It’s 2025, and you would think by now that women would not be told to censor themselves by an outcry of misogynistic men flooding Instagram comment sections. Haha, funny joke, right? Probably no one thinks so, because unfortunately, it is an incredibly common occurrence. It doesn’t matter which social media platform you use; there is no escape. For this article, I would like to use one example to illustrate this issue and make some comparisons. Today, we will focus on men slut-shaming Sabrina Carpenter for her outfits and music to demonstrate how men react to adult women acting like, wait for it… adult women.
If you somehow have not heard of Sabrina Carpenter yet, she is essentially known as the current pop princess – and for good reason. Her newest album, Short n’ Sweet, was a huge success and peaked at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart. She has an amazing voice, unique choreography, and stunning, cute outfits that have honestly become a whole aesthetic. Ironically, all these attributes that made her popular with women also made her hated by men.
Everyone can have an opinion and their own music taste — I’m not against that. If someone doesn’t like Sabrina’s voice or music, that is completely fine. However, I have an issue when someone’s opinion stems from hate and shaming an artist. This only gets worse when the artist is a woman and some men think it is acceptable to be sexist towards her. It has gotten to the point that whenever I see a reel on Instagram of Sabrina’s recent tour, the comments are flooded with men telling her she needs to “put on more clothes” and “stop making inappropriate music for children.”
Sabrina is known for wearing very feminine outfits including corsets and short dresses. Her recent album is filled with suggestive music surrounding topics such as relationships and sex. One of her most famous songs, Juno, includes a different sex position during each performance at her concerts. All these things are well-known and no surprise to anyone that has listened to her music for five seconds or seen one famous concert clip. It is quite obvious from her lyrics and interviews that her target audience is not children or men; Sabrina’s aesthetic caters to women more than anyone. Instead of blaming her for children listening to her music or attending her concerts, maybe people should start blaming parents that don’t monitor their children online or literally take them to knowingly inappropriate concerts for their age. Sabrina is not responsible for other people’s children, and she is by no means the only source of mature content online. She is simply a female artist that is confident in herself and explores her sexuality through music.
Overall, her lyrics, choreography, and outfits are not even that inappropriate in comparison to other artists or people on social media. I find it hypocritical when men shame her for such things when they don’t ever seem to bat an eye about male artists that do similar things. Men will be shirtless, singing about sex, and making racy movements on stage. Male rappers often brag about all the women they have sex with in way more graphic detail than Sabrina ever has, and frankly ever would. Yet, they never get told by women nor other men to “put some clothes on,” “make music about something other than sex,” or “think about your child audience.” I believe that both male and female adult artists should be able to explore their sexuality musically without judgement. Unfortunately, though, there is of course a double standard against women rooted in sexism that prevents this. If people really cared about explicit music, then they would attack artists that are way more graphic and inappropriate than Sabrina, including men. But, I have yet to see one example of that online, and Sabrina is only one of many female artists that have been judged for the same behavior men exhibit.
My hope is that eventually, men and women will be treated equally in all aspects of life, including in the music industry. Though, given the current political climate, I doubt that will happen any time soon. So, if you’re a man reading this, please please please don’t be sexist. Thank you!