With a new wave of pop-stars like Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter soaring to the top of the charts, it goes without saying that pop is in a golden era, with a lime-green zest, sparkling vivacity and psychedelic fun. However, as usual with female artists in the peak of their career, this rush of success has been chased with a flurry of speculation and backlash, with Sabrina Carpenter facing the heat this time after a BRIT Awards performance that raised an eyebrow or two.
It didn’t take much scrolling when googling ‘Sabrina Carpenter’ to find finger-wagging, unimpressed and lightly misogynistic articles regarding her performance, with the Daily Mail emphasising the ‘almost 1,000’ Ofcom complaints it received from ‘angry viewers’. The Daily Mail then goes on to make some rather swooping and reductive exaggerations about Carpenter’s career, one of which stating that ‘Sabrina is famous for using various stages of undress as part of her sets and demonstrating provocative dance moves’. Of course, this fell before the mention of her numerous award nominations the very same evening, and impressive win of the global success award at just 25 years old.
But Sabrina isn’t the only one in the firing line. Fellow chart-topper Charli XCX has also recently been victim to social media backlash after critics claim that her reference to drugs in her recent album, brat, make her a bad role model to the younger generation. But do Charli, or Sabrina, have a responsibility to be a good role model? And is this same pressure placed on male artists in a similar position?
The double standard between male and female artists is one that has been set long before Sabrina took to the stage in some sparkly lingerie. In 2015, Ariana Grande celebrated female artists’ agency in ‘showing skin’ when Loose Women’s Jane Moore bizarrely compared Grande’s music video dress to Ed Sheeran’s ‘scruffy old shirt and jeans’, to which Grande cleverly responded, ‘He’s also a boy’. Even before this, Christina Aguiliera faced controversy in the 00s, when her hit single Dirrty was deemed ‘too racy’ by music critics; not to mention Madonna, the icon who paved the way for female expression.
This consistent slander of female artists in the media always harks back to the same process of villainization, in which these stars are painted as corrupting and dangerous to the young people that idolise them. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the last 25 years of the music industry, and see if this same responsibility has been placed on some of the biggest male artists through the decades.
Looking back at the music of the early 2000s, celebrated male artists such as Eminem, Kanye West and 50 Cent threw derogatory and sexually explicit lyrics about women into their music without a second thought, with scantily clad dancers being a common accessory of their music videos. While Eminem faced some backlash for his raging, misogynistic and outrageous behaviour, with one 2003 Daily Mirror piece noting his ‘reputation of being foul-mouthed, angry and offensive to as many people as possible’, this was soon disregarded, with the very same article describing him as a ‘doting Dad’, and a ‘shining example to American youth’.
Moving into the 2010s, artists like Kanye West and Eminem still found acclaim, with stars like Bruno Mars keeping them company in the charts. Despite Kanye’s countless public outbursts and erratic, unpredictable behaviour, he still received praise in the media, with one 2014 Vulture article asking ‘Could Kanye West be the world’s most committed artist?’. Even in the highly public feud between West and Taylor Swift in 2016, despite a frankly disturbing music video featuring nude wax figures of multiple celebrities and misogynistic, derogatory lyrics (including one specifically directed towards Swift), Kanye left the hero, described by The Guardian as a ‘Brilliant Madman’. In the 2010s, this dangerous and sexist behaviour never flagged up as an issue when considering his impact on young boys who idolised and supported his chaotic behaviour.
In 2020, however, we did see progress in the bodacious and unapologetic form of Cardi B. Despite her controversial hit single, WAP, with fellow rapper Meghan Thee Stallion receiving criticism online, even with Snoop Dogg stating that ‘women should keep certain aspects of their sexualities private’, the critics deemed this song a celebration of female sexuality. Cardi B was named Billboard‘s Woman of the Year, not being criticised for her ‘inappropriate’ display of sexuality, but for her ‘unapologetic voice’ that ‘resonated far and wide when the world needed it most’.
It’s clear that with this exciting new display of pop talent, we are facing the future of the industry as we know it. Like so many of the other trailblazers surrounding her, Sabrina Carpenter is going to keep challenging expectations one Juno position at a time, and with the success of her current Short n’ Sweet tour, there’s nothing standing in her way. After seeing progress in the R&B genre, we can only hope that the media will give our pop princesses this same treatment, instead of shooting them down for celebrating women’s sexual freedom in the name of saving the children. It’s up to media sources like the Daily Mail to rewrite the narrative, instead of letting history repeat itself.
Image Credits: Women’s Health
