🎵 The Music: Hits, Growth, and Viral Wildcards
At just 26, Sabrina Carpenter has rooted herself firmly in mainstream pop. Her career began with her debut album Eyes Wide Open (2015), featuring emotional folk-pop singles like “We’ll Be the Stars” and “Smoke and Fire.” By 2018’s Singular: Act I, she was channeling assertive energy in anthem tracks like “Bad Time” and playful flirtation in “Mona Lisa”
Her Sixth LP, Short n’ Sweet (2024), marked a new peak—peaking at No. 1 on Billboard 200, with smash singles such as “Espresso,” “Please Please Please,” and “Taste.” Each teased varying shades of her evolving persona: cheekiness in “Bed Chem” (“…Come right on me, I mean camaraderie”), sly innuendo in “Juno” (“I’m so f**kin’ horny”), often tinged with humor and camp
This past July, her lead single from Man’s Best Friend—“Manchild”—continued her lyrical shift toward bold sexual candor, stirring debate before the album drops in August
Provocation on All Fours: Submission Meets Sassy
Carpenter’s new album art for Man’s Best Friend depicts her on all fours, hair being tugged by a man—an image that fans and critics alike instantly recognized as unsettling
Critics argue it’s a regression, branding her as pandering to the male gaze:
-
Glasgow Women’s Aid condemned the cover as “regressive” and “pandering to the male gaze and misogynistic stereotypes”
-
Guardian and iPaper commentators labeled it “soft porn” and “violence and control” in disguise
This imagery clashes starkly with feminist tropes of the past fifty years—“own your sexuality,” “woman on top,” “have sex like a man”—all intended to foreground strength, autonomy, and reversing power dynamics. Sabrina’s submission muddy those signals, creating discomfort even among her core, progressive fanbase.
Shame, Silence, and Generational Gaps
Jennifer Jasmine White, writing in The Guardian, decried how feminist critique often descends into moralistic shaming, targeting young women like Carpenter under the guise of righteous feminism She cautions against simplistic condemnations divorced from broader understanding.
In contrast, a Redsdit thread on r/sabrinacarpentersnark argued her performance style—kneeling, mock-blowjob gestures, baby talk—felt manipulative, infantilizing, and disturbing:
“The combination of hypersexualization and childlike branding is… deeply disturbing.”
Critics see this as performance-as-pander, not protest. Instead of empowerment, they sense manipulation for male attention, cloaked in youthful coquettishness—a far cry from women-led sexual liberation rooted in agency and self-definition.
Her Voice: Defiant, Nervous, or Contradictory?
In her defense, Carpenter has often spoken up:
-
Citing Time, she emphasized sexual freedom among women: “If you can’t handle a girl confident in her own sexuality, don’t come to my shows”
-
She labeled criticism of her sexual image as “regressive,” tying it to historical backlash faced by Rihanna, Britney, Madonna
-
Rolling Stone cover talk: she noted that female artists are “under more scrutiny than ever,” referencing Dolly Parton, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna—but still feeling targeted
Yet even she defends the submissive aesthetics as intentional satire, saying she’s fully in control of her creative choices .
Cultural Analysis: Embracing Submission or Reproducing Oppression?
1. Feminism’s Flip-Flop on Power and Pleasure
Since the 1970s, feminists have argued that female sexuality needn’t mimic male desire. Instead of learning “to have sex like a man” (i.e., aggressive, dominant), the push was to own sexual narratives—choose pleasure, design context. Carpenter’s kneeling pose raises the disquieting question: is she performing submission to reclaim it, or is she resigning to patriarchal fantasy?
2. The “Girl Boss” Reset vs. Innocent Coquette
Recent feminism embraced “girl boss” independence, then circled back to “soft femininity”—pink lingerie and glam aesthetics—but reframed as the female gaze. As reported, her pastel lingerie and pin-up style on stage (courtesy of stylist Jared Ellner) admittedly foreground female pleasure
That brand of sassy ownership felt modern until she went on her knees—then the line between empowerment and objectification looked disturbingly thin.
3. Rites of Passage or Power Play?
Women in pop have used overt sexuality to denote adulthood: Madonna with bondage, Britney with lampooned eroticism, Miley with shock value. Carpenter stands in this lineage. But the submissive posture challenges the underlying template. Is it an aspirational kink, a satirical jab, or a misstep conjuring discomfort, especially in a backlash-hungry climate?
Voices from the High Ground: Praise, Pushback, Nuance
-
Time essay: “Sabrina Carpenter Is Not the Problem.” The author argues her critics are actually reflecting America’s confusion with female autonomy. They scapegoat Carpenter as the real issue, when societal inconsistency toward sex is the real culprit
-
Vox culture critic: Summarizes the controversy as echoing internal feminist splits—labeling women as “pick‑me” for male validation—rather than grappling with power structures
-
BuzzFeed: Credits her unscripted, NSFW “Nonsense” outros for teaching her more about sexuality than expected—and sees her owning her authenticity
-
HerCampus: Calls her brand “truly admirable”—celebrating fearlessness—while questioning if she leans too heavily on surface coquettishness versus nuanced empowerment .
Final Thoughts: Where Carpenter Leaves Us
Sabrina Carpenter performs a risky cultural double-take: she seduces with sassy sexual expression, then kneels. That tension—between a woman claiming control and depicting submission—resonates uncomfortably against fifty years of feminist currency.
Nancy Jo Sales might say: this is a moment when the optics collide—empowerment reversed into objectification, self-ownership risking surrender. She is drifting between reclaiming softness as weapon and losing the plot to spectacle.
The irony? Carpenter’s bravest move may lie between the staging—neither fully submissive nor fully sovereign—forcing us to ask: can a woman on her knees still be the author of her own script?
