Pop darling Sabrina Carpenter has been riding high lately. From sugary chart-toppers like Espresso to her gleaming appearances alongside Taylor Swift, she’s carved a spot for herself in the current pop charts. But just as her career hits new highs, Sabrina Carpenter’s freshly unveiled album cover for Man’s Best Friend has left fans and culture critics equally wide-eyed – and not in awe.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend album cover features the singer on her knees, with a man pulling her hair like a leash. The imagery is provocative, sparking a flurry of debate, from praise for its “daring aesthetic” to criticism that it plays into age-old tropes that many hoped we’d left behind.

Man’s Best Friend album cover: Satirical or cringe?

 

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Depending on whom you ask, the reactions swing wildly. Some fans have declared it a satirical take saying, “A little concerned about people’s inability to immediately clock that the cover is obviously a commentary on the way women are treated.”

Others are less enthusiastic. “Is this a humiliation ritual? WTH is this cover” reads one viral comment.

Of course, it’s not unusual for female pop stars to flirt with controversy. Madonna, Britney, Rihanna – all have pushed boundaries in ways that were called  both revolutionary and regressive. But the best among them did so with purpose, clarity, and (often) irony.

Sabrina, until now, has played her hand with a kind self-awareness. Her visuals have always been sex-positive. She has built a persona of an artist who claims her sexuality in a world that doesn’t let women do so. Everything about Sabrina Carpenter has always been hyperfeminine, and that’s probably why she has been fun and liberating to watch. However, Man’s Best Friend doesn’t quite strike the same chord, at least from its isolated visuals.

Context helps but does it change anything?

The cover is visually loaded. The man remains faceless, yet in control. Sabrina is centre stage, on her knees. The dynamic feels more submissive than satirical. Culture expert Poppie Platt, in The Telegraph, has explicitly criticised the cover for going “too far” and compared it to TikTok trends like the trad wife that promotes being submissive to men. American lawyer and author Sunny Hostin has iterated that without context, the cover is problematic. “I think imagery is important, and even if her lyrics are strong and she’s a feminist, I think about young girls seeing that who may not understand,” she told Billboard.

Sabrina Carpenter has proven she can make pop music that’s both clever and catchy, sexy and sharp. But the Man’s Best Friend album cover, for all its virality, feels like it’s reaching backwards rather than pushing forward. In a world where female artists are rewriting the rules of pop stardom, this kind of visual feels more like a costume than a statement.

What do you think of Sabrina Carpenter’s new album cover?

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