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Sabrina Carpenter’s new album cover divides the internet: ‘Man’s Best Friend’ discourse explained
Less than a year after she came out with her Grammy-winning album “Short n’ Sweet,’ pop singer Sabrina Carpenter announced the release date of her next project, titled “Man’s Best Friend,” with a new album cover on Wednesday, and it has ignited a headline-grabbing debate. While some fans of the singer are salivating over the mere mention of another “Sabrina Summer,” others are none too happy with the album cover’s messaging. The cover depicts Carpenter in heels and a black minidress, crouching on the floor. An anonymous man holds a handful of her iconic blonde hair. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sabrina Carpenter (@sabrinacarpenter) Fans and critics immediately took to social media to voice their support or concerns with the image’s messaging, and though many fans staunchly defend Carpenter and the album cover as “satirical,” ”exaggerated,” and “ironic,” others, including the domestic violence advocacy group Glasgow Women’s Aid, say that the image of a Carpenter kneeling on the ground being dragged by her hair is triggering, regressive, and frankly, distasteful. Pushing boundaries or tired tropes? Discourse about the album’s imagery calls to mind a long history of public criticism directed toward women artists. Many women who have challenged boundaries around what was acceptable in music and other artistic disciplines have found themselves on the receiving end of cultural blowback, but this conversation reads differently. The prevalence of social media means that the album cover went viral overnight, as people saw and posted about the new cover, and some critics worry about the impact of the message on young fans. (Carpenter is a former Disney Channel star.) Fans also have the ability insult each other’s intelligence overtly via Instagram and TikTok, calling those who don’t get it “dumb” and “dense.” Comments on the original Instagram post lean both directions, with some expressing their excitement and others telling Carpenter that the cover “is not the slay you think it is.” One user explained that even if the cover is an ironic joke, it’s not an effective one. “If the fans who know all of her lore are the only ones who can interpret her attempt, that isn’t satire,” the user wrote. “[It’s] an inside joke that reads misogynistic to everyone else which makes it really harmful.” Still, Carpenter is known for the wry messaging in her music, prompting some TikTok users to call out others whom they claimed just didn’t get it. “The people criticizing Sabrina Carpenter’s new album cover for ‘Man’s Best Friend’ are so obtuse,” said one TikToker in a video. “None of you have ever used context clues in your life and it shows.” However, others accuse Carpenter of not paying attention to context. A common refrain is that Carpenter is acting oblivious to America’s current political climate and the deep misogyny that runs through it. One TikToker said the album cover was giving the same vibes as Dr. Squatch’s giveaway of the soap called “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss.” (Allegedly, the soap is infused with actress Sydney Sweeney’s actual bathwater.) The user also cited the social media trends of tradwife life, the clean girl aesthetic, and the promotion of white thinness as signs of a slide back into conservatism. “Read the room,” the user said in her video. “It’s using dark humor in a situation that’s not appropriate whatsoever.”
Less than a year after she came out with her Grammy-winning album “Short n’ Sweet,’ pop singer Sabrina Carpenter announced the release date of her next project, titled “Man’s Best Friend,” with a new album cover on Wednesday, and it has ignited a headline-grabbing debate. While some fans of the singer are salivating over the mere mention of another “Sabrina Summer,” others are none too happy with the album cover’s messaging.
The cover depicts Carpenter in heels and a black minidress, crouching on the floor. An anonymous man holds a handful of her iconic blonde hair.
Fans and critics immediately took to social media to voice their support or concerns with the image’s messaging, and though many fans staunchly defend Carpenter and the album cover as “satirical,” ”exaggerated,” and “ironic,” others, including the domestic violence advocacy group Glasgow Women’s Aid, say that the image of a Carpenter kneeling on the ground being dragged by her hair is triggering, regressive, and frankly, distasteful.
Pushing boundaries or tired tropes?
Discourse about the album’s imagery calls to mind a long history of public criticism directed toward women artists. Many women who have challenged boundaries around what was acceptable in music and other artistic disciplines have found themselves on the receiving end of cultural blowback, but this conversation reads differently.
The prevalence of social media means that the album cover went viral overnight, as people saw and posted about the new cover, and some critics worry about the impact of the message on young fans. (Carpenter is a former Disney Channel star.) Fans also have the ability insult each other’s intelligence overtly via Instagram and TikTok, calling those who don’t get it “dumb” and “dense.”
Comments on the original Instagram post lean both directions, with some expressing their excitement and others telling Carpenter that the cover “is not the slay you think it is.”
One user explained that even if the cover is an ironic joke, it’s not an effective one. “If the fans who know all of her lore are the only ones who can interpret her attempt, that isn’t satire,” the user wrote. “[It’s] an inside joke that reads misogynistic to everyone else which makes it really harmful.”
Still, Carpenter is known for the wry messaging in her music, prompting some TikTok users to call out others whom they claimed just didn’t get it.
“The people criticizing Sabrina Carpenter’s new album cover for ‘Man’s Best Friend’ are so obtuse,” said one TikToker in a video. “None of you have ever used context clues in your life and it shows.”
However, others accuse Carpenter of not paying attention to context. A common refrain is that Carpenter is acting oblivious to America’s current political climate and the deep misogyny that runs through it.
One TikToker said the album cover was giving the same vibes as Dr. Squatch’s giveaway of the soap called “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss.” (Allegedly, the soap is infused with actress Sydney Sweeney’s actual bathwater.) The user also cited the social media trends of tradwife life, the clean girl aesthetic, and the promotion of white thinness as signs of a slide back into conservatism.
“Read the room,” the user said in her video. “It’s using dark humor in a situation that’s not appropriate whatsoever.”
