Professor Catherine Rottenberg from Goldsmiths University of London said that regardless of how the artwork should be interpreted, Carpenter was “fanning the flames of controversy in order to sell her brand”.
“Debates around representation that this album has already generated will likely mean more sales, more popularity, and more traction,” she told the BBC.
It is not the first time the 26-year-old’s music has sparked an outcry.
Carpenter has built her brand around fun and risque pop music, and her sexual lyrics, X-rated ad-lib Nonsense outros and provocative performances regularly cause a stir.
At the Brit Awards in March, media watchdog Ofcom received 825 complaints, with the majority involving Carpenter’s pre-watershed opening performance that saw her wearing a red sparkly military-style mini-dress with matching stockings and suspenders.
She was also seen having a close encounter with a dancer dressed as a soldier wearing a bearskin hat during the show, which was broadcast live on ITV.
Lucy Ford, a culture critic, previously told the BBC that Carpenter is “in on the joke” when she performs.
“Sabrina is being unabashedly horny in her music and it feels like an embrace of fun and silliness and not taking things too seriously.”
