Sabrina Carpenter just dropped the music video for her new single “Taste,” which casts Jenna Ortega opposite her in a gory, campy romp.
The “Espresso” singer released her latest album, Short n’ Sweet, at midnight, and dropped the music video in the morning. Like Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “lacy,” (which also, ahem, may or may not be about Carpenter), “Taste” is another one of those classic “Do I want to be her or do I want to fuck her” jealousy anthems. The chorus goes, “I heard you're back together and if that's true / You'll just have to taste me when he's kissin' you / If you want forever, I bet you do / Just know you'll taste me too.”
The video also straddles that line, and additionally adds the classic dilemma, “do I want to be her, fuck her, or kill her?” It’s preceded by a warning for “explicit content” and “graphic violence” and boy is that warranted right from the jump. The video opens with a shot of a baby pink bed covered in a truly eye-boggling array of implements as in, floggers and handcuffs and restraints, but also many guns, knives, and other murder weapons.
That’s kind of an encapsulation of the vibe of the rest of the music video, which sees Carpenter and Ortega locked in a glamorous and gory battle to the death for some guy’s affections. Ortega repeatedly deals injuries that should be fatal to Carpenter who seemingly can’t be killed even as her arm is chopped off and a gaping hole is shot through her torso.
The sheer camp of the video, which some Redditors have posited is based on the camp classic Death Becomes Her, would be enough to make it kinda gay. But then, in a trick of the camera moment, Ortega finds herself locking lips with Carpenter. (It’s kind of hard to explain unless you watch, and thankfully one X user has provided.)
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Obviously, Sapphic Twitter was immediately lit aflame, with one user joking that the short-lived kiss will inevitably serve as a gay awakening for many a tweenager.
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Another person wrote simply, “please check on your gay friends.” Enough said.
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A few different users remarked on the video’s resemblance to some icons of somewhat problematic gay representation, namely Glee and Jennifer’s Body. Society may have moved past the need for “two girls kissing but one of them is blonde and one of them is brunette,” but we’ll allow it for Carpenter and Ortega.
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Some people certainly won’t allow it though, as one user pointed out. We regret to inform you that we can already hear the faint rumbles of the TikTokers jumping to make front-facing videos about why Sabrina Carpenter is canceled for appropriating WLW culture.
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As for us, we will simply be enjoying the fact that unhinged, “so straight it’s kinda gay” pop girlie music videos are so back, and for that, we thank you, Sabrina Carpenter.
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