Can you imagine people youâve never known starting speculating about your relationship? The next thing you know is that they are saying vile things about you and sending you death threats on the internet. It sounds absolutely terrifying and heart wrenching, right? Well, for actress, singer, and songwriter Sabrina Carpenter, that was what happened to her for the past year.
The beginning of the story
If you missed what went down last year, Olivia Rodrigoâs drivers license blew up in large part due to a rumored real-life love triangle the song was reportedly based on. Fans of the singer believed that the song was written about Rodrigoâs HSMTMTS co-star Joshua Bassett, and that the lyrics âYouâre probably with that blonde girl / Who always made me doubt / Sheâs so much older than me / Sheâs everything Iâm insecure about.â â whom the song insinuates is the girl Bassett began dating after Rodrigo â referenced Sabrina Carpenter. Though all three actors never directly addressed the rumor or love triangle, Bassett and Carpenter were still bombarded by angry fans and with messages on their social media in the immediate aftermath.
Things quickly grew more sour when Sabrina became covered with hate â from people harassing her on Twitter to even being called a “bastard” on television.
As a result of the hate and wanting to set the record straight from her perspective to the world, Sabrina released her song Skin in January 2021. She made clear in a social media post following the songâs release that she had no hate towards Olivia, but rather that, despite her tough facade, the drama did get to her even when she wished that it didnât. And if that didnât happen, they could even be friends. She also said in the post that it wasnât just one situation that triggered these feelings, but that she âwas at a tipping point in [her] life for countless reasons.â
But despite Sabrinaâs plea for help after the single, the hate raged on for months. On her 22nd birthday, Sabrinaâs comment section on one of her posts was even flooded with lyrics of Oliviaâs songs. How would you feel if it was your birthday and you couldnât even enjoy it because people on the internet were tearing you down all because of who you were dating? A week later, Sabrina posted a tearful video on her Instagram story, saying, âIâm not sure at what point in my career Iâm supposed to get on Instagram Live and cry, but I feel like Iâm getting pretty close⊠I guess this is just my weird reminder to be kind to people and to take it easy on each other because weâre all going through things no one knows about and itâs really hard to not overthink everything. Being nice to each other makes it a little easier.â
Emails I can’t send
However, now, Carpenter is sharing her side to the story on her new album emails i canât send, but much more directly on a new track and music video, because i liked a boy– shed more light on Sabrinaâs view of all the public drama in the past year and a half. The song includes heartbreaking lyrics, like âNow Iâm a homewrecker, Iâm a slut / I got death threats filinâ up semi trucksâ, and âIâm a rebound gettinâ âround stealinâ from the youngâ. These lyrics are in reference to much of the hate she received from those on the internet calling her a villain, as well as those who said that she was too old to be engaging in the drama or that she was cruel for dating Joshua after his breakup with Olivia. At the end, the song puts into perspective just how blown-up a highly private affair between three people became, and poses the important question to the listener if any of it was at all worth it.
The harmful implications of being called a âhomewreckerâ run even deeper for Sabrina when you listen to the title track, emails i canât send, which shows how her fatherâs infidelity influenced the way she views relationships to this day. The song includes the lyrics âAnd thanks to you I, I can’t love right / I get nice guys and villainize themâ â however, for Sabrina, the whole situation involving Olivia and Joshua has been so devastating for her that she doesnât want anyone to go through what she did. The chorus of the song because i liked a boy, continues, âTell me who I am, guess I donât have a choice.â For Sabrina at the time of the drama, it didnât matter what she said or did, because people were always going to tell her who she was and have their own opinions on her, meaning that there was nothing she could do about it.
The bridge of the song includes the lyrics, âDating boys with exes / No, I wouldnât recommend it.â Itâs only natural to date someone that has had exes, and itâs unlikely for someone to only date one person their entire life. On the second verse, Carpenter seems to allude to Bassettâs heart failure from 2021, further cementing that the track is about the three of them. âIâm not catastrophizing, everythingâs derailing/ Was only tryna hold you close while your heart was failing. Itâs not internet illusion, just two kids going through it/ You said I’m too late to be your first love, but Iâll always be your favorite.â Another lyric that shed light on the whole situation in a completely different way was âWhen everything went down, weâd already broken upâ, revealing that the internet really knew nothing about the timeline nor the situation as a whole, they just speculated without knowing the story, and started to go after Sabrina and Joshua. Personally, I donât know how I would have stayed calm and civil if people were hating on me because of someone I had broken up with months prior and wasnât even dating anymore. But I can tell you that I think I would be devastated!
The music video for because i liked a boy is a beautiful visual representation of what was going on for Sabrina mentally this past year. This video clip reveals how easily the internet and public perceptions can negatively affect oneâs mental health.
In the video, Sabrina uses the circus to describe how she was feeling during the drama. The theme is very fitting, because much like animals in a circus, she felt trapped for other people’s entertainment at the time. Dressed like a performer, Sabrina dances around the circus and playfully approaches a tiger. However, when she does thatâ which could represent the internet â the tiger lashes out at her and chases her. Posters pop up appearing like headlines, with sayings like âEscaped tiger throws circus into a frenzy!â, âWho is at fault?â and âShe wows them and wrecks them!â â all similar to the headlines that swarmed the internet following Sourâs release.
As the video continues, Sabrina tries to rejoin her fellow circus members, but they turn her away, perhaps representing the fans that turned their back from her due to the drama. Another scene includes Sabrina dressed in a black dress with a black and white spinning wheel behind her with knives on it. Just like that, the public used their words to hurl âdaggersâ at Sabrina and try to hurt her, but ultimately they failed.
Besides these songs, we have how many things that can also bring references about the whole drama. â I wonder how many things you think about before you get to me / I wonder how many things you wanna do / You think I’m in between / And I feel myself falling further down your priorities / And I still make excuses for you constantlyâ. Sabrina was in everyoneâs mind after what happened, the song portrays a more vulnerable side of Carpenter by discussing how she feels worthless in the eyes of her lover and the public because they no longer show her any attention.
Overanalyzed it/ Front, back and beside it / Where else can we go? / There’s nothing left here to decode / Done looking for signs in / The gaps and the silence / It’s just gettin’ old / There’s nothing left here to decode.
decode – Sabrina Carpenter
decode is the thirteenth and final track on the album. The song touches on Carpenterâs inability to accept situations that are out of her control. Being hard and blaming herself for the entirety of the situation. This song is a reminder to herself to accept whatever happens in her life as it is. âYou are past the point of asking questions and asking Whys and asking Hows. It just is what it isâ, said Sabrina in an interview with Rolling Stone.
because i liked a boy and emails i canât send are proof that no one really knows what goes on in the lives of celebrities and that there are multiple sides to every story. And itâs not up to us to tell whatâs right or wrong, itâs their life and not ours! Over the past year and a half, Sabrina has received so much cruelty and hate â all because she liked a boy. Itâs unfair to constantly bash on someone â celebrity or not â just because they happened to get into a relationship with someone else. You wouldnât like it if you were in the same position and just trying to live your life. Needless to say, the internet owes Sabrina a huge apology and should do so by approaching her new music with an open mind and not with all this hate. And try to remember that everyoneâs going through something!
The article above was edited by Juliana Sanches.
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