Sabrina Carpenter released the album art for her new album, Man’s Best Friend. And as is the case with Sabrina Carpenter, no one is being normal about it. Well, some people get it but for the most part, Carpenter is being criticized for no reason.
The album features Carpenter on her knees in front of a man who has his hands in her hair and there is a picture of a collar. The idea, seemingly, is that men view women as their pets. After the release of her song “Manchild” where she was taking a bath with pigs where she says “hey man” to them in the music video, it seems kind of obvious to me. But that’s not the case online.
Carpenter’s post on X is filled with people criticizing her for posting in this manner, saying that it is feeding into the male gaze. Look, if I’m right about what this album art is saying, then everyone just missed the point completely. But even if it is meant to be Carpenter expressing herself as a sexual being, that’s also okay!
In a profile from Rolling Stone, Carpenter explained the issue with people online criticizing women, especially those in the public eye. “I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I truly feel like I’ve never lived in a time where women have been picked apart more, and scrutinized in every capacity. I’m not just talking about me.”
All of this comes at a time when she was criticized for having more sexually explicit aspects of her Short n’ Sweet tour. Because Carpenter was a Disney kid, many said she should have been more PG because of younger audience members. Carpenter is a 26 year-old woman.
You guys just don’t want women to express themselves
Carpenter being more openly sexual with her music is fine by me. Madonna literally had a song about performing oral sex and we all sing it publicly. That’s kind of the game. But the way that people online are policing the pop stars of today is truly unnerving to witness.
When her album cover went live, many called it “anti-feminist.” Others said that it wasn’t okay because she had a young fanbase. I say that I think all of you need to go to media literacy school. One user posted images of Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS next to Man’s Best Friend and said that they both were “objectifying women.” GUTS featured someone holding back Rodrigo’s hair as she throws her guts out. Meaning she was spilling her secrets BUT OKAY.
This all just tells me that people don’t ACTUALLY want women to express themselves. They want us to be their idea of a woman. Saying that Carpenter is anti-feminist because she’s openly sexual with her music is baffling to me because isn’t that part of what feminism is? The idea that women can do what they want and express themselves as they please?
But because you don’t understand why she’d want to act that way, it isn’t feminist? Make it make sense!
Stop judging an album by its cover if you can’t read
If I saw this album without the release of “Manchild,” I’d not have as clear of a vision of what Carpenter was doing but I still way would not have reacted in the people are online. One X user wrote “For someone who keeps calling men PIGS she keeps degrading herself to appeal the male gaze,” clearly missing the entire point of “Manchild” and the album itself.
It takes me back to the response to Barbie and particularly Gloria’s (America Ferrera) monologue about being a woman. Many criticized it for being very “feminism 101” at the time but the more I see people yelling online about how women express themselves, the more I realize that many of you don’t understand the basics of feminism.
Carpenter expressing herself as she does doesn’t hurt feminism. It empowers her, lets her feel her best, and is how she wants to be as an artist. You telling her that she’s doing a bad job and fighting her? That’s more anti-feminist to me than her album art.
(featured image: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
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