Sabrina Carpenter’s latest single, the country-tinged pop confection “Manchild,” is a tongue-in-cheek confessional lament—or maybe lament-filled confessional—about the kinds of guys the singer seems to attract.
On one hand, she’s clearly having fun as she playfully skewers male ineptitude. On the other, one can’t help but wonder if she’s ever had a relationship with anyone who’s not an insecure, infantile narcissist.
“You said your phone was broken, just forgot to charge it,” she commences. “Whole outfit you’re wearing, God, I hope it’s ironic.” There’s a bunch more where that came from.
There’s little here that ticks the box for “positive.” The best we might say is that perhaps Carpenter longs for a man who’ll love her as a grown-up and equal, not as someone stuck in the morass of arrested development. That said, even sifting that interpretation out requires some effort.
Carpenter admits that she seems to attract guys who are, as she repeatedly sings, little more than a “manchild.” “And I like my men all incompetent (Incompetent)/And I swear they choose me, I’m not choosing them (Not choosing them).”
Elsewhere, though, Carpenter relishes eviscerating male ineptitude. “Why so sexy if so dumb?/And how survive the Earth so long?/If I’m not there, it won’t get done/I choose to blame your mom.” And then there’s this complaint: Half your brain just ain’t there/Manchild/Why you always come a-running, taking all my loving from me?”
And a few lyrical moments are well, just mean: “Stupid/Or is it slow?/Maybe it’s useless/But there’s a cuter word for it, I know/Manchild.” She also takes a lover to task for his performance in bed: “Did you just say you’re finished? Didn’t know we started.”
A couple of f-words pop up along the way, too.
“Manchild” is an airy, meanspirited confection that’s already earning “song of the summer” applause. It’s light, catchy, silly and takes aim at clueless lunks (which we see plenty of in a video for the song that features Carpenter wearing very little in an endless stream of momentary connections with various manchildren).
It’s not the kind of song one needs to write a think piece about, as badly behaving men are always an easy target for quippy takedowns.
Still, I think it’s worth at least noting that if a similar song were written about women, calling them “slow” or “stupid,” it would rightly and immediately be labeled as misogynist and sexist.
I suspect that logic won’t work in reverse here as lots of young women internalize this cotton-candy country-lite song’s main message: Men are idiots, and it can’t really be helped.
After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.
