Ideological skirmishes over the motives and obligations of Carpenter’s music include both sincere interrogation of its feminism and smirking counteractive reprisals to that scrutiny. It’s easy to ignite a smoldering batch of think pieces and podcast rebukes in the year of conservatives making Sydney Sweeney an emblem of imagined liberal outrage.... See more

"I myself am not a gay woman--I am a free-spirited woman: I have had boyfriends, and I have hooked up with women, but it's never been like 'I discovered gayness when I was dot dot dot.'"