Sabrina Carpenter reveals backstory behind her controversial 'Man's Best Friend' album cover

Sabrina Carpenter has spoken out about how her controversial album cover for Man's Best Friend came to be and what she makes of all the mixed reactions.

The cover art for her latest project, released on August 29, is a photo of herself on her hands and knees, while an unidentifiable figure in a suit holds her by her hair.

This quickly led to online discourse where some argued the image is for the "male gaze" and that Sabrina is "pandering to men" with artwork which reflects misogynist fantasies, and even compared it to actor Sydney Sweeney selling soap made using her actual bathwater.

On the other hand, some fans defended the pop star - who is known for making provocative jokes and innuendos with her lyrics - and argued the image is a metaphor to reflect how she feels men treat her like a dog.

In a new interview with Apple Music's Zane Lowe, the 'Tears' singer shared some insight into how the album artwork was chosen and her thought process behind the concept.

"It's so funny thinking about it now because I wanted a man playing with my hair, and I actually used maybe five different men to take that photo because none of them could play with my hair; they were all pulling it, they were all nervous to be holding my hair, and so the grip looked like they were yanking it," she recalled.

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"The whole purpose of the photo was to be... cheeky and airy and playful of like 'I got myself here, here I am. This is someone I love but also someone emotionally could be doing a lot with my heart and doing a lot with my emotions," Carpenter explained.

"It was interesting that the photo that we landed on was so special, there was only one shot that was shot on film, and it had that lighting in the way that I wanted it with this facial expression where I'm clearly in control even though I'm on all fours..."

When asked about how her family and friends reacted to the album cover, Carpenter quipped, "There was no shift in the universe, it was a very normal day."

She added that "putting out something without having the context is always tricky," upon seeing the divided reaction.

In particular, Carpenter noted there was a certain demographic that was especially critical of her artwork.

"There is a generation that gets offended by some of the things I do, and it's a generation that has either young children or they've raised children and just sort of looking at it from a different point in their life, scolding... they all had sex many times, they popped a lot of kids out so I just think about that and I'm always just like 'It's so funny we're all just so judgemental!"

"I'm not allowed to have sex but you are?" she joked.

You can watch the Apple Music interview with Sabrina Carpenter and Zane Lowe in full on YouTube and Apple Music.

Elsewhere, Why has Sabrina Carpenter's new album cover sparked feminist debate online? and Sabrina Carpenter keeps two viral products on nightstand.

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