Latest news with #ex-Disney
The Age
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
It's hardly breaking news, people: Sex sells and Sabrina's a savvy vendor
In case you've been living under a rock while the world quite literally blows up around us, for reasons unbeknownst we are still talking about Sabrina Carpenter, the 'woman who ruled most of 2025'. If you need me to fill in the gaps, she's that pint-sized ex-Disney princess producing earworms and pornographically suggestive album covers where she's crouching on all fours in front of a man who's grabbing her hair (and please give me the number of whoever designed the cave you're living in). In fact, there was so much hoo-ha around the aforementioned album cover, she's released an alternative one 'approved by God': a classy black-and-white Marilyn Monroe-esque pose of Carpenter holding a man's arm. It's a tale as old as time (or at least the internet): a pop starlet comes crashing into our collective consciousness, producing catchy but non-memorable songs and we scratch our heads, trying to work out what her secret sauce is. We did it to Miley Cyrus (I endured her tongue-twerking 2014 Bangerz tour as a support worker accompanying a fan), Tay Tay and Rihanna. Carpenter is the latest incarnation, and it's no mystery what part of her strategic brand is selling (her first Man's Best Friend album cover might give you a clue). Yet, we discuss ... Some argue the cover, and by extension, Carpenter's brand identity, is 'secretly satirical'. Others have suggested her secret sauce is 'comedy'. Loading Her recently released single Manchild is hanging on the pointy end of the Billboard 100 charts (No. 2 at the time of writing) and, sure, it's catchy. Some lyrics are funny ('Why so sexy if so dumb? And how survive the Earth so long?') But let's not kid ourselves or ignore the Daisy Dukes (very short cut-off jeans) in the Manchild video: sex is still the main brand pillar, and it's getting old. I just learnt that Carpenter is a Disney graduate, which makes sense; I should have picked it. This is a classic brand evolution playbook: somewhere in Hollywood there's a seedy PR dude ripe for a #metoo exposé after years of ushering Disney princesses out of the castle and into the red-light district. Love her or hate her, right-wing commentator Candace Owens nailed it when she said of that album cover: 'If she had wanted to be controversial, she'd have kept her clothes on, gotten married and had some kids on the cover of her album, like she just had a nice family shot.'
Sydney Morning Herald
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
It's hardly breaking news, people: Sex sells and Sabrina's a savvy vendor
In case you've been living under a rock while the world quite literally blows up around us, for reasons unbeknownst we are still talking about Sabrina Carpenter, the 'woman who ruled most of 2025'. If you need me to fill in the gaps, she's that pint-sized ex-Disney princess producing earworms and pornographically suggestive album covers where she's crouching on all fours in front of a man who's grabbing her hair (and please give me the number of whoever designed the cave you're living in). In fact, there was so much hoo-ha around the aforementioned album cover, she's released an alternative one 'approved by God': a classy black-and-white Marilyn Monroe-esque pose of Carpenter holding a man's arm. It's a tale as old as time (or at least the internet): a pop starlet comes crashing into our collective consciousness, producing catchy but non-memorable songs and we scratch our heads, trying to work out what her secret sauce is. We did it to Miley Cyrus (I endured her tongue-twerking 2014 Bangerz tour as a support worker accompanying a fan), Tay Tay and Rihanna. Carpenter is the latest incarnation, and it's no mystery what part of her strategic brand is selling (her first Man's Best Friend album cover might give you a clue). Yet, we discuss ... Some argue the cover, and by extension, Carpenter's brand identity, is 'secretly satirical'. Others have suggested her secret sauce is 'comedy'. Loading Her recently released single Manchild is hanging on the pointy end of the Billboard 100 charts (No. 2 at the time of writing) and, sure, it's catchy. Some lyrics are funny ('Why so sexy if so dumb? And how survive the Earth so long?') But let's not kid ourselves or ignore the Daisy Dukes (very short cut-off jeans) in the Manchild video: sex is still the main brand pillar, and it's getting old. I just learnt that Carpenter is a Disney graduate, which makes sense; I should have picked it. This is a classic brand evolution playbook: somewhere in Hollywood there's a seedy PR dude ripe for a #metoo exposé after years of ushering Disney princesses out of the castle and into the red-light district. Love her or hate her, right-wing commentator Candace Owens nailed it when she said of that album cover: 'If she had wanted to be controversial, she'd have kept her clothes on, gotten married and had some kids on the cover of her album, like she just had a nice family shot.'
