Sabrina Carpenter’s young fans are at risk of absorbing a message that sex is about male dominance and female submission, an expert in sexual exploitation has warned.
The American pop star has hit the headlines in recent days after she published an album cover in which she poses on her hands and knees, while a man holds her hair up.
The album is called Man's Best Friend and Glasgow Women’s Aid described the cover as “regressive”.
“Picturing herself on all fours, with a man pulling her hair and calling it Man’s Best Friend isn’t subversion,” they said.
“It’s a throwback to tired tropes that reduce women to pets, props and possessions and promote an element of violence and control. We’ve fought too hard for this.”
On Lunchtime Live, the Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute Director Ruth Breslin said the album cover is a sad reflection of modern society.
“I don’t think it’s fair to place all the blame for the misogyny and the persistent objectification and sexualisation of young women in our culture solely at the door of this young 26 year old woman,” she said.
“This is a woman that’s grown up on the international [stage]; I think she was first put on YouTube singing at the age of 10.
“I don’t think we can place all the blame on her; I think we have to look at what inspires this kind of imagery and where the demand comes from.”
Sabrina Carpenter. Picture by: Alamy.com. Despite this, Ms Breslin added that she worried about what the “pornified” sends to young women who enjoy Carpenter’s work.
“It tells young girls that your body is your currency,” she said.
“That you’re required every day, 24 hours a day, to present yourself in this incredibly sexualised way for the pleasure and benefit of men.
“Obviously, in doing this, Sabrina is communicating that directly to her fans.
“But also for me, this hint of violence, this hint of aggression in it, she’s in an extremely submissive pose, as some of the critics have been saying.
“And that kind of submission and dominance by this fully clothed, suited man, that’s again derived from pornography.”
Free will
Ms Breslin said it is “really unfortunate” if that is the message that Carpenter’s take from the album cover.
She added that she worried that Carpenter might have felt pressured into posing for the image.
“Would she really have chosen this position?” she queried.
“Would she really have chosen this imagery?
“I think she has a team around her who are telling her, ‘This is what’s sexy and this is what sells.’”
Main image: Sabrina Carpenter. Picture by: PA Wire/PA Images.
