Sabrina Carpenter knew you’d hate her kinky album cover – that’s the point
Thought-provoking or just plain provocative?
When Sabrina Carpenter revealed the cover for her upcoming album Man’s Best Friend and sparked enormous backlash, she knew exactly what she was doing.
The image, which depicts Carpenter on her knees, in a short black dress and heels, holding the leg of a suited man as he yanks her hair, is shocking fans who expect female empowerment from the star.
On Instagram, @edersoaresx wrote, ‘Lol this cover art is so disgusting. As a fan I don’t like it :(.’ Reddit user Potential-Friend-133 said, ‘The first image is very triggering for me. I hate this. A LOT.’
But the outrage might be precisely the point. Haven’t we learned over and over again that Sabrina is an expert in shaping a narrative? Isn’t the entire ‘Sabrina-verse’ built around men being little more than background noise – accessories to the real story?
Why have we stopped trusting her when she’s never led us astray before?
Carpenter, who has spent the past year redefining pop stardom with viral hits like Espresso and the biting Please Please Please, isn’t new to irony.
She has emerged as a master of blending bubblegum visuals with sharp, subversive lyrics, often making herself the punchline to highlight something more profound.
Some fans find the submissive nature of the picture disturbing (Picture: sabrinacarpenter / Instagram)Even a quick glance at Carpenter’s hyper-feminine aesthetic reveals just how political her whole persona is. The exaggerated lashes, the glossy lips, the babydoll dresses – it’s not just pop star glam; it borders on camp. In fact, it’s practically drag.
And that matters because drag, at its core, is about performance of gender, of beauty, and of power. When Carpenter leans this hard into a cartoonishly femme persona, she’s not just embodying traditional femininity, she’s performing it to the point of parody.
It becomes a kind of satire: A knowing wink at how femininity is constructed, consumed, and commodified.
