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Last year, women-centric dating app Bumble came under fire for one of their pro-hookup narratives. Vibrant yellow billboards read taglines like “You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer” and “Thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun”. Gen Z are having less sex (UCLA, 2021) which naturally causes an issue for dating apps. Such campaigns were met with outrage, specifically considering Bumble is known to be an app designed for women who want to reach out to prospective partners first. Users felt as though Bumble reduced their lived experiences, such as those following the usage of dating apps, which may cause them to want to engage in less casual sex. Dating apps are believed to have been one of the central reasons for which hookup culture expanded in the last two decades, however Bumble’s ads notably pointed out this rise and fall of hookup culture, in which Gen Z women have spoken out more against engaging in casual sex.  

 

Since second-wave feminism, pop culture “girlies” have often engaged in pseudo-empowering displays of sexuality. Madonna was a pivotal figure in using overt sexual imagery on her own terms and expressing it as a form of art. Sex and the City was one of the first television shows to openly discuss female pleasure and the nuances of women’s sexual identity; fan-favourite Samantha Jones regularly mentioned having sex “like a man”. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and the Spice Girls blurred the lines between using female sexuality to engage with male fans and to encourage confidence in women. “Choice feminism” became almost a trend in our social media fuelled generation, with influencers and TikTok/Instagram-built brands presented female sexuality as an empowering consumer choice, suggesting that if a women is to confidently display herself in lingerie or in sexually-revealing poses, this should be framed as a subversive feminist act rather than a plea to appeal to the “male gaze”.  

 

However, while the “male gaze” has been discussed since its coinage in the 1970s by Laura Mulvey, discourse around the adherence to the male gaze in current pop culture has only recently emerged on social media. Emily Ratajkowski published a collection of essays titled ‘My Body’ which some commended for her observations on her own body and how her beauty has impacted her life and career, while others criticise her writing as masking her complicity in perpetuating the very patriarchal systems she critiques through overt sexualisation. Kylie Jenner has been criticised for her fame which has supposedly been built upon photos of pouty lips, large eyes and submissive body language, adhering to what Angela McRobbie defines as “girlie feminism” in which hyper-femininity is a code for power. Scholars like McRobbie argue figures like Jenner construct a feedback loop where young women model themselves not for themselves, but through a lens which mimics pornography, feeding into softcore erotica, such as docility, sexual availability and an appearance which conventionally appeals to men. Even notable activist, Madonna, has been criticised for posting explicitly photos of herself in lingerie or revealing poses, even in recent years. Some have applauded her rejection of age norms, whereas others consider her as feeding into current male gaze tropes, such as performative youthfulness. Such occurrences in popular culture forces modern women to question: does agency exist if the aesthetic tools we still utilise were originally built to appeal to male consumption?  

 

In our post-pandemic society where social media users are increasingly aware of the visual codes which women have adopted from patriarchal systems, it is clear that most women in the public eye are being stringently observed. Performances of empowerment are often commodified and structured by capitalist logics, forcing users to question the authenticity of how women within pop culture construct their identities. Susan Bordo’s work on the docile body comes to mind, with notes on how aesthetic codes created in the media’s representation of women have gradually conditioned women to internalise discipline under the guise of beauty. Therefore, it is increasingly difficult for women to “unlearn” aesthetic codes developed for the male gaze throughout patriarchal societies. Additionally, users challenge supposed female empowerment which we observe throughout the media, which may lack authenticity and often don’t display a comprehension of intersectionality.  

 

Enters a new generation of “pop girlies”... Taylor Swift is arguably the face of today’s popular music industry, particularly following the success of the Eras Tour, renewing the lives of many a friendship bracelet and cowgirl boot. Besides Taylor, Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter have been deemed the “Powerpuff Girls” of the pop industry. Sabrina is a blonde, “short and sweet” former Disney star, who toured with Taylor on the Latin America, Australia and Singapore legs of the Eras Tour. While Sabrina’s fifth studio album Emails I Can’t Send featured lyrics like sardonic lyrics showcasing the unfair criticism women face for their dating lives in the media, such as “Now I’m a homewrecker, I’m a slut. I got death threats filling up semi-trucks", and more personal and emotional lyrics, like “Thanks to you I, I can’t love right. I get nice guys, and villainise them”, Sabrina was lauded online for her creative innuendos in live performances of Nonsense. This sexualisation continued in her tongue and cheek lyrics and stunning visuals following the release of her sixth studio album, Short N’ Sweet. With popular hits like Juno and Bed Chem, Sabrina became known as a singer with sexually-driven lyrics and visuals. While she faced some criticism from observers, this was still generally considered a tongue-in-cheek display of female sexuality, often subverting the 1950s restrictions on women and reframing the stereotypical Pin-Up Girl as a confident and successful woman. However, it is her latest album cover for the upcoming Man’s Best Friend which has faced significant criticism...  

