Sabrina Carpenter - too sexy?

[pinotgrigeeeeo]

I'm late 30s, not really target audience for Sabrina Carpenter and was unaware of her existence until a few weeks ago, however for some reason my social media algorithm is bombarding me with her.

Anyway, I now know two of her songs and they are VERY catchy. Great pop songs.

She is undeniably beautiful.

However. Does anybody else feel a bit uncomfortable / surprised with the overt sexuality that she exudes?

And I don't know how else to put it without sounding like a prude. Because I'm really not a prude.

She dresses in lingerie a lot of the time. And at the end of one song I believe she says "do you know this position?" and each time she performs it she then enacts a different sexual position on stage.

The lyrics to some of her songs are very dirty. (Just heard one that's about a partner getting back with his ex and she sings that "now you'll have to taste me when he's kissing you").

This is nothing new to me. Genuinely not a prude.

So I'm not sure why I feel uncomfortable with her. It's possibly because she looks very young and I got them impression her music was targeted at young girls, similar to Taylor Swift.

She's not really doing anything that Madonna didn't....yet it just feels different.

I also feel Madonna was pushing boundaries. Those boundaries have no been pushed, and what SC is doing isn't new. So why do I find it noteworthy? I don't really know.

I can't put my finger on it.

Something about it seems quite dated to me. Females like Debbie Harry, Shirley Manson etc just seem a lot more fresh to me. They were sexy, but there was more to them. More to the music. Their sexuality wasn't so "in your face".

I don't have a problem with SC just doing pop music, as I've said, I actually like two of the songs.

I just can't put my finger on why the overt sexuality is bothering me. I think it must be because of who I perceive the target audience to be.

I've seen people comparing her to Dolly Parton, and whilst nobody has elaborated, I guess I can see the similarities in curvy, blonde, petite, confident. But there is something....dare I say it.....seedy about SC that Dolly just doesn't have.

Anyway, just musing. Wondering if anybody else feels similar or if I am just a miserable old bag these days.

I think society has become really desensitised. Everything is so oversexualised that it becomes boring and mainstream that nothing is shocking at all anymore. That's what sells so we see performers, social media and netflix etc pushing the envelope year after year.
Where does it end? What are the long term consequences? Who's responsibility is it?

I've taken a good 2 year break from TV and most of social media. Now whenever I see glimpses everything feels very extreme and pornagraphic. It actually feels quite threatening and invasive.

Age wise I'm more in sabrina carpenters target market. I have liked her music for years and seen her go through quite a transformation. I wonder what is authentic to her. For the days when she just wants to be comfortable and not in a corset is she free to go on stage comfy and just sing? Or is she just a product that must perform a certain way. Has she/we/they/society just objectified her. Is that acceptable?

I just wonder how much she feels empowered by it and in 10 years time will she feel differently/regret anything🤷🏼‍♀️

When I see 10 year old girls replicating the outfits it does just makes me feel really sad.

If we are going to have such huge extreme overtly sexual parts of society. We do need to also balance the other side of it. In the same way we need to learn healthy skills to interact with how digital our lives have become. We need to be teaching the skills to interact with media and the sexualised culture in healthy ways.
I'm not sure I can express enough how lots of people don't understand the nuances going on. Don't see the distinction from performer or fantasy. Many people will fulfil whatever narrative they want to see that backs up their agenda.

Boys and men particularly are not learning these skills thats very dangerous. We have a growing incel community who are angry at women and girls for being the gatekeepers to sex. We aren't seeing men take on the responsibility to rectify their maladaptive thinking.

It's not her fault she's petite

It's so catchy!

Yep op I agree

I think you've decided on this doll thing and are now going to fit anything she does to it

She doesn't pander to the male gaze...

I'm far from a prude.

Used to love Lil Kim and some of her lyrics are pure filth.

That's what I'm getting at though. I'm not quite sure why Sabrina Carpenter doesn't sit well with me. There's something about her I just can't put my finger on.

Although a large part of it is the fact that there is no denying she is going to appeal to little girls, she's pretty much dressed as a Barbie.

