Was Sabrina Carpenter’s alternate ‘Man’s Best Friend’ artwork a response to backlash?

When Sabrina Carpenter shared the original cover of her seventh studio album Man’s Best Friend, it promptly went down as one of the year’s most contentious pop-culture happenings.

The photograph featuring Carpenter on her knees while a man grabs a fistful of her hair, quickly drew criticism online, with detractors branding it degrading or too provocative. But after an alternate cover surfaced weeks later, the discussion began to change.

According to Sabrina Carpenter, the latter is far closer to the truth. In post-album-release interviews, the singer acknowledged but seemed unfazed by the criticism, standing by an image that sprang from themes she tends to delve into, control vulnerability and the contradictions that inform contemporary womanhood.

Sabrina Carpenter tells Variety that releasing alternative artwork for ‘Man’s Best Friend’ was not a response to backlash:

“Oh, girl, I just wanted to take more pictures!”

(https://t.co/PsNkE4alBR) pic.twitter.com/pbBIAX6Jx5

— Pop Base (@PopBase) December 3, 2025

She said the cover was supposed to be a personal reflection of feeling “emotionally yanked around” in previous relationships, and that it represented the push and pull at play between power and powerlessness. For her, the ambiguity of the photo was precisely the point.

"It was about how people try to control women, and how I felt emotionally yanked around by these relationships that I had, and how much power you’re allowing yourself to give them," she told Variety.

Nevertheless, the conversation surrounding the artwork was so cacophonous that the alternate cover, which features Carpenter standing upright and gripping a man’s arm, was commonly understood as a compromise.

Sabrina Carpenter waved away that notion, though. The additional imagery wasn’t her making amends, or a correction, for what had happened, it was just her getting another chance to take more pictures. She said:

"Oh, girl, I just wanted to take more pictures"

A brief look into Sabrina Carpenter’s rise to fame

A Pennsylvania native, Sabrina Carpenter broke into the entertainment industry at a young age as a child actor, working her way up from niche TV roles to lead role status with Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World.

In addition to acting, she inked a deal with Hollywood Records and in her early teens tried on various musical guises, playing anywhere she could find small shows, opening slots for touring acts.

According to the Guardian, these years gave her space to grow without the pressure to have an immediate chart hit, even if she was frequently dismissed as yet another Disney graduate. Her journey into early adulthood included some legal issues, online scandals and aftershocks from the high-profile drama over Olivia Rodrigo’s "Drivers License."

Instead of turning away from those encounters, Carpenter repurposed them for her 2022 album Emails I Can’t Send, a sharp and honest collection that helped restore the public’s perception of herself and showed how she grew as a songwriter in the process.

Sabrina Carpenter literally have Her first contract thanks to Miley’s 2009 tour, she should be always grateful for Miley giving her a career and for Taylor to making her be “someone” sucessful 😭 https://t.co/Q6ZzRBIjSK pic.twitter.com/jCN8aOqVMS

— Miley Stats (@StatsOnCyrus) November 9, 2025

Carpenter’s real breakthrough came with “Nonsense,” which became a viral success and whose momentum carried over into her opening slot for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour, pleasing audiences with charismatic, playful performances.

But it was “Espresso,” in 2024, that shot her to mainstream superstardom. The song was a global chart-topper, a cultural catchphrase and affirmed her as one of pop’s defining voices of the year. Its follow up, “Please Please Please,” further established her chart power.

At the 10-year mark in her career, Carpenter’s fame no longer seems like an overnight explosion so much as it is a product of self-discipline and commitment.