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.

How is that the artist's fault- whomever the artist might be - , rather than a parenting issue?

That’s a photo I won’t be googling. 😖

You weren’t born so you don’t know what people were saying. The Debbie Harry and Wendy James vibe is completely different to the Sabrina Carpenter vibe. I think SC is funny, I like her songs, but she looks like a Lolita sex doll, these other women looked grown up. As others in the thread who can remember are saying we’ve seen the claim that it’s empowering to dress like a playboy bunny, we’ve seen the claim that it’s empowering to pole dance, I’m now seeing my own DCs’ friends claiming it empowering to dress like a hooker at Halloween, It’s not. it’s depressing that the world has not moved on.

Totally get you OP. I enjoyed listening to a couple of her songs but then saw the lyrics on YouTube and found them a bit uncomfortable,
especially Bed Chem.

The worst was the video for Taste- so much graphic violence. It worries me that my DD who likes her music could end up accidentally watching it. Although 25 she looks younger which makes her appeal to younger girls.

She’s no doubt beautiful and talented and I enjoy the tunes and her voice but not some of the lyrics and violence on her videos.

Definitely not about Debbie Harry. She was bad ass, gorgeous, sexy not in an imitating soft p*rn way or anything like that. She was a product of punk.

So performing and posing in your underwear or posing in school uniform🤮 (Debbie Harry not SC) is sexy and bad ass as long as you do it to punk music, and not in anyway a lolita wannabe imitating soft porn
but do it to a pop song and it’s suddenly is?

Perhaps coming to this thread I have reflected a lot. I might be 55 but I’m certainly not cranky. And I’ve reflected in some posts on past stars like Madonna’s VMA performance in 1984, which caused absolute uproar. Not just for being sexual, but for being disrespectful to the Catholic Church. I absolutely loved every minute of it. Just as applauded when Kylie Minogue went from pop star to goddess.
Just like I loved Debbie Harry when I first set eyes on her, aged 7. And Kate Bush and Wendy James and a whole feast of female singers. Amy Winehouse being the one I consider the best of the best as an artist.
All have broken down barriers, just like Dolly Parton and Cher did before them. Gaga the same in more recent years.
I can never become young again but it is easy to get stuck in your ways, so I am always open to discovering new artists and listening to their points of view.
I have listened to some of Sabrina’s work now and watched some videos. She’s a gorgeous girl with a beautiful voice indeed.
One thing my mum taught me was to have friends of all age groups and mine range from 16-85. I love hearing their thoughts on everything.
Viewing the world through fresh, younger eyes is really important. As is listening to younger views with respect.
Calling people who have more years than you old and cranky is really impolite.
But maybe I’m just old and cranky….

I'm maybe younger than you but much older than Sabrina Carpenter, but I don't trash talk younger women for being "too sexy", or talk about how pop stars were so much better in "my day". I'm not old enough to have forgotten that my Mum criticised Avril Lavigne for not smiling enough and Lily Allen for her "obscene" lyrics. You can't control getting old but you can avoid getting cranky.

The video for Taste is clearly satirical. Did you miss the bit where Sabrina is still singing with a hole in her torso? It's no more graphic than a Tom and Jerry cartoon. She is getting so much hate for looking young. She can't help looking young and being short.

But it doesn't help when Sabrina is made up to look like a Disney princess. I don't know if you looked at the Reddit link someone posted above, but the comments - 🤮.

Disney Princesses are made to look like pop stars, not the other way around.

I don’t trash talk anyone. I don’t know where the cranky thing is coming from, have you confused me with someone else on this thread?
Have you not read what I have posted? That I love hearing new artists, ones from my era, and going back decades.
I love Aretha Franklin and Pink and Elle Fitzgerald. I support women and love hearing them sing.
I did make a comment about sticking your bum in the camera my because I find it’s been done to death. Mainly by Jennifer Lopez, who is the same age as me. But I absolutely respect her work ethic, even if I don’t like her music.
I can remember the days of waiting up until midnight, waiting for Madonna’s Justify My Love video to drop on television.
I am interested in who your favourite artists are and why you love them @MrsSunshine2b
If you’d like to reply I’d love to know more about who you love, and why you appreciate them?

Hence I said "...if you've become the one criticising them for their clothes and attitude, it's probably that you've got old and cranky." If you're not then I didn't call you old and cranky.

I was more of an Indie Kid in my teens, I loved Avril Lavigne, Kate Nash and Lily Allen at first and then met more musos and got into Regina Spektor, Imogen Heap and Jenny Owen Youngs, none of whom could be accused of being "too sexy" or for the male gaze. I loved Emmy the Great but she didn't stick around for long.

