With new album Man's Best Friend, Sabrina Carpenter has sparked controversy that is reminiscent of the outrage over Madonna. Thirty years on, has anything changed for female pop stars?

In 2022, 30 years on from the release of her infamous Sex book and album Erotica, Madonna, posting on Instagram, reflected on a period where she "wrote about my sexual fantasies and shared my point of view about sexuality in an ironic way". Remembering the "narrow-minded people" who tried to shame her, she celebrated paving the way for a succession of female pop stars to be open about sex. "Now Cardi B can sing about her WAP… Miley Cyrus can come in like a wrecking ball. You're welcome..."

So, job done then? Female pop stars expressing their sexuality isn't new. And yet, in 2025, on the eve of its release, Sabrina Carpenter felt the need to warn people that her new album Man's Best Friend wasn't "for pearl clutchers". It comes as the singer has faced pushback for her sexual imagery and lyrics, from controversy over her album cover to complaints over her raunchy TV performances.

Carpenter's breakthrough came last year with the song of the summer, Espresso, and her Grammy-nominated album – amazingly, her sixth – Short n' Sweet. By then she'd long shed her Disney roots and embraced a coquettish, 50s bombshell look and overtly sexy persona. "I'm so [expletive] horny," she sang on Short n' Sweet's Juno. She made an eyebrow-raising play on the word "camaraderie" on Bed Chem. Things got even filthier when she toured the album, acting out sex positions and simulating sex with a male dancer. Outraged parents have decried her as a bad influence on their daughters.

A blonde bombshell pop star causing moral outrage with her overt sexuality? It all felt quite familiar. Carpenter certainly isn't shy about her love of Madonna, paying homage to the singer's Blonde Ambition era on a Vogue cover (shot by Steven Meisel, the same photographer behind Madonna's book) and wearing the star's 1991 Bob Mackie Oscars dress to last year's VMAs.

Whereas Madonna's overt sexuality felt radical, Carpenter's has a more tongue-in-cheek feel – to the point where some have questioned whether it's a marketing ploy. Criticism intensified in June when she unveiled the cover for Man's Best Friend, featuring the singer on her knees as a man grabs her hair. It drew ire from several quarters – some feminists,

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