{"id":128277,"date":"2025-09-02T22:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/128277\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T22:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:54:07","slug":"submission-is-both-dominant-and-submissive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/128277\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Submission is both dominant and submissive\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s Man\u2019s Best Friend isn\u2019t for the faint of heart \u2014 or pearl clutchers.<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been less than a week since Carpenter\u2019s eighth studio album was released. Since first announcing Man\u2019s Best Friend and unveiling its original artwork, the 26-year-old pop star has found herself at the center of controversy. The album\u2019s title and its accompanying imagery have even rendered Carpenter, in the eyes of some of her critics, an antifeminist catering to the male gaze<\/a>. But Carpenter fans know there\u2019s nuance to what she does and why\u00a0she does it.<\/p>\n

In the September cover story for Interview magazine<\/a>, the pop star addressed the controversy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel like submission is both dominant and submissive,\u201d Carpenter told the magazine. \u201cIt really depends on what your intentions are and what you want, and what you crave, and what you need. The image, the way I see it, is a metaphor, but I\u2019m sure that other people are like, \u2018Dang, she\u2019s a sub.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The image Carpenter refers to shows the pop star on her hands and knees, in a fitted black minidress, as an unidentified man tugs at her voluminous blonde locks. Carpenter, with her signature pout, stares doe-eyed at the camera.<\/p>\n

The immediate backlash against the cover may have also prompted Carpenter\u2019s release of alternate versions, including a re-creation of a 1957 paparazzi photo of Marilyn Monroe and her then husband, playwright Arthur Miller.<\/p>\n

Carpenter told Interview that she didn\u2019t necessarily anticipate this reaction to the initial Man\u2019s Best Friend cover. Gauging the public\u2019s reaction to a creative decision she\u2019s yet to publicize, she said, does not factor into whether or not she goes through with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m being completely transparent, I don\u2019t do anything anticipating what the reaction will be. I only do things that speak to me, that feel right, and make sense when you hear the music. When I came up with the imaging for it, it was so clear to me what it meant. So the reaction is fascinating to me. You just watch it unravel and go, \u2018Wow,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As for the lyrics, Man\u2019s Best Friend is another dive into Carpenter\u2019s deepest desires. The album is full of cheekily crafted sexual innuendos. On her new single \u201cTears,\u201d for instance, Carpenter sings about tears running down her thighs at the mere thought of a man actually exhibiting good behavior. Carpenter told the magazine she was surprised by how singing about sex is still considered taboo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, there\u2019s a lot of nuance to this and I\u2019m not naive to that, but I felt like, \u2018Why is this taboo?\u2019 This is something that women experience in such a real way, becoming comfortable with themselves and who they are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Though ultimately Carpenter recognizes that her material is open to interpretation. Not everyone is going to appreciate it \u2014 and that’s OK with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really, really grateful that there\u2019s enough of my audience that really knows me as a person that will be able to hear these songs how they\u2019re intended,\u201d Carpenter told Interview. \u201cIt\u2019s always going to be up to interpretation and I understand that. But I\u2019m glad you like my sexual content.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s Man\u2019s Best Friend isn\u2019t for the faint of heart \u2014 or pearl clutchers. It\u2019s been less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,77694,8248,54342],"class_list":{"0":"post-128277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-mans-best-friend","10":"tag-sabrina-carpenter","11":"tag-studio-album"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}