RHOC’s Tamra Judge Weighs In on Sabrina Carpenter Album Cover Controversy: ‘What’s All the Fuss?’
The internet can’t stop talking about the cover art for Sabrina Carpenter’s new album, Man’s Best Friend, but at least one person doesn’t see the issue: Tamra Judge.
The Real Housewives of Orange County star, 57, reposted a tweet about the cover via X on Thursday, June 12, and shared her own take on the risqué photograph. “What’s all the fuss about? Looks like me in the ’80s!” Judge quipped.
Carpenter, 26, surprised fans earlier this week when she announced that her seventh studio album will be dropping in August, just over one year after she released the Grammy-winning Short n’ Sweet. While her fans — known as Carpenters — were thrilled by the news, she also faced criticism for the artwork, which shows her on all fours as a man pulls her hair. Another image, seemingly the back cover of the album, is a closeup of a dog wearing a collar that reads, “Man’s Best Friend.”
After the cover debuted online, Glasgow Women’s Aid, a Scotland-based advocacy organization for women experiencing domestic violence, slammed Carpenter for the “regressive” artwork. “Picturing herself on all fours, with a man pulling her hair and calling it ‘Man’s Best Friend’ isn’t subversion,” the organization wrote via Instagram on Thursday, June 12. “It’s a throwback to tired tropes that reduce women to pets, props, and possessions and promote an element of violence and control. We’ve fought too hard for this. ✊.”
The group continued, “We get Sabrina’s brand is packaged up retro glam but we really don’t need to go back to the tired stereotypes of women. ✨Sabrina is pandering to the male gaze and promoting misogynistic stereotypes, which is ironic given the majority of her fans are young women!”
Carpenter’s supporters, meanwhile, argued that the cover is actually satirical, like much of her previous, innuendo-heavy work. “Everybody scandalized as f*** about sabrina carpenter and this is literally her,” tweeted one X user alongside images of Bugs Bunny in drag. Another social media commentator added, “I do believe Sabrina Carpenter is ‘for the male gaze’ in the same way as, like, Betty Boop. She’s a very attractive woman obviously but to me, there’s something rather comedic about her brand of sexiness and I think she likes it that way.”
