Some people know me for, I guess, being explicitly horny, but it’s actually not as simple as that,” said a minidress-wearing Sabrina Carpenter during her Tiny Desk show last year. That sentence perfectly sums up the polarising yet delicious “if you know, you know” dichotomy of the Sabrina Carpenter Brand. To the uninitiated, they may see a 26-year-old woman dressed in her signature diamante bustiers, suspenders and platform heels every shade of the pastel rainbow – complete with her blonde bombshell Brigitte Bardot-style hairdo and theatrical gasps – and take her at face value. They may also have seen the scandalised headlines surrounding the cover of her new album, Man’s Best Friend, which shows the singer on all fours as a male figure tugs at a clump of her signature locks – an image that was swiftly branded “degrading towards women” and “disgusting” by her critics.
As Carpenter put it, though, it’s just not that simple.