But then the lyrics and the gyrating on stage is just not appropriate for little kids.

Respectfully disagree.
She is sexy but also very funny and sassy.
The video for Please Please Please with Barry Keoghan is great and she has the power in it. Also like that her body is very natural ... petite and small breasts. No enhancements. Not a bad role model at all.

Isn't the heavy make up just the mask that most performers 'hide' behind.

Yes, and this is the thing, having now watched a few of her performances etc, the below is very formulaic.

She is always bending over to show her pants, at the end of one song she gets into a sexual position (different one each time) and says "have you ever tried this one?", at the end of another song she does a little ad lib which is usually something vulgar in relation to where she is.

Another example of this is "The BBC have asked that I keep it PG.......I just wish I had it IN ME (whilst making a suggestive hand gesture).....there's a double meaning if you dig deep."

One in Brazil about "put something big in my pusita"

As I say, I'm not generally bothered about dirty lyrics. I just find her a bit unsettling.

Then parents shouldn’t bring little kids to her show ? What’s your actual point.

I always think she comes across like such a mean girl in interviews which puts me off her more than her outfits

You seem to have watched and listened to her a great deal, and noted down a lot of details of her performances and lyrics, for a person who claims to be disgusted by her.

This is a weird thread and reminds me a lot of the days when newspapers used to have 'BAN THIS SICK FILTH!' headlines above a story which described said sick filth in graphic detail and made sure readers knew exactly where they could watch it, and printed a load of pictures so people could see how sick the filth was.

@pinotgrigeeeeo the thing is, she's not singing for little girls is she? She's not dressing for them or to appeal to them.Her target audience is women 18-24.

This is where parenting and parental responsibility must come in.

She's not aiming her songs at young kids or deliberately enticing them to listen to her songs/attend her concerts. The fact that they do , is a completely different issue.

There were so many young girls (under 10) at the Melanie Martinez concert. A lot of them with makeup and wearing same style clothes as her etc. Completely inappropriate? Yes. Melanie's fault? No.

You seemed to have formed a particular narrative about this particular singer , who is nothing new in terms of outfits or lyrics , which then automatically puts her in the wrong.

Absolutely not a prude but she's blatantly going for the Lolita aesthetic. Should see her on stage she refuses safety shorts so her underwear are very deliberately on display and you can easily see the outline of her vulva.
I like her music but she's a bit skeevy.

All of this

Ah yes the video she made begging a man not to cheat on her like he cheated with her.

So wierd OP I thought just the same the other day but couldn’t explain it very well, but your post I completely agree with! And other pop stars who are as explicit don’t bother me! Can’t put my finger on why she and her songs seem , like you say it, seedy. It’s odd!

Me? I'm not disgusted by her. I said I liked two of her songs, said she was beautiful, said I was intrigued by her, but said there was something about her image / performance that I was uncomfortable with and was asking for others opinions in order to have a discussion.

Some people on here seem capable of that.

Others not so much.

Very tiresome.

Agree, she looks very different to how she did a few years ago but I have to admit I do like her new look just not particularly her new found cockiness. She comes off a bit mean girl now.

😆

He didn’t cheat 😂 just because he had a child with someone else… they were split up. I think you’re thinking of the Olivia Rodrigo love triangle.

I don’t know what you’ve been watching but it’s not Sabrina 😂

Neither Taylor Swift's music nor Sabrina Carpenter's music is aimed at children. Granted, Taylor's very early music, which she wrote when she was 14-16, is relatable to teenage girls since it was written by one. That doesn't mean that she is beholden to behave as a chaste and pure role model to teenage girls for the rest of her life.

Sabrina Carpenter is a 25 year old adult. She is a pop star and pop has always been followed by teenage girls. It's not her job to tone down her sexuality for them. It's not her job to tailor (see what I did there?) her make-up, or her fashion, or anything else to what anyone else thinks she should. PP says she's for the male gaze, but her fan base is women and girls of varying ages, so clearly, it's not worked if she was trying to attract men. Many of her songs are poking fun at the entitlement of men and the cliche of girls fighting over a boy, when actually, the boy doesn't deserve either of them.