How SABRINA's Cover And SYDNEY's Soap Are Setting Women As "Objects"

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The recent controversies surrounding Sabrina Carpenter’s provocative album cover for *Man’s Best Friend* and Sydney Sweeney’s bathwater-infused soap collaboration with Dr. Squatch highlight the ongoing cultural tension over female sexuality, agency, and artistic expression. Both instances have sparked heated debates about feminism, objectification, and the male gaze, revealing how society continues to scrutinise women’s choices in the public eye. Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover depicts her on her knees, clad in a black minidress, with a faceless man gripping her hair like a leash—an image that immediately drew backlash for its perceived degradation of women. Critics, including Glasgow Women’s Aid, condemned it as “regressive,” arguing that it reinforces tropes of female subservience and male dominance. Some fans and commentators, however, defended the imagery as satirical, aligning with Carpenter’s established brand of tongue-in-cheek, sex-positive pop. Her songs, like *Manchild*, mock male incompetence, suggesting that the cover may be an exaggerated commentary on misogyny rather than an endorsement of it. Carpenter herself has remained largely unapologetic, responding to critics with humor and defiance. In a *Rolling Stone* interview, she noted that women in music are “picked apart more than ever,” framing her work as an exploration of youthful sexuality and artistic freedom . Veteran musician Carly Simon even came to her defense, calling the cover “tame” compared to past provocations like The Rolling Stones’ *Sticky Fingers*. Meanwhile, Sydney Sweeney’s collaboration with Dr. Squatch—a soap bar infused with her actual bathwater—similarly polarized audiences. Marketed as “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss,” the product was framed as a playful response to fan demands, but critics saw it as a capitulation to the male gaze, with some calling it “sad for humanity”. Others argued that Sweeney was reclaiming her agency by monetizing the objectification she already faces, turning a grotesque internet meme (reminiscent of the “Belle Delphine bathwater” phenomenon) into a lucrative stunt. Sweeney, who has long been scrutinized for her body, framed the campaign as a humorous way to encourage male hygiene, but the underlying message remains ambiguous. As gender studies professor Shira Tarrant noted, the soap reflects how society “polices women’s sexuality, profits off it, and shames them for profiting from it themselves”. Both controversies reveal a cultural discomfort with women who wield their sexuality on their own terms. Carpenter’s critics accuse her of undermining feminism, while Sweeney’s detractors see her soap as pandering to male fetishization. Yet their defenders argue that both women are exercising autonomy—whether through satire (Carpenter) or subversive capitalism (Sweeney). The key difference lies in intent: Carpenter’s imagery is framed as artistic commentary, while Sweeney’s soap leans into absurdist commercialism. Yet both have been met with the same puritanical backlash that has historically targeted women who dare to be sexually expressive—whether Madonna, Britney Spears, or Miley Cyrus.
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