Daily Mirror
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Sabrina Carpenter risks angering fans as she teases divisive change to her shows
Singing superstar Sabrina Carpenter has recently released her new single Manchild which is sitting at number one in the music charts, but fans may not be able to film her performing it at her next show American pop star Sabrina Carpenter has said that she is planning to anger her fans with an divisive move. The singer has said that she is considering banning phones from her future concerts after going to a no-phones gig herself. However, the singer has said that she thinks the move would "honestly p*** off" her fans but this wouldn't stop her. The star said she first came up with the idea when she went to a Silk Sonic gig where they did the same thing. Sabrina admitted that she felt like she had been taken back in time but that it improved her experience. She said it feels "super normal" for her to have phones at events but thinks it is a good idea to ban them. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Sabrina said: "I went to see Silk Sonic in Vegas, and they locked my phone. I've never had a better experience at a concert. I genuinely felt like I was back in the '70s - wasn't alive. "Genuinely felt like I was there. Everyone's singing, dancing, looking at each other, and laughing. It really, really just felt so beautiful. I've grown up in the age of people having iPhones at shows. "It unfortunately feels super normal to me. I can't blame people for wanting to have memories. But depending on how long I want to be touring, and what age I am, girl, take those phones away. "You cannot zoom in on my face. Right now, my skin is soft and supple. It's fine. Do not zoom in on me when I'm 80 years old up there." Phones being banned at concerts have become increasingly comment over the last few years which means that fans can't record videos of the event. Several well-known acts have implemented the ban themselves including Ghost and Jack White. Music legend Bob Dylan also had a phone ban for his UK tour last year. Sabrina recently came under fire after revealing the album artwork for her new project Man's Best Friend. She shared the album cover on June 12, posting two images, one of a dog wearing a collar which reads Man's Best Friend and the second shows the pop star on her hands and knees as a figure standing over her is seen pulling her hair. One fan shared their views about the cover, saying: "I'm excited to hear the music! Just not so keen on the cover. Seeing this alongside the Sydney Sweeney stuff and Bonnie Blue's petting zoo, I just really have to question what on earth is going on at the moment." As a second said: "I feel like the undertone of violence in this cover is so triggering." While another asked: "Does she have a personality outside of sex?", as the ex-Disney star wrote: "girl yes and it is goooooood."
New Statesman
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Gen-Z is afraid of porn, and Sabrina Carpenter
'There's no hope for women,' goes a common online mantra. The newest public figure to inspire this mode of feminist desperation is the pop star Sabrina Carpenter, who has just unveiled the cover of her new album, Man's Best Friend. On the last one she was smiling at the camera with a lipstick mark on her bare back; now she's on all fours, looking gormless in lingerie and getting her hair pulled by a man in a suit. This venture might have worked for a singer with an edgier reputation. It doesn't work for Carpenter, an ex-Disney star who shares a large portion of her mostly female fanbase with Taylor Swift. And these fans seems to hate it. 'It made me deeply uncomfortable, angry, even,' went one commentator for the iPaper. Elsewhere she is '[profiting] off images of abuse;' 'degrading [herself] just to appeal to their male audience' and 'leaning into the rise of conservatism.' 'Not empowering at all,' goes one X post with over a thousand likes. Others online accuse these naysayers of perpetuating 'purity culture,' and 'expecting women to be modest.' But purity and modesty don't seem to be the issue. For her whole tenure as an A-lister, her public persona has been deliberately raunchy. There is a distinction to be made here – the 2024 rebrand that sent her into the stratosphere was not just about sex. It was about sex before the Sexual Revolution. Her screwball comedy persona was seemingly inspired by actresses who got big in the age of restrictive Hollywood censorship codes. When she mimed fellatio and missionary at her live shows, she was operating under the pretence that the visuals of sex were still a secret language, only accessible with age and experience, rather than the basis of a multibillion dollar industry. Almost every photoshoot has had more in common with the era of the pin-up than the dawn of Playboy; her stage outfits were revealing, but they were done in a mid-century burlesque style more popular among 2010s feminist types than hardcore pornographers. No, none of that was the problem. It's porn Gen Z are afraid of. We get to it so early and in such overwhelming excess that it's hard to entertain the question that it might be empowering to women. To remain a girl's girl, you must excommunicate yourself from the entire adult sphere. A