Everything about this feels so vintage. The year is 2025 and we’re having a major pop culture discourse about the sexiness and/or internalized misogyny of Sabrina Carpenter’s new album cover. Sabrina announced her new album, Man’s Best Friend, on Wednesday. She posted the album covers on her social media:
My new album, “Man’s Best Friend” 🐾
is out on August 29, 2025.i can’t wait for it to be yours x
Pre-order now: pic.twitter.com/UXVLzBQTj4
— Sabrina Carpenter (@SabrinaAnnLynn) June 11, 2025
While Sabrina isn’t my favorite, I loved “Espresso” and I appreciate that she stays in her lane. That lane being “sultry pop princess with a vintage flavor.” Sabrina has always leaned into performative femininity in her public persona – she performs in hot pants and lingerie, she has big, bouncy blonde hair, and she loves a face full of makeup. Her lyrics are usually about how she’s hot and men want her, but men are trash and they always disappoint her. She’s not reinventing the wheel in any aspect. She’s not a feminist icon and I don’t believe she’s ever claimed any kind of feminist mantle.
So… that’s part of the discourse about the album cover with Sabrina. They’re mad because… it’s not particularly feminist to be on her knees, with a man grabbing a handful of her hair. They’re mad because Sabrina has young fans (which is true) and what does this say to the young girls who worship her? I find the complaints implying that the cover is wrong because Sabrina “looks young” to be bizarre – she’s 26 years old, and while she has a girlish persona, she’s been singing about sex and adult relationships for years. Personally, I’m surprised by the sexiness of the cover, and I kind of wonder if that’s part of the implied criticism for Gen Z, the Puriteen Gen, the generation which is against any and all depictions of sex or sexiness in art.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of Sabrina’s social media.
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