The controversial cover of Sabrina Carpenter‘s new album Man’s Best Friend has gotten people talking, including the women on The View.
On Thursday (June 12), the ladies shared their takes on whether the artwork — which features the pop star down on all fours, pawing at a man who holds a fistful of her hair — is subversively feminist or just plain sexist. For Alyssa Farah Griffin, it’s the former.
“Oh, boo-hoo,” she began of the criticism surrounding Carpenter’s visual. “If you listen to her music, she’s a feminist. It’s all about women’s empowerment. Her newest single, ‘Manchild,’ is literally just about men who are useless who refuse to grow up.
“It reminds me of Britney Spears in the ’90s … are we still doing that?” Griffin added.
Sunny Hostin, on the other hand, isn’t convinced. “I’ll admit, I don’t know who she is,” she said of Carpenter. “I had never heard of her music. I don’t know anything about her, but I don’t know. I think imagery is important, and even if her lyrics are strong and she’s a feminist, I think about young girls seeing that who may not understand.”
The women’s conversation echoes a much broader discussion happening online about the Man’s Best Friend cover, which Carpenter unveiled Wednesday while announcing that the new LP would drop Aug. 29. The two-time Grammy winner has long had a reputation for being cheeky and a little risqué in her lyrics and performances, from her NSFW “Nonsense” outros to the striking of various sex positions while performing the explicit track “Juno” on her Short n’ Sweet Tour.
But while the Internet is torn over whether Carpenter’s submissive position on the Man’s Best Friend cover is funny or degrading, Whoopi Goldberg was more concerned with something else. “I would’ve bit him,” the actress said of the singer’s pose on The View. “If you’re down there, you bite.”
As for the Girl Meets World alum, Carpenter has her own thoughts on leaning into her sexuality through her pop persona. “It’s always so funny to me when people complain,” she told Rolling Stone in a recent cover story. “They’re like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’ But those are the songs that you’ve made popular. Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it.”
Watch the women of The View debate Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend cover below.