'Skin' and Toxic Femininity in The Music Industry
Musicians have released new songs more frequently over the course of the pandemic, and Sabrina Carpenter is no different. She dropped her new single ‘Skin’ in January and both fans and non-fans alike have had a lot to say on the matter, due to it dropping precisely one week after Olivia Rodrigo’s newest single, ‘Driver’s License.’
Speculation quickly started that ‘Driver’s License’ referred to Rodrigo’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-star Joshua Basset’s relationship with Carpenter, and this was easily confirmed when ‘Skin’ released.
Many fans, like Emerson College junior Alexis Crandall, were surprised when ‘Skin’ dropped. Crandall has been a fan of both Rodrigo and Carpenter for quite some time.
“I heard the five-second preview or something she posted and I heard the, ‘Maybe we could have been friends / If I met you in another life,’ and I was like, “Oh my god,” Crandall said.
She originally thought that this was Carpenter's way to address Rodrigo’s song, and was interested to hear this other perspective.
Because both singles were released so close in time, the two artists have been pitted against each other. Carpenter faced ridicule and received death threats from Rodrigo’s fans before ‘Skin’ was released, due to theories that Bassett cheated on her with Carpenter. Although this has never been confirmed, fans immediately placed the blame on Carpenter.
Art by Natasha Arnowitz
Emerson professor Dr. Kristin Lieb said during her TedxSomerville Ted Talk that pop culture teaches the wrong “lessons” about gender and sexuality. In the music industry, for example, Lieb said that female artists’ first phase is the girl next door, and this is where every female singer begins, and soon the artist transitions into more of a temptress, with her songs focused more on sex and sexuality.
“There are about 12 ways of being if you’re female at the top of the music industry and if you can’t fit into one of these 12 different types you’re not gonna get there or you’re not going to remain there,” Lieb said.
‘Skin’ is meant to address Carpenter’s haters and the perspective that the single was released solely to create more drama and attack Rodrigo is an example of toxic femininity common within the industry. As recently as 2018, when female rapper Cardi B was gaining popularity, there was as much focus on her “feud” with Nicki Minaj as there was her music.
This notion of there being drama between Carpenter and Rodrigo is because Carpenter has taken heat for Bassett’s alleged actions. He has barely been brought up in any conversations since Carpenter’s single was released, and his single or public reception has not been impacted, as most of the anger has been directed at his girlfriend.
Nelli Sargsyan, a professor at Emerson College who teaches both Feminisms and Language, Race, Justice said over the years society has heard about sexism women have had, and continue to face, in creative industries that are male-dominated.
“In recent years, in the wake of the #MeToo movement that Tarana Burke started, we have come to hear about the sexism women have had (and in many cases still continue) to face in the music industry and other creative industries that are dominated by men,” Sargsyan said in an email.
At the end of the day, ‘Driver’s License’ exists, ‘Skin’ exists, and they are both good in their own right. Along with the female artists who wrote them.
A few days after ‘Skin’ was released, Carpenter shared a caption on her Instagram page addressing what her single was truly about. The song has faced much backlash as people believed it had a mean-girl quality to it, but Carpenter explained that it was not a “diss track” or directed at Rodrigo. Yet fans were still skeptical on whether Carpenter was truthful in her caption or just trying to save her reputation.
“I think it [the caption] was kind of sincere because there were some people that when the whole dissection of the relationship was going on were kind of being mean to Sabrina and saying, ‘Oh she was the other woman, and he [Bassett] cheated on Olivia with her and she knew,’ and all of these other things,” Crandall explained.
‘Skin’ is meant to address Carpenter’s haters and the perspective that the single was released solely to create more drama and attack Rodrigo is an example of toxic femininity common within the industry. A similar situation happened back in 2018 when female rapper, Cardi B, was gaining popularity in 2018, attention was on her supposed “feud” with rapper Nicki Minaj rather than her music.
“...What you often see in the music industry in the United States is a continuation of the colonial narrative, wherein women as professionals and as artists are suspect and devalued and often in racialized ways, even though feminists have raised issues of gendered and racialized injustices for years,” Sargsyan said in an email.