If you have spent any amount of time listening to mainstream pop music, the name Sabrina Carpenter is household, with hit titles such as “Nonsense,” “Feather,” “Taste,” and “Espresso.” After spending over 10 years recording music, she has finally found her pedestal in the spotlight, bringing home numerous music awards, a sell-out tour with a second to begin shortly, and record-breaking releases.
On her sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet, Carpenter builds a playful, feminine, and sleazy aesthetic, asking her listeners, “Have you ever tried this one?” on tour. On Man’s Best Friend, released on August 29th, 2025, she delves further into the risqué, providing a 70s and 80s-inspired pop album containing themes of desire, sexuality, and the joys and disappointments of modern-day dating in her incredibly comedic and expressive lyrics. When announcing the album on June 11th, she also revealed the album cover, an image of Carpenter on her hands and knees, with a man, out of frame, holding her hair.
The album title and cover depict Carpenter as a dog, or, to be blunt, a b*tch. She takes the term that so many men have utilized in a derogatory way towards women for decades and decades, and centers her album around it. So, yes. The album cover does feed into the male gaze, which is what set thousands of people off, both fans of Carpenter and not. In the time between the album cover’s release and the album’s release, many accusations were thrown at Carpenter. The disapproval spanned from the thought that maybe the cover was satirical, but didn’t land quite right, all the way to Carpenter holding anti-feminist values and intentionally attempting to portray an image of how women should be. But it’s Carpenter’s album, so she should be able to do what she wants with the cover, right? To counter the idea that Carpenter went into production with malicious intent, we can analyze choice feminism, and the idea that the autonomy to make decisions free of judgement and restraint is an act of feminism in itself. Still, this concept tends to be ignorant, however, to the years of oppression and lack of autonomy that many women, to this day, still face. It’s incredibly important to take this into consideration, especially for influential individuals that are easily idolized, much like Carpenter. This is why many agree that the cover is incredibly tasteless and tone-deaf, perpetuating standards that many women have fought, some still fighting, to overcome.
But in this case, the question is whether Carpenter puts herself in the light of the male gaze in a derogatory manner or not. In the cover image, she looks straight into the camera, almost The Office-esque, as if communicating to her listeners that, regardless of how it may appear, she still holds the power in this situation, unbeknownst to the intentionally faceless man to the side.
Lastly, some pose the argument that Carpenter isn’t doing any subliminal messaging with the cover at all, simply using it to gain attention, a common marketing strategy that pop stars are not above. After all, it is nearly impossible to claim that the album cover didn’t warrant some kind of reaction out of all of us, right? It is not uncommon for women in the spotlight to embrace the male gaze for their own personal gain; think of the controversial Sydney Sweeney (no, not the American Eagle ad). It does, however, beg to address the difference between feeding the male gaze and embracing sexuality, something Carpenter toes the line of with the cover of Man’s Best Friend.
At the end of the day, however, Carpenter holds complete ownership of the album, so regardless of the perspective of her listeners, she should be able to do whatever she wants with the cover, right? This opens up to the world of This concept tends to be ignorant, however, to the years of oppression and lack of autonomy that many women, to this day, still face.
In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, he asks about the intentions of the album cover and what the creative process looked like when doing the photoshoot. Carpenter replies, “I wanted a man playing with my hair…I actually used five different men to take that photo because none of them could play with my hair; they were all pulling it.” She continues to explain how the actual process of the shoot encapsulates the core ideas of the album – she puts herself in varying situations with different people, and they, knowingly or not, hold a lot of emotional power.
And the album is just that – it’s fun, it’s feminine, and Carpenter embraces the light and sometimes serendipitous, sometimes not so much, moments of girlhood. The album’s lyrics are actually far from “for men,” with half of the songs spent dogging on men and their inability to hold any basic responsibility.
What Carpenter writes is easily understood and easy to resonate with; her lack of depth in her music is what makes her so popular among female and male audiences. Many argue that her surface-level album is not enough to warrant a profound message with its cover, and that should be okay. An album is not good based on what political messages it presents or how many of its lyrics need to be looked up in a dictionary to understand, but rather what the artist enjoys and what each fan enjoys. Read the cover and songs of Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend how you will, whether that be an active plot against the progress made by women, a fun, but ignorant concept, or a simple pursuit of marketing prowess and fame. In conclusion, all forms of art are a subjective experience meant to be analyzed and interpreted however you want.