Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Man’s Best Friend’ Is Not Unlike Christina Aguilera’s ‘Stripped’

No one loves an internet debate more than I do. But this latest one has had me rolling my eyes.

Back in June, Sabrina Carpenter came under fire when she released the album cover art for her new record, Man’s Best Friend. Critics called out the 26-year-old singer for the risqué photograph, which showed her on all fours with a man pulling on her hair as she seemingly crawled toward him.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is dehumanizing for women?” one Instagram commenter wrote under the post. “So sad and degrading. God did not intend for women to be viewed like this,” another chimed in.

It was a provocative picture, sure, but in an age where sexual liberation is a thing, I felt it did not warrant all the backlash she received. I mean, have we forgotten the scandalous pop stars of the early aughts?

One of my favorite things on the internet is when people talk about all the songs we had no business singing when we were younger. There was Sisqo’s “Thong Song,” Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous,” “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas and, my personal favorite, Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty,” the lead single off her Stripped album.

Prior to that record, Aguilera, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse alum, was best known for her PG-rated songs “Genie in a Bottle” and “I Turn to You.” (Although, now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn’t have been singing “you’ve got to rub me the right way” when I was eight years old.)

She then made a 180 switch and reinvented herself, leaving behind the butterfly hair clips, sparkly pink outfits and dropping the “Chris” in her name. Entered Xtina, a badass with black streaks in her hair who wore chaps and in the video for “Dirrty,” mud wrestled in what was described as “a post-apocalyptic orgy” on an episode of MTV’s Making the Video.

Needless to say, people were scandalized and they criticized the singer for her sexy new look and vibe. Me? I was captivated. I didn’t really understand the lyrics or the implications of the imagery, but there was something so free about her that made me want to memorize every word — including Redman’s rap verse.

We didn’t know it then, but Aguilera was fortifying the rules of pop stardom, laid down first by the likes of Madonna, Janet Jackson and Cher and advanced by her contemporaries, like Britney Spears, who had released “I’m a Slave 4 U,” video the year prior, marking the end of the singer’s “fuzzy pigtails” era and the beginning of her “metallic booty shorts” one.

So when people are in an uproar over Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover, accusing her of not being a good role model to her younger fans, as though it’s her job to raise everyone’s kids, I wonder if they’ve forgotten what this genre is all about. Pop music is and has always been about shock and awe. And the goal is to be provocative and push boundaries.

And it’s not just for the sake of being racy. It’s about speaking truth to power or inspiring conversations about the zeitgeist that shape the culture.

Compared to Spears’ snake performance at the VMAs in 2001 or that kiss she shared with Aguilera and Madonna at the 2003 VMAs is Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend , really all that risqué? Sure, she has some sexy lyrics but a lot of it is innuendo. Her song “House Tour” for example, is not unlike Britney Spears’ “3” which, unless you know what she’s talking about, you think it’s just a fun bop about something completely different.

And unlike the pop stars of the early aughts, who were very in-your-face with their raunchy personas, Sabrina has taken the whole thing with a sense of humor. On June 25, a couple of days after the first cover dropped, she revealed an alternate on Instagram, writing, “i signed some copies of Man’s Best Friend for you guys & here is a new alternate cover approved by God available now on my website 🤍.”

It was a cheeky nod to the hype, subtly letting her critics know she sees them, but also offering another option, but on her terms. Asked about the criticism by Gayle King, the singer admitted her first reaction was, “Y’all need to get out more.”

However, she later explained, “even pearl-clutchers can listen to an album like that in their own solitude and find something that makes them smirk and chuckle to themselves….”

But that’s the thing with Sabrina. Unlike the pop stars I grew up with, who had more of a “take it or leave it attitude,” she’s been gentler about the whole thing and maintains that the music can be for any and everyone, if they can just get over themselves.

Still, her impact is undeniable. In an era where songs aren’t being pushed by music videos anymore, I found myself seeking out the “Tears” video, simply because I wanted to see what scandalous things they were doing that provoked a statement out of Colman Domingo. That in itself is a notch on her belt because I know I’m not the only one who sought after that music video for the same reasons.

The “Dirrty” music video was a cultural phenomenon, and while “Tears” was well-executed, again, I still don’t think it warrants all the hullabaloo.

Maybe because Xtina and the other ladies literally raised me, and I’m older and a bit jaded now, but Carpenter’s lyrics just don’t seem so over-the-top sexual as people are painting them out to be. And if anyone has listened to Ariana Grande or SZA, you know she’s actually in line with her contemporaries.

Sabrina Carpenter is not the first pop singer to be provocative and she will not be the last. And truth be told, I’m hoping she gives her haters something really scandalous (see: Adam Lambert’s 2009 American Music Awards performance) to talk about at the VMAs tonight.

The 2025 MTV VMAs air live from New York’s UBS Arena at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and MTV. The ceremony will also stream on Paramount+.