 

Following the release of her latest single Manchild, Sabrina released the album cover to its coinciding album Man’s Best Friend, due to be released in August. The album cover portrays Sabrina on her kneels with her hair being pulled by a figure dressed in a suit, mimicking a dog - or a “man’s best friend” - being walked by a man on a leash. Now, of course, anybody who engages in popular music is aware that women are regularly sexualised in the media. However, considering Sabrina has positioned herself in the market as somebody who criticises how men treat their female counterparts and criticises modern-day dating, especially with the release of Manchild, people have deemed the album cover as either a pursuit and adherence to the male gaze or an ironic and satirical image perhaps gone wrong.  

 

In her ‘Tiny Desk Concert’ with NPR Music, Sabrina admits herself “Some people know me for, I guess, being explicitly horny. It’s actually not so simple as that. It’s something that really was a beautiful and happy accident. On my last tour, I started doing these outros as part of a song that these were lyrics that... should honestly never be heard by the general public”. This innuendo-fuelled Nonsense bridge kickstarted Sabrina’s depiction as a sensual bombshell akin to the likes of Marilyn Monroe. What started as a “happy accident” has led to the brand identity of Sabrina as being one of owning female sexuality. Following years of debate on whether female sexuality is truly an empowering stance within feminist discourse, it could be deemed as progressive that Sabrina owns her sexuality and encourages fans to do the same. However, her new album covers treads upon other subject matters... Domestic violence and BDSM. 

Sexual liberation will always be a conflicting topic to negotiate within feminism. The controversial Camille Pagila argued that sexual expression, even within traditional power dynamics or kink displacing women as submissive to men, could be empowering if it centres around female pleasure. Carol Queen, Tristan Taormino, and Susie Bright were leading voices in sex-positive feminism, often writing about BDSM, kink, and sexual pleasure can be tools in advancing female empowerment. However, if an album cover is being displayed as pornified and suppressing women in traditional gender norms which women still grapple with today, can it truly be considered as ironic or satire if it replicates modern-day power dynamics that still oppress women today? If a visual is fulfilling is portraying a conventionally attractive woman who would traditionally be considered a default version of femininity, is her hyper-sexualisation a clever commentary or a submission to the norms she generally battles against, such as her subversion of men being replaceable and dismissed counterparts in her recent series of music videos?  

 

Amongst using references to Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov, the story of a young girl preyed upon by predator Humbert Humbert who blames her for his perverse desires, Sabrina plays upon this “nymphet” imagery. Yet, considering the idea of an infantilised nymphet has become a pornified image in a male-dominated society, it is difficult to suggest that Sabrina is satirising such concepts rather than positioning herself as idyllic in the genre of the male gaze which demands obedience to their pornified images of women. When current society still perceives women to be subservient objects, irony must truly play upon such notions and defy the status quo. In a promotional image for hit TV show Gossip Girl, the actors of Chuck and Blair are posed in a similar way to Sabrina’s latest album cover. However, it is Blair that is stood tall and Chuck that is on the ground looking up to her. A woman comparing herself to a dog – although most likely intended to mock the expectation that women must always be obedient to men – falls short because our society is not at a place where a woman being submissive to a man can be considered as truly ironic or satirical. It does not play on a concept but rather appeal to it.  

 

However, it is not necessarily Sabrina’s album cover which should be at the heart of such debates. The rise of various ideologies on social media can be considered troubling and perhaps Sabrina’s album cover is a product of this time. With the rise of “Tradwife” content and the contrasting “Sprinkle Sprinkle” culture, women face conflicting beliefs which are embedding themselves in social discourse. Such content seeks to either encourage women to settle into stereotypical roles of housewifery or to subvert gender norms and utilise men as side characters to further advance their lives and statuses. However, if pornified displays of female sexuality are being criticised for not necessarily upholding feminist values, as should the notion of limiting women into simple “trends” be. We face a difficult junction of discourse online on what it means to truly be a feminist or what a woman’s identity truly encompasses, therefore causing art and satire to be all the more blurred and divisive.  

 

It is a fair argument that Sabrina’s lyrical content may not possess the type of commentary on a patriarchal society which warrants an album cover like this. It is fair to say that it misses the mark by feeding into content coded by pornographic standards and appeals to a society which diminishes and objectifies women as sexual beings rather than individuals of our own right. However, until the lyrics and content of this album is eventually revealed, it may not be possible to state whether the album cover is a clever and subtle way of subverting and satirising gender norms or plays into the very system she supposedly criticises in songs such as Manchild. With significant degrading depictions of women already being readily available in the media, it will be interesting if Sabrina can subvert the ideas conjured around her new album cover and if her album can become a form of art which speaks out to issues women currently face, and if there is any chance that this can be achieved delicately and palatably, and if this can spark such conversation on true female empowerment and pleasure in the mainstream.