Sabrina Carpenter Slammed Critics Who Call Her Music Too Sexual

Sabrina Carpenter’s music dominated airwaves over the summer of 2024 and she is set to release a new album this August. The singer has had an explosively successful year, but she still has a number of critics. She said she faces some particularly harsh criticism from people who think her music and performances are overly sexual. She responded to these critics.

Sabrina Carpenter has a message for people who think her music is too sexual

Carpenter’s 2024 album Short n’ Sweet includes a number of explicit sexual references. During her concerts, she wears revealing costumes and dances on a bed at the end of her song “Bed Chem.” During her song “Juno” she sings “Wanna try out some freaky positions? Have you ever tried this one?” before acting out a new sex position each night.

She faces criticism from some people for her behavior onstage, but she brushes it off.

“It’s always so funny to me when people complain,” she told Rolling Stone. “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. It’s in my show.”

She also noted that the sexual moments do not make up the entirety of her show. They are what people focus on, though. The positions she poses in during “Juno,” for example, are widely shared on TikTok.

“There’s 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,” she said. ‘If you come to the show, you’ll [also] hear the ballads, you’ll hear the more introspective numbers. I find irony and humor in all of that, because it seems to be a recurring theme. I’m not upset about it, other than I feel mad pressure to be funny sometimes.”

She feels that women face harsher scrutiny than men 

Carpenter believes that this type of criticism typically comes for women, not men. 

“I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I truly feel like I’ve never lived in a time where women have been picked apart more, and scrutinized in every capacity,” she said, adding, “I’m not just talking about me. I’m talking about every female artist that is making art right now.”

She admitted that this can feel demoralizing. People say they want to support women, but still tear them down online.

“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.”

Sabrina Carpenter plans to release new music this summer

Carpenter is releasing a new album, Man’s Best Friend, on Aug. 29. This comes just one year after Short n’ Sweet, and she is still touring for this album.

“If I really wanted to, I could have stretched out Short n’ Sweet much, much longer,” she said. “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. Why would I wait three years just for the sake of waiting three years?”

She said she feels like moving on to a new record is the best move for her right now.

“It’s all about what feels right,” she said. “I’m learning to listen to that a lot more, instead of what is perceived as the right or wrong move.”