Taylor Swift is the one who was there when I was 17 and had my heart broken for the first time, there when I was 24 and my fiance decided he wasn't ready for a relationship, when I got bullied at work and had to shake it off, at my wedding and even playing as my daughter was pulled out of the gaping hole they just cut, appropriately, to Fearless. I'll never turn my back on her, and it's through her that I know Sabrina Carpenter.

Along similar lines, Olivia Rodrigo is also a powerful songwriter.

Agree from a Gen Zer. Sabrina has some good songs but her focus is a bit one note though at least she seems more in control of her image. Kate Bush, Tori Amos & Patti Smith are my fave singer bc, though some of her songs deal v frankly w sex & desire, at a time that wasn't v accepted for women, she has other strings to her bow, sings from v different & striking invented perspectives etc..
I think partly Taylor Swift is popular bc she isn't so overtly sexualised, but her music isn't v complex, though I do like some.
This is why I like not so well known indie singer-songwriters like Vanessa Carlton & Julia Holter. Creative, interesting songwriting. Content over image. Sex & other topics. There are interesting women in music now, just not the ones who get promoted..

Olivia Rodrigo is interesting as she's been v much marketed as the dark to Sabrina's light, w her angst songs & that manufactured live triangle thing. I do like some but there's still a v one note focus on heartbreak & her voice seems weak. I think she'd do well if she branches out though.

A great list of artists who have certainly brought a lot to your world. I am sorry you went through a lot there in a short space of time, TS certainly kept you company.
I love her music. She’s certainly touched my world with her words.
I can remember my mum saying ‘oh isn’t that girl pretty I like her dress’ and when I told her it was Boy George, she banned me from watching him.
Our best music show was ‘Top of the Pops’ and they had female dance groups who were absolutely fit the male gaze.
And for any of us oldies talking about SC we have conveniently forgotten a dance troupe (who did a bit of music!) called Hot Gossip. I think they got banned at some point.
I was in an era when everything got banned, including Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Exciting stuff!

You know I didn't post the reddit comments right? I just needed to use the gif didn't even read the website. Hope that's the reason you think I'm a perv anyway, fucks sake.

Me being over 50: everything in my era was better. We had real female renegades who walked the walk and talked the talk.
Also me: shit, I’d forgotten about Hot Gossip 😂

Not to mention that Debbie Harry was a Playboy Bunny. So it’s not okay for SC to look like a playboy bunny, but it’s okay for DH to have been an actual playboy bunny because she was “punk”

Edit to add that I think they are both great and can wear wtf the like.

But it doesn't help when Sabrina is made up to look like a Disney princess. I don't know if you looked at the Reddit link someone posted above, but the comments - 🤮.

That's the thing, I don't see anything Disney princess in SC.

I wonder if a lot of this is to do with her height and youth so many see a "child" and/or her Disney background.

I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of her songs or look (typical blonde pop star, been done a million times before) , but that doesn't make her "wrong".

Once again, her audience isn't children. Especially not young children. Neither her songs or her look are aimed at children or meant to be appealing to them.

I loved Madonna as a child. I thought the boob cones were hilarious.
I never really connected the dots between the provocative outfits and sex.
Just like when more adult jokes go over kids heads during family films.
Young kids probably just like Sabrina's pretty hair and catchy tunes.

Would you have said the same about a ballerina in a leotard? No. You know exactly why I called you it. Stop acting coy.

Sorry @PuddlesPityParty, I also don't understand why you're calling @BloodandGlitter a pervert.

My post got quite a few “thanks” so maybe you both need to stop attacking a young woman who’s just having fun with her career and looks? It’s not for you, and that’s fine. But to be going around saying she’s purposefully putting her “vulva” on show is absolutely disgusting and screams internalised misogyny. Good luck over coming that.

@PuddlesPityParty But she is purposefully putting her vulva on show? It's clearly part of her act. The costumes and the choreography is no accident. The skirt that she wears for many shows, in various different colours, is cut short to show her matching pants. And during her dance routines and swimsuit Ed sexual positions she opens her legs and not much is left to the imagination. She knows exactly what can be seen and so do her management. Did you even look at the clip that was posted?

However, I do take issue with you saying I am attacking a young woman's career and looks.

I have done no such thing. I don't dislike Sabrina Carpenter. I said I found the overhyped sexuality a bit uncomfortable and wasn't quite able to articulate why. And some posters have been able to have a discussion around that. Some agree, some don't, but most have been able to discuss it civilly.

You seek to have got yourself worked up about something, but it's nothing to do with me.