new Zoomerite women's culture reviles Onlyfans, sex scenes in films, one-night-stands, Instagram bikini models, and most men. In 2023, half of UK 16-21 year-olds reported they had first been exposed to pornography by 13; nearly 70% of American adolescents say they have seen it. The subreddit r/loveafterporn is crowded by young women who have caught their boyfriends talking to OnlyFans influencers. Onlyfans stars Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips keep coming into the spotlight for sex stunts that rival 120 Days of Sodom. They run a cottage industry that locates and breaks taboos. They have colonised porno-land in the public imagination; and so stars like Sabrina who venture into it are more likely to provoke fatigue and anger than subversive titillation. Carpenter's new album cover places us in this much-loathed world. The colours, clothes, lighting are distinctly 1970s. We've bypassed the age of the pin-up and Scopitone and gone full speed into the Hugh Hefner era, from which rise thousands of pornographic VHS tapes and hundreds of sordid stories about abuse and exploitation. Carpenter has retained her sense of humour; her album has a tongue-in-cheek name; her music is still mostly anti-man. ('Why so sexy if so dumb/ And how survive the earth so long?' go the lyrics to the lead single, 'Manchild'). But her fans instinctively feel she is at risk in this world of flash photography and physical encounters with headless men. Since the release of 'Espresso' she has been their friendly sexual avatar; any transgression puts them at risk by proxy. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Carpenter should forgive them for what might seem like a sudden descent into prudery. They are not attempting to relive the travails of Mary Whitehouse. It is more likely that they have already seen too much, too early. They will probably feel jaded and used for the rest of their lives; while provocation has been a mainstay of pop for all of living memory, provoking Gen-Z on purpose is like setting off a firecracker next to a war veteran. Carpenter's job was to curate a safe world in which the age of VHS porn had never arrived and sex was a joking matter, free from sleaze and exploitation. The illusion has been destroyed. [See more: The rise of the West] Related
Daily Mirror
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Sabrina Carpenter in sassy comeback amid 'over-sexual' album cover backlash
Pop singer Sabrina Carpenter has finally broken her silence after sending the internet into a frenzy over the controversial cover art for her upcoming album Man's Best Friend Sabrina Carpenter has finally shared her thoughts on the backlash she received after revealing the album artwork for her new project Man's Best Friend. Sabrina shared the album cover on June 12, posting two images, one of a dog wearing a collar which reads Man's Best Friend and the second shows the pop star on her hands and knees, as a mysterious figure standing over her is seen pulling her hair. Instantly, the commentary around the album artwork began online, as people dissected what the deeper meaning is behind this sort of imagery and what effect this could have on other women. One TikToker shared their views about the controversial cover, saying: "I'm excited to hear the music! Just not so keen on the cover. Seeing this alongside the Sydney Sweeney stuff and Bonnie Blue's petting zoo, I just really have to question what on earth is going on at the moment." READ MORE: Sabrina Carpenter slammed by domestic violence charity as she defends sexy image Another commented, writing: "I feel like the undertone of violence in this cover is so triggering," while someone else shared that they felt the pop star was "hypersexualising herself for the male gaze" and, as a result, "setting us so far back". It sparked an interesting conversation online around 'choice feminism' and female sexuality. After five days of discourse, Sabrina clapped back at the fury online with couple of quick-witted posts. In response to a post on X that read "Does she have a personality outside of sex?", the ex-Disney star wrote: "girl yes and it is goooooood." The album cover reveal came with the release of her first single from the new project, titled 'Manchild' in what many believe is a dig at her ex Barry Keoghan. The song caused quite a stir but went straight to number one. An account called Chart Data shared some stats about Manchild, confirming its success, writing: "Manchild is the first new solo #1 hit on the Hot 100 by a female artist since Please Please Please. Both by Sabrina Carpenter. In response to her success and seemingly the backlash the song faced, Sabrina simply wrote: "I had a funny response, but I'm just going to say thank you <3." In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Sabrina went into more detail about the constant flood of comments she receives about her sexualisation after receiving backlash from her racy performances on tour. She said: "They're like, 'All she does is sing about this.' But those are the songs that you've made popular. Clearly you love sex. "You're obsessed with it," she continued. "It's in my show. There are so many more moments than the 'Juno' positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can't control that."
