God Forbid a Woman Own Her Sexuality: Man’s Best Friend

Deputy Editor Chantelle Mackintosh examines the outrage behind Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend album art and asks why femme pop icons need to relinquish their sexuality to be respectable and admired.

This article started as a collaboration between myself and former Editorial Assistant, Helio, in 2025. While they are no longer at Grapeshot, this article would not exist without them <3

What happens when a child star grows up to become an adult icon? This is the question I kept coming back to throughout the release of Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, as the cover was more sexually provocative than her earlier works, causing an outburst of criticism and praise across the internet.  

Sabrina rose to prominence at fifteen, starring on Disney Channel as Maya Hart in Girl Meets World. The now 26-year-old singer has released seven albums, which have increasingly risen in popularity, most notably including her recent three albums, emails i can’t send, Short n’ Sweet and Man’s Best Friend. 

As Sabrina has grown, her songs have too. Teenage heartbreak became adult yearning, carefree summer days became ‘sad girl autumns’, and fun days with friends became sexy nights with lovers. 

When Sabrina announced her latest album, Man’s Best Friend, the internet immediately exploded with hot takes (as it so often does). But what about an album cover could make the internet so mad? Well, the cover depicts Sabrina kneeling while holding the leg of a faceless man as he holds her hair in a leash-like fashion. The overtly playful cover stirred up conversations on womanhood, the male gaze, female sexuality, abuse and kinks. 

Despite Sabrina’s years-long career in the industry, she rose to prominence with her song ‘Nonsense’ from emails i can’t send, thanks to her cheeky innuendos. Her fame rose further when she opened for Taylor Swift's Era’s Tour where she performed a new ‘nonsense outro’ for each city (see Sydney’s, “When you go down under, do you miss me? // He's so big, I felt it in my kidney. // Screamed so loud, they heard it here in Sydney.”)

Sabrina got a lot more cheeky on her Short n’ Sweet Tour, which features a different ‘freaky position’ every night during her song ‘Juno’. It’s not like her fans aren’t used to her kink-positive attitude; they even endorse it, screaming each night for the reveal!

So why are people so upset? Many fans were outraged by the overt pandering to the male gaze, a critique Sabrina has faced for years now. She has faced constant criticism of catering to the male gaze with her risque acts and clothing, despite having a primarily female audience! Not sure how the math is mathing on that one. In fact, name one contemporary pop girl who has a primarily male audience. I’ll wait… The cover actually centres Sabrina to the point where the man doesn’t even have a face! In the alternate covers, the same positioning continues, with either Sabrina in frame only, or she’s centred, with the men around the outside/side of her, almost becoming part of the backdrop. In fact, I’d almost argue that the cover objectifies men to a larger extent than women, as they’re the ones reduced to mere props. 

Online, many commented how the cover normalises degrading kinks. Even agencies like the Glasgow Women’s Aid (a service for women, children and young people experiencing domestic abuse), commented on the cover stating that the cover is a “regressive [...] throwback to tired tropes that reduce women to pets, props and possessions, promoting elements of ‘violence and control’” [1]. While these are all, shall I say, valid, concerns, I’m not sure how deeply these people have engaged with Sabrina’s work before as she is branded as deeply satirical and risque. 

Supporters of the cover argue it's a satirical comment on the male gaze and how societal views on gender roles and sexuality can be used to empower women. The cover depicts not how Sabrina sees herself, but how society views her. The cover is supposed to evoke outrage at how the music industry (and by extension its fans) treats female artists. Even Vogue has commented on the discourse, asking readers to “take a step back, [...] the reaction itself tells us something far more revealing—not just about Carpenter, but about the way we still expect women to behave, even in 2025” [2]. Here, Vogue points out how the album cover intends to evoke a reaction from the audience to reflect on their own views of feminine sexuality.

While there is always outrage over women showing their sexuality, there seems to be more hate when a woman uses her sexuality for her own gain. God forbid a woman own her sexuality! But I think one of the most important reasons for the outrage is that people forget Sabrina is an adult. Many fans, like myself, were introduced to Sabrina in childhood through Girl Meets World and Eyes Wide Open. But I’m no longer twelve, and she’s no longer fifteen. She’s fully in her twenties now, and what are your twenties for but having fun and exploring yourself? And why can’t sex be part of that? Conversations around sex and sexuality have always had a negative stigma, but are becoming increasingly taboo, especially for women. From sexual health classes in school to epic date night stories in uni, sexuality is always a hot topic. Virginity is still a double-edged sword in “the big 26”, where sexual prowess is shunned but so is the lack of experience, especially for women. For men, it’s “pathetic and nerdy” to be a virgin at 21, but for women, it's a sign of purity? And sexual prowess for men is seen as hot and skilled, but for women, it's a promiscuous invitation. You just can’t win.

In fact, I’d argue that Sabrina’s sex-positive attitude is healthy for young girls. Sex shouldn’t have all this taboo and pressure around it. It should be fun! Sex is so different for people, including, yes, that for some it is a sanctimonious commitment, but for others it’s an exploration of the body! And no one should be shamed for their perspective, but that doesn’t mean there’s one “right” one.

Somehow, all this debate started before the album was even released (in fact, that's when Helio and I started writing this article). Since the release, the satirical elements are even more crucial to understanding the message of this album. The two singles, ‘Manchild’ and ‘Tears’ are entirely satirical, depicting men as not just incompetent lovers, but incompetent human beings. Seriously! She’s so done with trash men that someone doing the dishes or answering their phone is a turn on!

Does Sabrina degrade women, or does she reflect the way others have degraded her? Is it explicit or sexy? Wrong or right? I personally think she satirises her experience in the music industry as a way to reflect broader societal views of female sexuality. And that’s not just because I think the cover’s hot (it is), but because I applaud any opportunity for a woman to own herself, in any circumstance. God forbid a woman!

by Chantelle Mackintosh

References:

[1] Glasgow Women's Aid Agency. (2025, June 12). Oh Sabrina! Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/DKyzJAWK730/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=aXIyN2xndXpoMXpx 

[2] Magsalin, Markiel. (2025, June 13). Our reaction to Sabrina Carpenter’s album says a lot about how we still perceive women. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com.au/culture/features/sabrina-carpenter-manchild-controversy/news-story/38139a5a91e07580ab6e4ae39d12fae1