Sabrina Carpenter's New Album Cover Art Is a Rorschach Test

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9 hours ago

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Sabrina Carpenter is no stranger to making playful innuendos that send jaws dropping. The Grammy winner did it with her first NSFW "Nonsense" outro, during the "Please Please Please" music video, and on-stage with one "Juno" position after another. This is classic Carpenter conduct: tongue-in-cheek lyrics, campy corsets and négligées, all catered toward the female gaze. But on June 11, she outdid herself.
Less than one year after Short n' Sweet debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 charts, Carpenter announced the forthcoming August 29 release of her new album, Man's Best Friend. The moment she shared the album cover, it immediately started a capital-D discourse online. With help from her stylist, Jared Ellner, Carpenter posed on all fours in an archival Dolce & Gabbana little black dress and sky-high pumps, while an unidentified man pulled her by her blonde bombshell hair.
I immediately drafted a text to my sister (an equally enthusiastic Carpenter fan) to gush over the impending new album. But I also had a question: "Did you see the cover photo?" My first instinct was to interrogate the image's motive. When misogyny is at an all-time high and women's rights are constantly on the line, should a pop star produce this sort of imagery? I thought I'd find it more empowering to see her as the tugger, not the "tuggee."
I'm not the only one—one commenter on Instagram wrote, "This just set us back about 5 decades," while another shared, "Excited for new music but this cover is a big no from me, dawg. In this political climate?? Girls, get up!" Glasgow Women's Aid, a Scotland-based advocacy organization for women experiencing domestic abuse, said it's a "throwback to tired tropes that reduce women to pets, props, and possessions, and promote an element of violence and control." Then, The Telegraph chimed in with a pearl-clutching headline: "Sabrina Carpenter's over-sexed, degrading new album cover has gone too far."
But as a longtime Carpenter fan, I believe she thought long and hard (no pun intended) before pressing "Post." The "Espresso" singer knew this would trigger important conversations about agency and the female gaze—like most of her music and accompanying outfits do.
The album title is clearly a play on words, for starters. Instead of outright calling her album, B*tch, she's cheekily referencing the word for a female dog. Some TikTokers believe the title track, "A Man's Best Friend" might even reference a man calling her a "b*tch," hence the name. Metaphors and wordplay are a trademark in the Carpenterverse. From my POV, the entire package is an ironic response to the slut-shaming she's received for dressing, speaking, and singing in a way the internet dubs "provocative." Also, who says we've seen the whole cover? What if it's her hand after all? Pardon me, my inner Swiftie is coming out.
In the words of Beyoncé, "you know you that b*tch when you cause all this conversation." Is the photo controversial? Yes, but so is Carpenter. She literally wrote the lyrics, "I'm so f*ckin' horny," in Short n' Sweet's "Juno." Causing a stir by embracing her sexuality is the backbone of her brand, and at this point, she's a pro at it.
If you think she's appealing to the male gaze, you obviously don't listen to Carpenter's music. And if you do listen, you need to listen harder. In songs like "because I liked a boy," "lie to girls," and "Sharpest Tool," her lyrics challenge various patriarchal assumptions placed on women. In "because I liked a boy," she sings, "I'm a home-wrecker, I'm a slut / I got death threats filling up semi-trucks / Tell me who I am, guess I don't have a choice / All because I liked a boy."
"[Women] just have to grow thicker skin, but they don't have to learn how to shut their mouths," Carpenter says in a recent Rolling Stone interview in response to online scrutiny. "I've never lived in a time where women have been picked apart more, and scrutinized in every capacity." On the surface, her lyrics, choreography, and costumes might appear over-sexualized, but this aesthetic is a gateway to empowerment.
She's hardly the first woman to dress provocatively in service of her art. Carpenter's character frequently references vintage icons like Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Dolly Parton, Betty Grable, and Rita Hayworth, all of whom similarly wielded sex appeal as agency.
And where is this criticism when modern male artists have delivered explicit covers—with nary a nuance in sight? Back in 2013, Talk Dirty showcased a nearly-naked Jason Derulo with a woman's hands caressing his lower stomach. More recently, The Dare's "Girls" record depicts women in sexually-suggestive positions.
Not only is Sabrina Carpenter's music for the girls, the star's entire aura is—and it's nothing new. 'Femininity is something that I've always embraced,' Carpenter shared in an Oct. 2024 interview with Time. 'And if right now that means corsets and garter belts and fuzzy robes or whatever, then that's what that means.'
Since early 2023, Carpenter's vibe has leaned '60s pin-up, complete with micro-mini skirts, hot pants, and bras as tops. On the Short n' Sweet tour, she opened up each of the 72 shows in a bejeweled bustier, plus lacy garter tights, both custom-made by Victoria's Secret. During her performance at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, she made out with an alien in even more custom Victoria's Secret lingerie. Fast-forward to the 2025 Grammys, and she took center stage to perform—and take home two trophies—in another barely-there bodysuit from Dolce & Gabbana.
To no surprise, Carpenter's Man's Best Friend era is already off to a sensual start—just as I knew it would be. In the "Manchild" music video (the new record's first single), she bared it all in cheeky Daisy Dukes, a vintage Valentino bra, and a sheer Chrome Hearts skirt. Carpenter chose to wear these outfits in homage to pin-up culture, because that's how she connects to her femininity.
So, Carpenter is on track to maintain her spicy status, and what about it? I say, let women wear whatever they want, whenever, and however they want. For Carpenter, if that's a skin-tight LBD on her knees, great. I'll cheer her on every time.