Sabrina Carpenter explained the artistic vision behind her criticized album cover, revealing it took multiple attempts to capture the playful, empowering image she wanted.
Sabrina Carpenter blamed a generational double standard for the backlash she received over her „Man’s Best Friend“ album cover.
Carpenter opened up about her new music and the controversial album cover after the Aug. 29 release. The pop star called out one generation for continuously getting offended by her, at times, overtly sexual lyrics.
„There is a generation that gets offended by some of the things I do, and it’s a generation that has either young children . or they’ve raised children, and they’re just sort of looking at it from a different point in their life – sort of scolding“, Carpenter said during an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music. „And they all had sex – many times – because they popped a lot of kids out. So, I just think about that, and I’m always just like it’s so funny. I mean we’re all, we’re just so judgmental.“
„I’m not allowed to have sex, but you are?“ Carpenter questioned.
Carpenter announced her album on June 11. The album cover, which was shared on Instagram, was immediately met with harsh criticism as many fans labeled the photograph of the singer on all fours with a man pulling her hair as suggestive.
„Am I the only one who thinks this is dehumanizing for women?“ one user wrote. Another added, „This cover makes me uncomfortable… especially in times like these. Absolutely tone deaf.“
„This isn’t satire, this is not empowering to women. You’ve missed the mark by so much hun“, another user wrote.
Carpenter finally revealed the vision behind the controversial cover art after releasing the entire album on Aug. 29.
„It’s like so funny thinking about it now, because I wanted a man playing with my hair“, the 26-year-old explained to Lowe.
