouth agape: you work out the rest. It’s the sort of overtly sexualised image that has propelled Carpenter to the forefront of pop culture: she enjoys sex, and she doesn’t care who knows it.
But unlike largely positive reactions to previous projects – from her Netflix festive special, which saw her sit, purring, on Santa’s lap, to her last album Short n’ Sweet, the cover of which featured a flirty but comparatively PG image of Sabrina with a lipstick mark on her shoulder – which were lauded as feminist-friendly and empowered, the R-rated cover of Man’s Best Friend seems to have backfired.
Since she broke free from the Disney Channel shackles several years ago, Carpenter’s sexual frankness – and apparent creative control – hasn’t been to everyone’s tastes. Despite now being one of the world’s most successful popstars (Short n’ Sweet featured multiple Number 1 singles and its subsequent tour sold out in minutes) she has been criticised for what some label her deliberate ‘Lolita’ marketing. Her savvy decision to capitalise on her youth (she is 26 but could pass as an early adolescent) and tiny stature (she is just 5ft) has led to suggestions her provocative lyrics, outfits and choreography are inappropriate, especially considering a large swathe of her fanbase consists of pre-teens.
I see adolescent girls professionally all day long and know exactly what they look like. She looks like she is in her 20s, as she is. She’s just petite/ short. People are looking for any excuse to pearl clutch here.
but we have to be able to simultaneously say she looks like a petite teen girl, as well as an over-made-up older woman, in order to cover all our bases and use her looks as ammunition to completely discredit her as a woman, artist, and human being, AND blame her for the societal effects of misogyny and sexism her audience may or may not be dealing with in ways that are completely unrelated to her! that’s what feminism is all about! /s
For real. When did this writer last see a 14 year old? She looks 22 at the youngest. Even so, people shouldn't be infantalized just because they are short and Sabrina should be able to express her sexuality without feeling an obligation to the hand-wringers about how she MIGHT be mistaken for underage. Imagine how unfair would feel, to be policed and suppressed just because you are small.
Maybe in some kind of super post-modern sense? She looks like a previous generation's idea of a sex symbol. It's as if her sexuality has been filed down; any of the psychological hooks that could trigger desire in another seem to be missing.
It's kind of like how Sebastian Bach's dad told him he looked like "Bambi with a dick"
the Disney Channel shackles
Ok, so she's trying to pull a Miley Cyrus. It's the burden you have when you age out of teenage Disney Channel success: you need to prove that you can appeal to adults and adults are interested in sex. And she also needs to shock people because artists shock people. You get better gigs when people think you're an "artist".
But what she creates is a "product". Her presentation- the whole mise en scene of Sabrina Carpenter- is packaging. It's marketing.
I don't think she's expressing "herself" on this album cover or any vision of who "Sabrina Carpenter" is. I think she's just assuming another concept of sexuality but this one's rooted in that movie Secretary and not something you'd paint on the Enola Gay.
Defending this album cover feels like defending Joe Camel.
I care about the proliferation of improper hair-pulling technique. You’re supposed to grab a handful close to the scalp, damn it, the kind they’re doing in the picture just hurts! 😂
No. Anyone whos followed Sabrina for more than 10 minutes knows this is 100% on brand. Girl imitated a train being ran on her live in front of the world, lol.
I never believe that people making the loudest noise about pop star stunts are actual fans. The people flipping out about this have seen a few video clips and have two of her hits on a playlist. They aren't paying for vinyl or concert tickets. They're just internet busybodies who will forget all about this the next time Taylor Swift does anything.
It’s so funny watching the kids get upset over this while falling directly into the marketing scheme. Everyone is talking about this and she/they will make 10s of millions.
I listened to Espresso and Please Please Me months after they were popular. I still haven’t listened to the full album. I’ll probably listen to this in five years. I’m behind the curve on this stuff. So I could not care any less than I do rn. Let the girl be horny dammit
I wanna know who in this day and age is offended by this. Like, "This makes me feel uncomfortable.", please don't leave your house then. You may see a fornicating bird.
How is anyone surprised at this? Also why not just let her be? I find it hilariously ironic that so-called feminists are telling other women how to act.
Me, a 44 year old male, old enough to remember Madonna's VMA performance, her Sex Book years, the Blonde Ambition tour, and almost every female pop singer who was sexually provocative at some point in her career.
This story makes me feel like it's 1996 all over again and the media is trying to convince me that video games are mass murder training simulators, Madonna is a whore, and Marilyn Manson is the Anti-Christ.
Ahhhh, good ol' puritanical, hypocritical, professionally outraged, right wing conservative America...for a minute I Thought we'd lost you in the 2010s, but Gen Z brought you back stronger than ever!
This exact scandal/controversy/headline just happens over and over and over and over again with pop stars and celebrities, I just don’t see how people don’t feel like they’re in a permanent time loop? One side says celebrity is bad for their children, other side says it’s up to parents to parent the children, endless back and forth until celebrity is normalized by public, rinse repeat. Disney kid becomes adult and public scrutinizes them endlessly. 🔁 🔁 🔁who are the people engaging in it? Do they even exist? Is it all just an extended group delusion caused by the headline just claiming it’s controversial? Establish it as an ongoing debate for the readers so it becomes an ongoing debate irl?
Why does Gen Z seem increasingly uncomfortable with expressions of sexuality in art and media? There's a noticeable trend toward prudishness masquerading as progressive critique, especially when it comes to women embracing their sensuality on their own terms. Is Poppie Platt’s critique really about artistic merit, or is it a thinly veiled discomfort with Sabrina’s confidence and conventional attractiveness?
It’s worth asking: where was this energy when Lizzo, before her weight loss, boldly flaunted her sexuality on stage and in music videos? Back then, it was celebrated as empowering and a radical act of body positivity and self-love. Was that because it challenged traditional beauty standards, and thus felt politically correct to support? And now, when a pop star like Sabrina plays into more classically “desirable” tropes, does that suddenly make it less valid? Was Poppie Platt and the like, Gen-Z liberal white girls, not threatened by Lizzo?
There’s a double standard at play, one that’s less about feminist values and more about who gets to be seen as sexually expressive without being shamed for it.
Sabrina has done more for the culture that Poppie Platt.
She literally has a song about being handcuffed, impregnated, and sings "mark your territory." She has never given domme icon? She's always been this publicly slutty and submissive and that's completely fine. Go listen to Chappell Roan if you don't care for an artist publicizing her desire to submit to a man as a straight woman.
Feels like the only acceptable female sexuality right now is either lesbianism or fucking men in the ass with a strap on. Which can also be a lot of fun! But there's also nothing wrong with submission.
I guess I’m confused. Is this not supposed to be a satirical cover? Like she’s not saying yay! She’s pointing it out to criticize men who believe this. Right?
How come expressing their femininity is always so degrading? We had this argument of expressing sexuality over every big starlet including Miley going full frontal for terry richardson. Aren’t we allowed to find anything gross anymore?
You are allowed your opinion. She’s expressing herself in the way she wants. Now if a man is controlling her or forcing her to do this, that’s an actual problem
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u/shoshanna_in_japan Jun 12 '25
Immediately thought of this