Sabrina Carpenter blasts critics of her NSFW lyrics: ‘Clearly you love sex’

Sabrina Carpenter is clapping back at those who take issue with her NSFW lyrics.

Having garnered quite the reputation for playfully raunchy songs and sexually suggestive choreography, the “Manchild” singer is defending her controversial choices ahead of her upcoming seventh studio album.

“It’s always so funny to me when people complain,” Carpenter told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “They’re like, ‘All she does is sing about this.’ But those are the songs that you’ve made popular.”

Pointing out that some of these complaints come from people who listen to her music and buy tickets to her concerts, she continued, “Clearly you love sex. You’re obsessed with it.”

As she alluded, Carpenter does have a tendency to go viral for her more provocative moments. During her Emails I Can’t Send tour, she would change the outro of her popular song “Nonsense” every night, usually including an innuendo. The tradition inspired fans to compile the various changes and the raunchiest among them made the rounds on social media. For her Short N’ Sweet tour, Carpenter recreated that trend by surprising fans during a different song.

During “Juno” — a fun pop tune named after the 2007 teen-pregnancy film of the same name — she would sing the lyrics, “Wanna try out some freaky positions? Have you ever tried this one?” Carpenter would then simulate a sex position, which would change every night. This viral moment was frequently criticized online, with some parents worrying the show was inappropriate for children. But Carpenter argues that suggestive lyrics and the viral positions are not all that her performance has to offer. 

“There’s so many more moments [other] than the ‘Juno’ positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can’t control that,” she argued. “If you come to the show, you’ll [also] hear the ballads, you’ll hear the more introspective numbers.”

Carpenter added that she’s “not upset” about the response but does “feel mad pressure to be funny” about it.

The singer is currently gearing up for a new album cycle with Man’s Best Friend set to arrive in August. Already, the singer has sparked controversy with her new record, earning criticism for the album cover that sees her wearing high heels and a black dress, kneeling on the ground while a man pulls her by the hair.

The divisive album art has some fans complaining that Carpenter is leaning into “misogynistic” imagery, while others argue that she is satirizing that perspective by leaning into her playful, pin-up girl persona. Carpenter has yet to directly address the criticism but did discuss the general pressure of being a woman in the public eye.

 “I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I truly feel like I’ve never lived in a time where women have been picked apart more, and scrutinized in every capacity,” she said. “I’m not just talking about me. I’m talking about every female artist that is making art right now.”

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She continued, “We’re in such a weird time where you would think it’s girl power, and women supporting women, but in reality, the second you see a picture of someone wearing a dress on a carpet, you have to say everything mean about it in the first 30 seconds that you see it.”

Man’s Best Friend is due to arrive on August 29.