Sabrina Carpenter’s latest music video, Tears, continues her tongue-in-cheek tradition of killing off the leading men – a running joke that has now sparked debate over whether the theme is parody or something more sinister.
This time, she plays with the trope directly. The video opens with her boyfriend in a car crash. When he comes back from the dead later on, Carpenter appears unimpressed.
She says: ‘What, no? You died earlier, I thought? It’s a thing. Someone has to die in every video’.
She then apologises before spearing him in the heart with a high heel, finishing the job.
The moment delighted her fans who have clocked the body count building across her videos – from a gym and lift in Feather, to a cliff plunge in Manchild, and a speedboat send-off in Espresso.
However, the move has led to some accusations of misandry, with critics questioning why she continues with the violent theme.
Metro caught up with some pop culture experts to hear their thoughts.
Jennifer Jasmine White, a writer who focuses on class, gender, and popular culture, told Metro that it’s not misandry, it’s parody.
‘It’s naive to pretend that these videos aren’t highly caricatured, highly camp, reflections on the roles of women on screen throughout the 20th century.
‘They might not be the most radical or most subversive (more importantly, can they ever be, when the goal is capitalist mega-profit?), but these images and videos are doing something, they’re not just depicting violence for the sake of it, repeating acts thoughtlessly, or aiming to encourage these acts in real life.’
White reflected directly on the murder depicted in Tears and added: ‘If throwing a sky-high stiletto through the air within the context of a drag-horror-spoof (whilst making an explicit reference to the parodic expectations set by the Sabrina-Carpenter-music-video-universe itself!) is going to be taken at face value, we ought to start worrying about our capacity to think even the slightest bit critically about pop-culture.’
White added that her brand is satirical and built to encourage ‘reflection’ and consumed as a ‘pantomime.’
‘If Sabrina’s brand is misandrist, it is surely misandrist in such an extraordinarily exaggerated way as to prompt critical reflection. The whole brand is one that reminds us that what we’re consuming is a display of theatrics, play, pantomime, even, and should be received as such,’ she said.
Pop culture and music commentator Ella Lockyer agreed with this take, adding that Sabrina is no different from her theatrical predecessors: ‘I wouldn’t call it misandry, it’s satire. Sabrina isn’t literally calling for harm; she’s reflecting a long tradition in pop where women reclaim power through exaggerated visuals (think early Lady Gaga or Lana Del Rey).’
She added that while she could see the star could be seen negatively, it’s clearly because ‘pop survives on spectacle’.
‘It’s camp, not cruelty, although I can see how it paints her in a negative light, especially when her branding is so lighthearted, but the album has pretty heavy topics, that’s why I believe it leans more towards performance.
‘It’s less rage-bait, more commentary. Pop today thrives on spectacle, and Sabrina is tapping into dark humour that plays well on TikTok, it sparks conversation without her needing to be overtly sexual.’
Sabrina has leaned into the dark, humoured killer persona of late. She even told Variety that she hosted her Man’s Best Friend launch at Hollywood Forever Cemetery because of her on-screen murderous streak.
‘I used to come here and watch movies, so I thought this would be a really special place to bring everybody, and since I’m always killing men…’ she said.
Other critics appear to be less impressed by the star’s marketing strategy.
Kev Nixon, author of music industry exposé, Brilliant Sounding Music, said he believes that her music video is again a marketing strategy, something to stir conversation and keep a healthy competition going against the fellow pop stars in the business.
‘In Sabrina’s case with Tears, she’s laying down the gauntlet to Taylor, Billie, Chappell, Ariana and Olivia and metaphorically saying.. “OK girls, top that”.
However, Nixon was less impressed and added that her videos are created to spark devotion from teenage girls, at the cost of quality music.
‘Sabrina’s overly aggressive combination of female and sexual power is getting through to teenage girls everywhere who are identifying with her, and so these mini-movies have become a marker of where we have got to in music today… and that is that the music comes third behind the movie and the message.’
While Nixon may have been less impressed with the video, White argues videos like this and pop stars like Sabrina are still able to spark interesting conversations about feminism and representation, even if she is manufactured by the industry.
‘Of course, Sabrina Carpenter is manufactured – not only that, her entire brand revolves precisely around notions of manufactured femininity. Her branding trades not only on her own physical beauty, but the very parameters within which that particular kind of beauty has been so revered and curated: she’s mixing Old-Hollywood, Blonde-Bombshell, Sexy-Virgin, Wide-Eyed-Disney-Star, all of which manage to both sell records and provoke interesting conversations about femininity and representation.
‘We can lambast her for not performing precisely the “right” kinds of feminism if we like, but I think she should be given more credit for the latter.’
The Marmite popstar has only just released her new album, with plenty more music videos expected from the star. It remains to be seen if she will continue her murderous trend going into the future.
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