Symbolic Pics of the Month 09/25

In my recent article about the 2025 VMAs, I mentioned how Sabrina Carpenter’s image was carefully rebranded to transform her from a Disney teen star into a hypersexualized persona. With her album Man’s Best Friend, Carpenter leans heavily into Sex Kitten programming territory, starting with an album cover on which an unseen handler pulls her hair.
In the alternate cover of that album, Carpenter fulfills a critical requirement of pop stars chosen to represent