Overview
- In Variety’s Hitmakers issue, Carpenter says the original cover was a metaphor for feeling “emotionally yanked around” and for attempts to control women.
- She acknowledged that many objections were reasonable, noting the image “meant one thing to me and 100 things to other people.”
- After the June backlash, she released alternate covers and later said the new images were not a capitulation to critics.
- Carpenter framed her risqué work as part of growing beyond her Disney-era persona and stressed that she maintains personal boundaries.
- Man’s Best Friend debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and earned six Grammy nominations, and she also rebuked the White House for using her song in an immigration-raids video, drawing a sharp response from a spokeswoman.