After months of teasers and singles, Sabrina Carpenter finally unveiled the cover for her album “Man’s Best Friend” on Wednesday, June 11, sparking intense backlash across social media platforms claiming that it was “anti-feminist.” The image depicts Carpenter kneeling with a man’s hand grabbing her hair, stirring heated discourse with many fans claiming that Carpenter is inadvertently supporting the very misogynistic values she aims to make fun of and questioning if she still remains a feminist.
When examining someone’s status as a feminist, literature teacher Sara Borelli defines it as the belief in the power of women, as well as the idea that women shouldn’t have to abide by the gender roles pushed on them by society. She finds that the basis of feminism as a whole is represented through women supporting each other rather than putting each other down.
“One of the most important things that we should do as women is to support each other and to find beauty in all women, shapes, sizes, whatever it is that we deem,” said Borelli. “I try not to judge women, I try not to degrade women, I don’t gossip. So I think that’s how I exude feminism, per se, in regards to just being who I am as a woman and not trying to bring other women down.”
Similarly, sophomore Sean To describes a feminist as someone who tries to establish equity by dismantling gender inequalities. Having grown up surrounded by women he sees as powerful — his mother, aunt and two sisters — To believes this is something Carpenter contradicts by posing submissively and objectifying herself for the “male gaze.”
“When I first saw the album cover, I felt like it was very objectifying,” To said. “It had her in that position and I felt like that was just disrespectful. It’s very anti-feminist because women aren’t objects. They’re not these sex toys. It doesn’t matter what gender, what race or whatever you are — we’re all people.”
Many of Carpenter’s critics use similar definitions as guidelines to discern the artist’s anti-feminist status, but some of her fans have asserted that sexualized satire is on-brand for her. Many of her songs are filled with sexual innuendos, such as “Juno” with the lyric “Wanna try out some freaky positions / Have you ever tried this one?” and “15 minutes,” in which she says “I can do a lot with 15 minutes / Only gonna take two to make you finish.”
Senior and avid Sabrina Carpenter listener Shannon Yu says she noticed that when critiquing Carpenter’s album cover, people neglect to take the commonly-found sarcastic subtext in her music into account and thus misjudge her character. When acknowledging the subtext of Carpenter’s actions, she has found that although media literacy has been called into question when analyzing this album, she disagrees with the idea that people who do not understand Carpenter’s satire lack media literacy due to their inability to pick up on her type of humor. In Yu’s opinion, the controversy itself isn’t rooted in the lack of understanding of Carpenter’s message, but rather the implied themes she inadvertently sends with her album cover.
“When I thought critically about this album cover, I found a lot of things that were uncomfortable about it,” Yu said. “I did not like to see a woman treated that way. It’s never fun to see somebody in a position of submissiveness and forced subservience. It could be a sexual thing, it could be a kink and fun, but I think in general, it hits so close to home for a lot of people that it becomes too realistic.”
Yu notes that the themes of forced submissiveness in Carpenter’s album cover reflect the higher amounts of control and abuse women often face in relationships, especially in comparison to what men have experienced. While Yu believes the album cover could be seen as satire, she also feels disheartened to see an impactful public figure like Carpenter play off the dangers women face and display a lack of sensitivity in consideration to those who have faced domestic abuse. Yu also feels it enables many people — especially young boys — to feel as though they should or can behave demeaningly towards women.
The pressure of societal norms like the patriarchy causes women to lack self-worth, which is further enabled when celebrities align themselves with these values, even unintentionally. Although Yu believes that public figures have no legal obligation to actively support feminist movements in or outside of their work, she also thinks that they do hold a moral obligation to take such actions and should be encouraged to use their platforms to speak out on systemic issues like feminism properly.
“You have to realize that, as a celebrity, your words do carry weight, and the things that you tell your followers may eventually lead to action on their part,” Yu said. “So trying to stop spreading hateful messages to kids would be a good idea, to not allow people to emphasize women suck, women should be treated like dogs, women are animals. I think that is a bad rhetoric to put out into the world.”
Borelli, who has experienced countless instances of sexism throughout her life, has found that older generations of women were not aware of the sexism they were experiencing because it was so normalized in societal constructs. As a result their stories and achievements have been hidden, often going unnoticed even by women themselves. This is especially clear during her women in literature unit in World Literature, where she asked students to interview a woman about their strengths, but many returned without anything to share, saying that they didn’t know any women who had done anything impactful. Yet, after deeper questioning, Borelli finds that every woman has stories of struggles or accomplishments, but often doesn’t recognize them as such due to the way society hides those stories and cheapens their meanings.
“The whole point is that we’re trying to build ourselves to be these beautiful women — physically and mentally,” Borelli said. “When you demean somebody, when you demean yourself, you’re buying into that social construct that we’ve been trying to tear down, that you are not good enough.”
Although Yu, Borelli and To ultimately believe that celebrities like Carpenter are entitled to make their own choices about their work, their influence plays a heavy role on determining the types of values their audiences believe. Carpenter may have intended to display a little humor, but as double standards in society already demean women, Yu, Borelli and To think that other women shouldn’t contribute to that attitude, even in satire. Borelli believes that young women are given the privilege to continue building on the advancements older generations of women have established for girls today, and Yu supports this, promoting the idea that women should focus on helping each other break the bounds of what femininity can be, instead of reinforcing the societal status quo.
“Women deserve to be treated a lot better than we are treating them right now, and this album cover shows that very well,” Yu said. “This hits so close to home for so many people. When I saw it, I had a visceral reaction where I immediately leaned back in my chair and had to think for a while. I never want to be treated that way, and I think no women should — without their choosing — be treated that way.”
Correction (Oct. 20 8:00 PM): This article has been updated to remove misrepresentation on Sara Borelli and Shannon Yu’s beliefs.
