You're thinking too much about Sabrina Carpenter

Why your take isn't needed on the Man's Best Friend album cover

Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. I’ve been umming and ahhing about writing this piece but I decided to go with my gut and write it in the end. Before this piece begins, if you are feeling negative emotions towards Carpenter’s new album cover, I’d suggest you stop reading here. This piece is simply a nuanced approach to the discourse across Substack lately and an ultimate defence of Carpenter’s work as a long-term fan myself. Any hate or negativity on this piece will be immediately blocked and removed.

Now, Sabrina Carpenter has definitely been a hot topic across Substack ever since she took a promiscuous approach to her music with her recently released album Short N’ Sweet and the tour which took place not long after the album’s release. The first controversy Carpenter experienced was parents experiencing discomfort when taking their children on her tour, including her freaky positions in the ‘Juno’ song and her tour outfits mainly being lingerie.

I don’t know if it’s just basic common sense to me but why should Carpenter be blamed for her music when she’s at the appropriate age to write this sort of music? Majority of her audience shouldn’t be little girls. Don’t blame Sabrina Carpenter for your shitty parenting skills and maybe monitor your child more, as well as not even thinking of bringing them to a concert like this. I think people tend to forget that Carpenter’s contract with Disney has been up for a long time now and she’s allowed to have freedom of expression and experimentation through her music.

Some infamous ‘Juno’ positions which took the world by storm

Not long after this, Sabrina released a brand new single ‘Manchild’ as well as announcing her new album Man’s Best Friend with a unique album cover set to release on August 29th. The album cover shows the singer in a dog-like position and a man holding her hair as if she’s on a leash like a dog, nodding to the album’s title.

When I say this album cover has spread across Substack like the plague. Not even as a fan but in general, it is so so disheartening to see the unwarranted hate Sabrina has received by merely teasing the album cover and title with nothing more. Might I remind you that we are still in the teaser stage of this album and she is yet to tell us more? Why the quick judgements?

Comments like ‘she’s setting women back 100 years’ and ‘she’s not doing us any favours with that album cover’ have left me shocked and confused, I don’t know about anyone else. If you are a listener of Carpenter’s music, you would immediately get the gist of the album cover and understand this is merely satire. Ever since the release of her cheeky song ‘Nonsense’ from her album emails i can’t send, Carpenter has been known for her cheeky and promiscuous approach to music. I mean how can we forget the iconic Nonsense outros like this one.

Boy that thing so big I call it Wembley

I stay on that head and do it rent free

Capital FM you bloody wrecked me

The humour and jokes are apparent in this, aren’t they? So why aren’t we looking at the Man’s Best Friend album cover with the same approach? It’s also really funny how most of these hate and derogatory comments are coming from men (with some women following suit to their perspectives). As a fan, I think Carpenter maybe wanted this approach to be talked about with what she’s aiming to display about women and their roles in a patriarchal society which is clearly apparent in the discourse plaguing Substack.

Carpenter’s new single ‘Manchild’ can also be brought into the equation. Again, the singer is merely having fun and exploring her sound but the lyrics can also dig deeper. Carpenter is calling out men on their shitty behaviour and looking flawless whilst doing so. Paired next to the Man’s Best Friend album cover, we can clearly see the satire at play with Carpenter’s music. If you hate her for doing so, maybe you’re the problem.

The very well known Man’s Best Friend album cover

With this patriarchal approach to the Man’s Best Friend album cover, I think it is very significant to bring in Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ theory. This is what it states:

The male gaze refers to the way women are objectified by the camera lens in Hollywood movies because men are in control of the production process and make decisions appealing to their own values and interests. The audience, mainly women, are then positioned to accept this narrow representation of themselves.

The ‘male gaze’ can be likened to old fashioned representations of women and how they’re appealing to the male ego mainly, in my opinion. If you are a man in this day and age and still thinking with this mindset, you’re pretty much backwards, and the same goes for the women agreeing. I don’t know what it is but a ‘white feminist’ approach to Carpenter’s album cover is not it, in any way, shape or form. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t want you girls to think with this mindset too.

If you are viewing and judging Carpenter’s new album cover with the ‘male gaze’ lens, I’m gonna need you to take a step back for a second and look at how you’re viewing media yourself. Yes different perspectives are good but bringing in gender wars for a singer and her mere album cover? Get a life for god’s sake.

An example of the ‘male gaze’

It’s also very funny how Sydney Sweeney and her bath water aren’t garnering as much unwarranted attention as Sabrina and her album cover. Could this be because Sweeney is appealing to the ‘male gaze’ and Carpenter merely isn’t? You guys say we’re progressing with women’s rights, feminism and whatnot but it looks like we’re going backwards to me. Why should one woman get loved for selling out her bath water and another get hate for exploring the freedom and fun of her sexuality?

The bottom line I’ve concluded is; people will always end up hating on successful and happy women with Carpenter being one of them. This could also be seen with the unwarranted hate towards singers such as Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams. Maybe try getting a life of your own before commenting on someone else’s?

This note wraps up my piece perfectly but I’d also like to say there is much bigger shit going on in the world right now so stop avoiding it. Trump and the disturbing incidents with the rise of ICE across America with protests across numerous cities, Iran and Israhell (don’t even wanna type the name) at tensions with one another and the threat of WW3 looming and most importantly the Palestinian genocide and starvation of Gazans. Don’t let this distract you from what truly matters!

If you made it to the end of this piece, thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this nuanced approach to the Sabrina discourse across Substack and hopefully the negativity will die down soon. Consider buying me a coffee to fund future paid pieces of Diaries from a Petal.