In what’s probably got the group chat buzzing all day, Sabrina Carpenter‘s keeping the gap between albums real short and sweet with a seventh album already headed our way. But it’s the album art she dropped that’s got everyone and their Nan seemingly losing their minds.
A week after releasing her latest single “Manchild”, she’s just revealed the title and release for her album Man’s Best Friend, arriving August 29.
Dropping the news in a carousel on her Instagram on Thursday, the first slide features her on all fours in a black dress, with her hair tugged by a suited arm. A second slide zooms into a blue collar with the words ‘Man’s best friend’ engraved.
Sabrina is nothing if not a performer, so she probably predicted the (semi) tiresome discourse over the cover art. Hey, you gotta drum up publicity somehow! Online, some people are claiming it’s “setting feminism back a hundred years”, while others are decrying the lack of media literacy (“it’s irony towards the male gaze”, duh).
“I’ve been torn about this all day. It’s definitely a conversation starter,” one user piped in, while others claimed it was “degrading”.
“I don’t wanna see no man dragging you around by your hair mother please get up,” one person wrote.
Some fans pointed out the album art comes at a pretty tense time in the US, particularly in the realm of women’s rights.
“Love (you) Sabrina but in this political climate with Trump as president and women’s control over their bodies being taken away in the US… this is kind (of) insensitive,” one Instagram user wrote.
To be fair, if “Manchild” is anything to go by, Sabrina’s not looking to be painted as a slavish lover any time soon (this is the mind that gave us “no animals were harmed in the making but some men were” just before the music video dropped!!) but the album art’s has got plenty of people wondering: is it misogynistic or is it ironic?
“Is the cover questionable? Yes. Am I gonna support that album? Absolutely. I trust my girl Sabrina, I know the song will eat,” wrote one TikToker in her defence. Another said this is going to be the “Summer of Sabrina for a second year in a row”.
“Do we just have no media literacy? Does everything have to be spelled out? Its irony towards the male gaze and to mock how people see her and women. She is all about mocking and irony and performative jokes. This is what that is, it’s mocking what men see, she doesn’t cater to them,” one TikToker weighed in.
“Just wait for the album guys, then we’ll know for sure,” another fan pointed out. (Lowkey with you on that one.)
Noting all the discourse floating around, one user on X (formerly Twitter) added: “For those of you who may lack critical thinking skills, the cover is clearly satirical with a deeper meaning, portraying how the public views her, believing she is just for the male gaze.”
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Dr Emma Phillips, an assistant professor at the University of Canberra who wrote her PhD on the aesthetics of sexualisation, said the album art shows our pop princess “being an active agent in her sexual life” but she’s still copping flak.
“There’s a deep irony or satire going on, and there’s no question that Carpenter is engaging in that … we should engage with who she is, with the lyrics on the album, and some of her history, rather than just take a surface reading of things, which unfortunately, is what most people will do,” she told the publication.
Personally, I’m still waiting to see more of what’s coming with the album — but hey, it looks like Man’s Best Friend‘s already got us talking.
Lead image: Getty
