“Do you have to take off your pants to sing well?”: Netizens divided over Sabrina Carpenter’s outfit while performing ‘Manchild’ on SNL

Sabrina Carpenter hosted Saturday Night Live (SNL) on October 18 and performed several songs, including Manchild, which was released on June 5 this year. She also sang an uncensored version of her track Nobody's Son from the album Man's Best Friend.

Carpenter hosted SNL on Saturday and delivered a monologue, addressing the controversy surrounding the album cover for Man's Best Friend. The album, released on August 29 this year, features her on all fours with a man figure pulling her hair. This sparked some backlash, with many claiming it was overly sexual.

After defending her stance on the cover, she performed two songs from the album: Manchild and Nobody's Son. However, some people were unhappy with Sabrina Carpenter's outfit during her performance of Manchild. One X user wrote:

"Do you have to take off your pants to sing well ?"

A few others also shared the same sentiment:

the silencer 🔇💋

@swiftssstarsss

@PopBase @SabrinaAnnLynn Overly sexual once again 😂🤡

Lana 🫧

@suestormhub

She's trying so hard pandering to male gaze eww

Some, however, praised Carpenter's creativity and appearance.

Nevada

@thecheeries

I love when a popstar is popstaring #sabrinanightlive #SNL

Karla 🇲🇽 • Method Acting Apologist •

@Artisticneed

She’s so cool and fun and talent and most importantly she has VISION

Ari🖤

@ariiiiirose

Her constant creative abilities will keep her relevant for yearsssss

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Sabrina Carpenter addresses backlash over album cover of Man's Best Friend

2025 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals (Image Source: Getty)

Sabrina Carpenter faced a lot of criticism after the album cover for Man's Best Friend was released. Many claimed it was too sexual, especially combined with her "Juno" poses. The singer responded to these critics in her monologue on Saturday Night Live on October 18, saying:

“Some people got a little freaked out by the cover. I’m not sure why? It was just this: me on all fours, with an unseen figure pulling my hair. But what people don’t realize is that’s just how they cropped it."

She joked:

"If you zoom out, it’s clearly a picture from the 50th anniversary special of Bowen [Yang] helping me up by the hair. After Martin Short shoved me out of the buffet line, saying something like, ‘Daddy need his mini quiche.' "

She then addressed the criticism of her public image and added:

“Everyone thinks of me as this horned-up pop star, but there’s really so much more to me. I’m not just horny. I’m also turned-on, and I’m sexually charged, and I love to read. My favorite book is the encyclopedia. It’s so big, and it’s hard.”

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Sabrina Carpenter featured on Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl

Along with releasing her new album earlier this year, Carpenter also featured on Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl. She appears on the title track of the album, released on October 3, and is the only feature on it. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon on October 6, Taylor Swift spoke about Carpenter's feature and said:

“All of a sudden, the song comes together. And the first thought I had was Sabrina Carpenter. She’s like… Quintessential showgirl. She’s such a funny person. She is so tough in the right ways and soft and vulnerable in the right ways to be an artist that is dealing with the kind of just absolute mayhem that gets kind of, these artists get subjected to when you’re putting out art publicly.”

Swift said that she wrote the second verse of the song for Carpenter, as she "loves to write like a clever little jab at men".

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