Sabrina Carpenter isn’t here for any criticism of embracing her sexuality in her discography.
The “Manchild” singer is opening up about the judgment she receives from her sexy songs and performances, specifically at her concerts. In her Rolling Stone cover, which was published Thursday, Carpenter admitted that she finds it “funny” when people “complain” about her lustful tracks, especially because those are some of her most popular songs.
“It’s always so funny to me when people complain. They’re like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’ But those are the songs that you’ve made popular,” she said. “Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it. It’s in my show.”
Carpenter has been condemned for her “Juno” segment of the Short n’ Sweet Tour, where she launches into a different sex position when she sings the track’s lyric, “Wanna try out some freaky positions? / Have you ever tried this one?” The moment typically goes viral with each performance she does of the track, adding that she “can’t control” what gains traction online.
“There’s so many more moments than the ‘Juno’ positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on,” she added. “I can’t control that.”
On the topic of criticism of her sensuality, the Grammy winner also said that she “truly feel[s] like I’ve never lived in a time where women have been picked apart more and scrutinized in every capacity.”
“I’m not just talking about me. I’m talking about every female artist that is making art right now,” Carpenter said. “We’re in such a weird time where you would think it’s girl power, and women supporting women, but in reality, the second you see a picture of someone wearing a dress on a carpet, you have to say everything mean about it in the first 30 seconds that you see it.”
Carpenter announced her seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend, on Wednesday after releasing the record’s first single, “Manchild” last week, which was released a year after her 2024 track “Please Please Please,” also known as her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Man’s Best Friend will arrive Aug. 29, almost exactly a year after she released the Grammy-winning Short n’ Sweet last year on Aug. 23.
The swiftness of Carpenter’s latest release, too, has drawn in critique, which she also addressed in her cover story. She defended releasing the new album so soon after Short n’ Sweet, noting that she wasn’t going to halt her releases because of industry standards and felt “inspired to write and make something new.”
“If I really wanted to, I could have stretched out Short n’ Sweet much, much longer. But I’m at that point in my life where I’m like, ‘Wait a second, there’s no rules.’ If I’m inspired to write and make something new, I would rather do that,” Carpenter explained. “Why would I wait three years just for the sake of waiting three years? It’s all about what feels right. I’m learning to listen to that a lot more instead of what is perceived as the right or wrong move.”
