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Sabrina Carpenter, who has exploded to become one of the biggest pop stars in the world in recent years, has sparked some exhausting discourse with the release of the album cover for her latest record Man’s Best Friend. Man’s Best Friend will be released on August 29.
Since bursting onto the A-list scene in the early 2020s, the 26-year-old former Disney Channel star has certainly never been shy about making sexuality a part of her brand — one of the highlights of her concerts are the sexual poses she enacts while performing her song ‘Juno’ — and that trend has continued with the cover art for Man’s Best Friend, which sees Carpenter on her knees being walked like a dog.
Man’s Best Friend is the third studio album that Carpenter has released since 2020 alongside 2022’s Emails I Can’t Send and last year’s Short n’ Sweet, which turned her into a pop superstar.
The discourse surrounding Carpenter’s album cover can be broken down into two sides: people who think she’s doing this for the attention of men and those who believe there is a more nuanced meaning to it.
Here is Example A, those who think her whole brand is for the “male gaze.”
no, sabrina carpenter is not centring men. she is dehumanising women. get it right. pic.twitter.com/qB0kxYtSaI
— gregory house ex wife (@elektracult) June 11, 2025
if this was Sydney Sweeney everyone would be dragging her & saying male gaze but since it’s Sabrina Carpenter it’s okay. https://t.co/OlB4Z2wPCl
— . (@herlosts) June 11, 2025
Then there is Example B, people who claim its actually nuanced satire.
I’m seeing a lot of discourse about Sabrina Carpenter’s new album cover… for those of you who may lack critical thinking skills, the cover is clearly satirical with a deeper meaning, portraying how the public views her, believing she is just for the male gaze. pic.twitter.com/hQ8rveNA06
— Wicked News Hub (@wickednewshub) June 11, 2025
i am a little concerned about peoples inability to immediately clock that the cover is obviously a commentary on the way women are treated, especially with the context of manchild and the album being called man’s best friend like guys omfg think
— vega🛸 (@vampl0r) June 11, 2025
Finally, there is a third group of people — this is the group you and I likely fall into — that fine the entire conversation completely ridiculous as she’s essentially running the same playbook that pretty blonde pop stars have been using for 30 years.
“Don’t really understand the various discourse cycles surrounding Sabrina Carpenter…she just seems like a pretty normal popstar,” one viral tweet said.
“Everyone is going batty for Sabrina Carpenter, the singing cartoon mouse who loves getting plowed,” another popular post joked.
“The only way you could possibly think what Sabrina Carpenter is doing is particularly shocking or risqué is if she’s the first pop star you ever heard of,” a third summarized.
“Sabrina Carpenter was not meant to be discoursed in this way at this length,” a fourth cracked.
the concept of being scandalized by sabrina carpenter’s album art
— bald ann dowd (@ali_sivi) June 12, 2025
Carpenter’s latest album Man’s Best Friend, her third studio album, is set to be released on Friday, August 29. You can check out the music video for her first single off the album, “Manchild,” below.