A Scottish women’s charity said Carpenter’s new album cover evokes “tired tropes” of women being “possessions,” while fans have defended her cover as satirical commentary on sexism.
Perhaps my response was too inflammatory. Especially conflating critique with “stopping her.” There’s nothing wrong with the critique of media. I myself am a video essay enjoyer. I guess I was reacting to phrases like “over-sexed, degrading, and troubling.” It read to me like moral scrutiny more than artistic scrutiny. Like over-sexed compared to what? Let her sex herself as she sees fit. Or if the critique is “Explain to me again how this isn’t centering men? How this isn’t catering to the male gaze?” Then I’d say that she can center men if she is so inclined. If the critique was more like “She claims to not like sexing herself and this seems counter to that message.” or “She advertised this new album as very men-off-centering so this is disappointing” that comes to me as a more salient critique. Because to my cursory glance this is self-expression that she is doing of her own volition. And even if it’s “an ML dominated site” I’d be shocked to see the presence of justice and peace if she can’t swag out if she damn well pleases.
I’d be shocked to see the presence of justice and peace if she can’t swag out if she damn well pleases.
I think the difference is she’s someone with a lot of cultural capital and a massive platform, not some rando just doing this stuff in private, or heck even just a mildly famous social media star. So when she endorses certain behaviors publicly, even if she’s genuine in her endorsement, she will likely influence others to embrace those behaviors. Then the debate becomes if that’s harmful or not.
It’s been argued our hyper sexualized society is basically having the reverse effect of prudishness where now people are being pressured into being more sexual than they truly wish to be rather than less.
Now personally, I don’t fully agree, at least not with Sabrina’s work. Yeah she’s horny but I don’t think she’s really advocating for anything truly harmful, nothing wrong with being a little slutty. But I at least understand the logic of her critics.
Perhaps my response was too inflammatory. Especially conflating critique with “stopping her.” There’s nothing wrong with the critique of media. I myself am a video essay enjoyer. I guess I was reacting to phrases like “over-sexed, degrading, and troubling.” It read to me like moral scrutiny more than artistic scrutiny. Like over-sexed compared to what? Let her sex herself as she sees fit. Or if the critique is “Explain to me again how this isn’t centering men? How this isn’t catering to the male gaze?” Then I’d say that she can center men if she is so inclined. If the critique was more like “She claims to not like sexing herself and this seems counter to that message.” or “She advertised this new album as very men-off-centering so this is disappointing” that comes to me as a more salient critique. Because to my cursory glance this is self-expression that she is doing of her own volition. And even if it’s “an ML dominated site” I’d be shocked to see the presence of justice and peace if she can’t swag out if she damn well pleases.
I think the difference is she’s someone with a lot of cultural capital and a massive platform, not some rando just doing this stuff in private, or heck even just a mildly famous social media star. So when she endorses certain behaviors publicly, even if she’s genuine in her endorsement, she will likely influence others to embrace those behaviors. Then the debate becomes if that’s harmful or not.
It’s been argued our hyper sexualized society is basically having the reverse effect of prudishness where now people are being pressured into being more sexual than they truly wish to be rather than less.
Now personally, I don’t fully agree, at least not with Sabrina’s work. Yeah she’s horny but I don’t think she’s really advocating for anything truly harmful, nothing wrong with being a little slutty. But I at least understand the logic of her critics.