Ever since Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour started, parents have been clutching their pearls at the concert experience of a 25-year-old woman. They’ve complained that the clothes are suggestive, certain montages are inappropriate for younger viewers to watch/hear, and that she’s promoting things that are unsuitable for their children. And while they’re shaming Carpenter, they never stop to consider that they might be the problem.
Sabrina Carpenter isn’t a Disney kid anymore. She’s a woman. And as a woman, she can sing about her loves, losses, or the fact that she’s horny to her heart’s content. Expecting her to still act like a child is infantilizing, super creepy of the parent in question, and shifts the responsibility of checking out if Carpenter is appropriate for their children from the parent to the performer in question. And it shows the parents’ lack of interest in actually parenting their own children.
It’s not like Carpenter’s been hiding that her sound and look have changed into something more sensual and sexual either. There was a notable shift in Emails I Can’t Send into a more mature sound. And her Short n’ Sweet album has been readily available on all streaming platforms since August 23rd of this year. Her music videos for the recent album have also been available on YouTube, a global and free platform for all to use. So the only ones who can be blamed for their children being “exposed” to Carpenter’s “inappropriate” concerts or music are the parents who couldn’t even open a browser to check out her readily available discography before buying their children concert tickets.
But that’s not all.
The Comparisons to Taylor Swift
In calling out Carpenter, a lot of people are comparing her to Taylor Swift. They claim that Swift “would never be this inappropriate” and that she “could never” cross the lines that Carpenter has. And it’s fear tactics to keep women in line disguised as “worry for the youths.”
First of all, Swift has had Carpenter on her Eras Tour as an opening act. She even sang Carpenter’s “Expresso” on stage to the delight of her own fans. Seeing as this is her tour, Swift approved of this appearance and approved of sharing Carpenter’s discography with her fans. So it’s mind-boggling that certain fans are holding Swift up on a pedestal like she isn’t her own woman who enjoys Carpenter’s work or has had similar experiences. It’s almost like they don’t respect Swift or Carpenter and are only about pitting women against each other.
MORE: Relive the moment when Sabrina Carpenter found out she was going on tour with Taylor Swift.
Which brings me to my second point.
There can be more than one woman pop star. And in pitting Carpenter against Swift, as if one is more virtuous than another, it’s misogyny rearing its ugly head to pit women against each other. We’ve seen it happen with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, and Nicki Minaj, and Cardi B. It’s like no matter what music genre or business you’re in, people want to pit talented women against each other instead of lifting each other up and letting people like what they like and express themselves how they want.
At the end of the day, Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift are two women who happen to sing. They have different life experiences, loves, and losses. Arguing that one is better than the other is an immature outlook that perpetuates a system that pits women against each other as if we’re each other’s enemies instead of the system that keeps taking away our rights to our own bodies and free will. This outlook also maintains a narrative that there is only one right way to be a woman under a system meant to benefit men based on our subjugation. There isn’t one way to be a woman. And the sooner people see that and accept it, the better we will be as a society.
Then There’s the Ross Lynch Double Standard
To understand the double standard of how Carpenter is being treated, it’s important to look at her Disney Channel counterparts, particularly Ross Lynch.
Carpenter starred in Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World for 72 episodes as Maya Hart. She was 13 years old. By the time the show ended she was 17. From then on, she starred in voice-over work with Disney that included Milo Murphy’s Law and Sofia the First. Her last film project with Disney was the movie Clouds. As for her discography, she dropped 4 albums with Hollywood Records, which is owned by Disney Music Group. Emails I Can’t Send and Short n’ Sweet were released under Island Records. At the moment of this post being written, she’s 25.
Lynch started his journey with Disney at 15 with his role of Austin Moon in Jessie and Austin & Ally. By that time he was already doing music with his band R5. With Disney, he went on to star in Teen Beach Movie and its sequel, did voice-over work in Ultimate Spider-Man, and appeared in Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted and even Carpenter’s Girl Meets World. As for his discography, he sang plenty of songs for Austin & Ally and Teen Beach Movie. His band R5 released 4 records with the very same Hollywood Records. At the moment of this post being written, he’s 28.
Both Carpenter and Lynch are adults who have steered away from their Disney days. But the double standard of it all appears when Carpenter is getting dragged for filth for having a more mature look and sound but Lynch isn’t. Right now you can look up Lynch’s Driver Era tour on YouTube and you can’t go one video without him on stage shirtless or in some stage of undress. His lyrics are suggestive and sensual and just last year he starred in Troye Sivan’s “One of the Girls” where the opening shot was a crotch shot of Lynch tucking his hands into the front of his unbuttoned jeans while being shirtless.
And where is the outrage for Lynch and how he’s “influencing” the children? It’s nowhere. All you hear are crickets.
In Conclusion
At the end of the day, parents aren’t coming for Lynch on social media or on popular talk shows because our society perpetuates “boys will be boys” and he’s just “sowing his wild oats” when it comes to exploring sex. Women like Carpenter aren’t afforded the same grace. Instead, women are meant to be pious, demure, and utterly virginal. And if we do like the boys do, we’re “inappropriate” or “shameful.” Even worse, we’re called whores, sluts, etc. while being compared to other women who are more reserved as if there’s one way to be a woman.
Sabrina Carpenter is her own woman. She’ll continue to share her life with her fans through music, with her sound and look evolving as she ages. And no matter how old she gets, it will never be her responsibility to parent anyone who comes to her concerts, no matter the age. That’s the parents’ responsibility and it’s about time we call out the lazy and aloof who would rather fearmonger from their soapbox instead of being active parents who are interested in their children, what they like, and the music they listen to.
