Feminism Lives to See Another Day

It’s hard to believe that in the chaotic year of our lord 2025, Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover for Man’s Best Friend managed to dominate multiple news cycles. Many were worried that the image of Carpenter on all fours, staring straight into the camera, with a man pulling on her hair from above, officially destroyed feminism; many saw it as a cheeky wink; many didn’t care; many were more upset over the album’s second track, “Tears,” in which she sings about getting wet because her lover did the dishes; too many recorded a TikTok video of their take.

Carpenter did respond to the backlash on a couple of occasions, but in a new Variety cover story, Carpenter has responded to the backlash once and for all. “It meant one thing to me and 100 things to other people, and I was looking at it going, ‘That’s valid. Mine’s valid. What’s for dinner?’” Honestly? No notes. She continued: “Not to bypass the weight that it did carry for some people. I saw it and was like, ‘That is a great point. It wasn’t the point I was trying to make.’”

Describing her actual vision behind the image, she said: “You can be so in control and so not in control at the same time. It was about how people try to control women, and how I felt emotionally yanked around by these relationships that I had, and how much power you’re allowing yourself to give them.”

OK, and if she really didn’t care about the backlash, why did she release an alternate album cover a week later?: “Oh, girl. I just wanted to take more pictures!” Hard to argue with that.

So there we have it. Everyone’s valid in their own unique experiences and interpretations (this sentence is only applicable to this specific situation). Feminism, though bruised, staggers onward into yet another year.

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• Taylor Swift reportedly paid big money to buy a bride’s wedding date. [Page Six]
• Congrats to Kim Cattrall! [Entertainment Weekly]
• Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers are writing and starring in a film about getting into Berghaim. [Variety]
• Abby Lee Miller airbrushing Neil Patrick Harris is hilarious. [Pop Base]
• Netflix has acquired Warner Bros and HBO, which…seems bad. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• January Jones says she struggled her entire life with “misophonia.” [Just Jared]
• Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry hung out with Japan’s former prime minister and his wife. [People]

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