Sabrina Carpenter accused of centering men on controversial album cover
On 11 June 2025, Sabrina Carpenter teased cover art for her upcoming album Man’s Best Friend. Sporting a sleek black mini dress and pair of heels, the ‘Manchild’ singer can be seen posing for the camera, draping her arm halfway up a suited man’s leg as he grips a handful of her blonde locks. Immediately, two camps appeared: those who were simply obsessed with the artistry, and those who found the image quite disturbing.
The comments section quickly became flooded with fans’ thoughts. The first wave of reactions were definitely overwhelmingly positive, with users commenting things like “New reason to stay alive just dropped” and “Texting everyone I know.”
But then, pretty quickly, netizens began expressing real disappointment and upset with the album art, with some even calling the image “triggering.” One individual wrote: “Does anybody else find this cover really disturbing?”
Another stated: “Love Sabrina—but this picture—why is the man in there like that? It’s not a very empowering image for women. I think it’s a mistake since most of her fans are women and as a dv [domestic violence] survivor I find it uncomfortable and I’d rather see her empowered than like that.”
There were also a lot of comments talking about how, as fans, some people felt as though the image reiterates ongoing narratives about Carpenter “catering to the male gaze” and “centering men” in her art.
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 https://t.co/dYMxEDM651
— chisu 🥖 (@tamaescence) June 11, 2025
Some netizens on Twitter even went as far as to say that the actions of pop stars like Carpenter and Addison Rae are setting feminism back… I think we lost the definition of feminism somewhere along the way here girls.
Between Sabrina Carpenter, Bonnie Blue and Addison Rae… idk who’s setting women back more….💆🏻♀️ what a shame
— Ekorfz (@ekorfz) June 12, 2025
Also, if there’s one thing the Short n Sweet artist is, it’s playful. Take one look at the lyrics she writes and you can clearly see that the only role men are playing in her artistry are as pawns. In fact, in all of her music, she recognises the role women play in their own subjugation—poking fun at the patriarchy and creating songs that encourage women to take charge of the game at play.
There were a few stans who could clearly read between the lines and appreciated the singer’s silliness: “Heaven forbid a woman have a sense of humour about owning her sexuality while mocking men. Y’all make me lose faith for real, this is so not that serious.”
Over the past year the 26-year-old has experienced a lot of criticism, predominantly from people who strongly believe that her performances and music are too sexual.
In the public’s mind, Carpenter should be more considerate of the fact she has a number of very young fans. A lot of this hate is likely to do with the fact that people still have this warped idea that celebrities who become famous at a young age are frozen in time and have some kind of duty to maintain the same public image over time. Miley Cyrus dealt with it, Demi Lovato went through it, and now Miss Carpenter is having to face it.
I think we all need to keep reminding ourselves: it’s really not that deep. Let a girl live, and let her present and market her music in whichever way she so chooses. Now that’s feminism.
