Sabrina Carpenter is known for her vintage-inspired lingerie outfits, cheeky lyrics and bouncy blonde curls, but some critics think her vibe is inspired by a twisted child abuse story from the 1950s
Sabrina Carpenter has been accused of glamorising the disturbing story of Lolita, but what exactly makes the tale so dark?
The book is a 1995 novel written by Vladimir Nabokov and follows Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged man who becomes obsessed with 12-year-old Dolores Haze, who he nicknames Lolita and labels as a “nymphet,” a derogatory term that refers to a very young girl as a seductress.
Dolores is obviously a victim in this tale and Humbert is an unreliable narrator, telling the story through his eyes and in his favour.
The twisted tale gets even darker when he marries Dolores’ mother, becoming her stepfather, and later kidnaps Dolores to cart her off around the country against her will.
Sabrina Carpenter critics have drawn parallels between the some of the singer’s past snaps, lyrics and new album artwork for Man’s Best Friend.
Someone on X/Twitter accused Sabrina of “all the Lolita s*** she’s been doing,” referencing a still from the 1997 film that looked very similar to one of her past photoshoots.
The scene shows Dolores laying on the grass in her garden, wearing a white dress as she reads a book while sprinklers go off around her. Sabrina shot an almost identical image for W Magazine back in September 2024, which showed the former Disney star reclining in the garden in the same position, wearing a white dress while sprinklers covered the garden in water.
The X/Twitter user also drew comparisons between her Man’s Best Friend album art and another scene from the 90s flick. This time, a scene showed Dolores, played by Dominique Swain, sitting on the edge of a bed wearing a blue dress with her leg outstretched.
Humbert Humbert, played by Jeremy Irons, looks up at her as he holds her ankle. Sabrina’s side A album artwork is an illustration of the singer laying in bed with her hands on the head board as she stretches out her leg.
An unidentified man crouches at the end of the bed, grabbing her ankle similar to Jeremy’s character in the 1997 film.
Elsewhere on X/Twitter, someone else addressed the comparisons and wrote: “Sabrina Carpenter doing Lolita references in the big year of 2025, I’m sorry but some things are just inexcusable,” before pointing out an improvised outro to her song Nonsense from a gig back in 2024.
Sabrina sings a different verse every time and at this particular concert she said: “I’m full grown but I look like a niña [girl], come put something big in my casita [house], Mexico I think you are bonita! [beautiful]”
However, some Sabrina fans have come to the singer’s defence and noted that another chart-topping singer has also referenced the work: “When Lana [Del Rey] makes her whole aesthetic about Lolita, no one bats an eye and we love the aesthetic.”
Another person said: “People on TikTok accusing Sabrina of romanticizing Lolita because she…has a vintage aesthetic and calls herself short while being sexual[?]”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
