Sabrina Carpenter's Album Art Is a Trap

New York Times

a day ago

When the pop star Sabrina Carpenter dropped the cover art for her forthcoming album, 'Man's Best Friend,' this week, it became an instant conversation piece.
The image — of Ms. Carpenter on her knees, a suited figure just out of frame pulling her by her hair, as if to use it as a leash — spurred some people to accuse her of 'centering men' and catering to the male gaze. Others argued that Ms. Carpenter, whose music often includes proverbial smirks and winks that suggest a kind of knowingness, was playing a joke on the viewer. Others still urged that there was nothing to see here — just a young woman enjoying her sexuality.
Bryce Anderson is the person behind the cover, a photographer and model known for playing with gender expression and beauty standards. Ms. Carpenter, for her part, has said that the strong responses to her risqué behavior — particularly her concerts, which sometimes feature her simulating sex positions — are more of a reflection of other people's fixations rather than anything to do with her.
'Clearly you love sex,' she told Rolling Stone in a recent interview, referring to her critics. 'You're obsessed with it.'
In an edited conversation, members of the Styles staff — Stella Bugbee and Marie Solis — discussed this very of-the-moment Rorschach test.
MARIE SOLIS: This image seems almost impossibly overdetermined. It also seems caught in a dichotomy of — is it oppressive or empowering? I think that's too simple a way to talk about it, though.
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