Sabrina Carpenter is defending a photo from her September 2024 W magazine spread.
This week the 26-year-old pop star — who has faced criticism since announcing her latest album, Man’s Best Friend — shut down a fan who compared an image featured in the shoot to the controversial 1997 film Lolita.
The movie, based on Vladimir Nabokov’s book, follows a man’s inappropriate infatuation with a teenage girl. It stars Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, Melanie Griffith and Frank Langella.
TikTok user @arcafan999 re-shared a side-by-side comparison of two photos — one of Sabrina lying in grass under a sprinkler, and a movie still of Dominique doing the same thing — originally posted by The Pop Faction.
The post was captioned, ‘gross,’ and the social media user asked in a video, ‘What the eff is this?’
Sabrina denied the Lolita inspiration, writing in the comments: ‘i’ve never seen this movie. it’s never been on my mood board and never would be.’
However, the critic didn’t back down and instead doubled down on the judgement.
In a comment that has garnered nearly 9,000 likes, the person quoted a line from Carpenter’s song Nonsense, which she tweaked for a Mexican audience while on tour, writing: ‘”fully grown but i look like a niña,” [yeah] sure.’
Per an account from Billboard, the complete lyric Sabrina used in the show was, ‘I’m full grown but I look like a niña/ Come put something big in my casita/ Mexico, I think you are bonita!’
For the cover of Rolling Stone’s July/August issue, the Bed Chem songstress went nude.
She posed on her knees, dressed in nothing save for thigh-high white hosiery.
Her famous platinum blonde extensions fell over her bare butt and down to her thighs in soft ringlets.
Meanwhile, her dainty, manicured hands were crisscrossed over her chest to cover her modesty as she gazed up with her lips parted.
The singer-songwriter has largely used her sex appeal to market her music and keep fans tantalized.
It’s never been more evident than throughout her Short n’ Sweet Tour, which kicked off last September and runs through this November.
Audiences have come to expect simulated sex acts and cheekily engineered lyrics from the petite performer during the stage show.
Footage from the set contain concertgoers reveling during these moments, but Sabrina has also received criticism for the NSFW display.
Addressing the hate in her RS cover story, Carpenter noted that the sex-centric songs are the ones most beloved by fans.
‘It’s always so funny to me when people complain,’ she said. ‘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.’
Referencing one song in particular, she added, ‘It’s in my show. There’s so many more moments than the “Juno” positions, but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can’t control that.
‘If you come to the show, you’ll [also] hear the ballads, you’ll hear the more introspective numbers.’
The music artist reflected, ‘I find irony and humor in all of that, because it seems to be a recurring theme. I’m not upset about it, other than I feel mad pressure to be funny sometimes.’
