Latest news with #albumCover
New York Times
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Sabrina Carpenter's Album Art Is a Trap
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. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Fast Company
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Sabrina Carpenter's new album cover divides the internet: ‘Man's Best Friend' discourse explained
Less than a year after she came out with her Grammy-winning album 'Short n' Sweet,' pop singer Sabrina Carpenter announced the release date of her next project, titled 'Man's Best Friend,' with a new album cover on Wednesday, and it has ignited a headline-grabbing debate. While some fans of the singer are salivating over the mere mention of another ' Sabrina Summer,' others are none too happy with the album cover's messaging. The cover depicts Carpenter in heels and a black minidress, crouching on the floor. An anonymous man holds a handful of her iconic blonde hair. Fans and critics immediately took to social media to voice their support or concerns with the image's messaging, and though many fans staunchly defend Carpenter and the album cover as 'satirical,' 'exaggerated,' and 'ironic,' others, including the domestic violence advocacy group Glasgow Women's Aid, say that the image of a Carpenter kneeling on the ground being dragged by her hair is triggering, regressive, and frankly, distasteful. Pushing boundaries or tired tropes? Discourse about the album's imagery calls to mind a long history of public criticism directed toward women artists. Many women who have challenged boundaries around what was acceptable in music and other artistic disciplines have found themselves on the receiving end of cultural blowback, but this conversation reads differently. The prevalence of social media means that the album cover went viral overnight, as people saw and posted about the new cover, and some critics worry about the impact of the message on young fans. (Carpenter is a former Disney Channel star.) Fans also have the ability insult each other's intelligence overtly via Instagram and TikTok, calling those who don't get it 'dumb' and 'dense.' Comments on the original Instagram post lean both directions, with some expressing their excitement and others telling Carpenter that the cover 'is not the slay you think it is.' One user explained that even if the cover is an ironic joke, it's not an effective one. 'If the fans who know all of her lore are the only ones who can interpret her attempt, that isn't satire,' the user wrote. '[It's] an inside joke that reads misogynistic to everyone else which makes it really harmful.' Still, Carpenter is known for the wry messaging in her music, prompting some TikTok users to call out others whom they claimed just didn't get it. 'The people criticizing Sabrina Carpenter's new album cover for 'Man's Best Friend' are so obtuse,' said one TikToker in a video. 'None of you have ever used context clues in your life and it shows.' However, others accuse Carpenter of not paying attention to context. A common refrain is that Carpenter is acting oblivious to America's current political climate and the deep misogyny that runs through it.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sabrina Carpenter on potential backlash against 'Man's Best Friend' amid claims she's catering to the male gaze: 'I can not give a f*** about it'
Sabrina Carpenter knows what's being said about her — she just doesn't care. The pop star unveiled the cover art for her forthcoming album, Man's Best Friend, on Wednesday and was quickly faced with criticism. On the cover, Carpenter is seen on her knees, wearing a little black dress and heels. She's looking at the camera, doe-eyed, while a man, who is standing in front of her, grabs her hair. The online discussion surrounding the album's cover art is brimming with divisive opinions. Some people are calling it contradictory to Carpenter's 'man-hater' attitude. Others, however, are defending it as being intentionally controversial — because Carpenter isn't one to do things without subtext. 'The concept of being a man-hater yet making your album cover a pic of you getting on your knees for a man while he grips your hair in a degrading manner is so odd,' one fan wrote on X, while another added, 'Her man hating is all performative.' The 26-year-old singer is no stranger to criticizing men in her songs. On 'Please Please Please,' she begs her current partner not to embarrass her. On 'Dumb & Poetic,' she laments being fooled by a seemingly good guy. On 'Manchild,' her lead single off of Man's Best Friend, she complains about how immature men can be. To say that the album artwork is proof that Carpenter's critique of men is suddenly inauthentic, for some fans, misses the mark entirely. 'My 'woke' opinion but everyone's reaction to this is just more purity bs that was forced onto women hundreds of years ago cause you just cant believe that women are something other than 'pure' and 'innocent,'' one fan said in defense of the cover. Man's Best Friend is out Aug. 29. Until then, Carpenter isn't all that concerned about what people might think of it. 'I'm living in the glory of no one hearing it or knowing about it, and so I can not care,' she told Rolling Stone for its July-August cover story. 'I can not give a f*** about it, because I'm just so excited.' Even Carpenter's Rolling Stone cover has generated discourse. On it, the pop star wears only white lace stockings, while her Rapunzel-length hair strategically covers certain parts of her body. On Rolling Stone's official Instagram post unveiling the cover, many fans have come to Carpenter's defense, again. 'This is the least sexual image, it's simply a feminine figure nude, with hair covering intimate areas, it's reminiscent of the birth of Venus by Botticelli, if we're viewing any image of a nude body as sexual we're dangerously straying into conservatism here,' one user wrote. Added another fan, 'People turned on her so fast after that album cover (as we know, a woman comparing herself to a man's literal female dog is to be taken at 100% face value and must mean that she now thinks all women should submit to men and be tradwives or w/e). and just in general young people are more conservative and prudish than ever, we are so quickly backsliding into weird christian fundamentalism as a society.' Carpenter celebrates her sexuality, while still prioritizing her female fan base. That she would suddenly turn around and cater to the male gaze feels off-brand for her, especially following the critical reception of Short n' Sweet, the two-time Grammy-winning album on which she exudes sexual positivity. Tracks like 'Bed Chem,' for instance, are rife with both cheeky innuendos and goofy, straightforward proclamations of being a woman who loves sex. Carpenter sings about it all so casually. Her NSFW lyrics aren't as salacious as they are cleverly written. 'Anytime I didn't really want to be nice and please people, I could use sarcasm as a tactic of being transparent, and I didn't come across as rude or bitchy or hard to work with,' she told Rolling Stone. 'This opens a whole other conversation [about] how women have to reshape their dialogue and overall intentions in order to make sure they're not coming off a certain way. When in reality, I've started to realize it doesn't make you a bad person to be assertive, or know what you want.' If the controversy surrounding her album artwork and Rolling Stone cover is any indication, Carpenter isn't afraid of a little backlash. She's exuding femininity on her own terms, in a way that makes sense to her. Whether or not you understand it is of little concern to her.
