With Lana Del Rey’s Utterance of the Phrase, “Goddamn, Manchild,” An Entirely New Song Was Born in Sabrina Carpenter’s Mind

The word “manchild” has been used for years by women dealing with man-babies, mama’s boys and all manner of other unsatisfying men suffering from, at best, Peter Pan Syndrome, and, at worst, being “a guy that thinks he’s fly… always talkin’ ‘bout what he wants/And just sits on his broke ass.” But when Lana Del Rey wielded the word in her Grammy-nominated 2019 song, “Norman Fucking Rockwell,” it became very much associated with her. Especially within the context of the entire line, which goes, “Goddamn, manchild/You fucked me so good that I almost said, ‘I love you.’”

Like many women of the “next generation” after Lana, they’ve been inspired and influenced by her work. Sabrina Carpenter being no exception to the rule. Hence, Carpenter more than slightly hinting at how “Norman Fucking Rockwell” provided the seed (no sexual innuendo intended) for her own sonic flower to grow in the form of “Manchild,” a damning anthem for women who have suffered the ever-increasing incompetence of boys posing as men. This in pretty much all matters, but especially those related to romance. And yes, it’s been a while since there’s been a right proper man-goading track (though most men [with no sense of nuance] would reduce it to being outright “man-hating”). Maybe not since the above-alluded-to “No Scrubs.” Thus, Carpenter is filling a much-needed void, especially when it comes to reminding men that just because they’re “in charge” of the world, it doesn’t mean they’re not still dumb as a brick—particularly in an emotionally intuitive capacity. 

So it is that Carpenter builds on Del Rey’s doleful, resigned chorus, “‘Cause you’re just a man/It’s just what you do/Your head in your hands/As you color me blue/Yeah, you’re just a man/All through and through/Your head in your hands/As you color me blue.” Except that Carpenter’s tone is much more playful and “oh well, c’est la vie,” an attitude she perfected on Short n’ Sweet. As a matter of fact, it was soon after recording said album that this song was written. As Carpenter described, 

“I wrote ‘Manchild’ on a random Tuesday with Amy and Jack not too long after finishing Short n’ Sweet and it ended up being the best random Tuesday of my life. Not only was it so fun to write, but this song became to me something I can look back on that will score the mental montage to the very confusing and fun young adult years of life. It sounds like the song embodiment of a loving eye roll and it feels like a never-ending road trip in the summer! Hence why I wanted to give it to you now—so you can stick your head out the car window and scream it all summer long! Thank you always and forever for listening and thank you men for testing me!!”

Ariana Grande would undoubtedly “amen (hey, men)” that statement, too. After all, she quite literally thanked all her exes (mainly for providing so much songwriting material) on, what else, “thank u, next.” Even getting so meta as to incorporate the line, “Only wanna do it once [i.e., get married] real bad/Gon’ make that shit last/God forbid somethin’ happens/Least this song is a smash.” Taylor Swift, too, has been tested plenty by men, with the back catalogue to prove it. And yet, it’s none other than Del Rey that Carpenter appears the most influenced by for this track, even co-writing it with Jack Antonoff (who also co-wrote and co-produced “Norman Fucking Rockwell”), as well as Amy Allen (who’s having her own “little moment” in “the culture,” what with also co-writing a slew of other tracks with Carpenter, as well as new ones for Tate McRae, Jennie and Rosé). 

Granted, Antonoff has been working with Carpenter a lot lately, ergo “that same old 80s sound” (like the one on “Busy Woman”) also being present here. And yet, it’s a 70s aesthetic that Carpenter turns to for the Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia-directed video. As Carpenter remarked of the artistic direction the video took, “I couldn’t stop picturing the video in my head like a movie! I was really inspired by a multitude of movie trailers and I landed on this strange, weird, fast-paced world that reflects the song and feels so perfectly ‘Manchild’ to me! I hope you love that too!!”

In some sense, it feels like a “sequel video” to “Please Please Please,” which infamously featured Carpenter’s then “main manchild,” Barry Keoghan (there’s even a scene of Carpenter again playing the Bonnie to an incompetent Clyde in a quick robbery scene where she says the word, “Useless” as her manchild botches the job). And yes, the easy assumption is that this track is (at least partially) inspired by him. Carpenter, however, kept it cryptic when she captioned a teaser image for the video (and the cover art for the single), “This one’s about you!!” Of course, her intention was likely to troll the fact that the word “manchild” can apply to most men, as can the lyrics to the song. Which starts outs with the sarcasm-drenched verse, “You said your phone was broken, just forgot to charge it/Whole outfit you’re wearing/God, I hope it’s ironic/Did you just say you’re finished?/Didn’t know we started [this echoing Samantha Jones saying, “Put it in” to her small-dicked lover, James, and him replying, “It is in”]/It’s all just so familiar, baby, what do you call it?”

She then continues her “gentle” ribbing (no condom pun intended) with, “Stupid/Or is it slow?/Maybe it’s useless?/But there’s a cuter word for it/I know!/Manchild/Why you always come a-running to me?/Fuck my life/Won’t you let an innocent woman be?/Never heard of self-care/Half your brain just ain’t there/Manchild/Why you always come a-running, taking all my loving from me?” Quite simply, because he can. In other words, because too many an “innocent woman” “allows” their energy to be drained by this ilk. And while some might argue that “slow and steady wins the race” (as in, the race toward the slow and steady degradation of a girl’s standards), the truth is that there isn’t a “long game” in “landing” a “decent man.” It’s all just a matter of luck, really. 

And, speaking of that abovementioned platitude from “The Tortoise and the Hare,” a turtle crossing the desert landscape with a seagull on its back is the first shot of the video (side note: turtles really seem to be having a moment, if Addison Rae’s “Fame Is a Gun” video is anything to go by). From there, a close-up shot of Carpenter saying, “Oh boy” leads into her getting out of one car and hitchhiking to get into another. Of course, in the spirit of those 70s era movies Carpenter wants to channel—The Texas Chain Saw Massacre seems like it was obviously on her “mood board”—she’s dressed in Daisy Dukes and a white top tied in a knot above her belly button. All rounded out by high, high heels and Farrah Fawcett-like feathered hair. It has all the makings of a slasher movie plot, yet, in typical Carpenter fashion, it turns into more of a rom-com. Minus the rom. Besides, alluding to the horror genre is nothing if not a nod to the horrors of “dating,” particularly in the years since everyone’s brain was altered by social media/dating apps. 

The first manchild Carpenter allows to pick her up is, fittingly, driving a semi-truck that’s all “truck” and no trailer. The incongruous sight of her riding in this vehicle with a guy who seems to have no idea just how ridiculous his “ride” is kicks off the montage of men who incite Carpenter to lament, “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.” It’s the latter sentiment that perhaps gives manchildren too easy a pass on being who they are, which is often a product of nature rather than nurture. But Carpenter, like many women, needs to find some root cause to blame the incompetence on, and “the mother” is always an easy scapegoat. 

In another scene of a glasses-wearing Carpenter eating at a diner, an elephant’s head is sticking out of the wall in the background—playing up the idea of “the elephant in the room.” Which is that most men “can’t fuck you worth a damn” (as the aforementioned Samantha Jones once said), so the least they could do is mobilize some of their brain power to be less emotionally daft. Alas, with each new “driver,” Carpenter is saddled with a manchild more inept than the last. And even in those brief moments when one is led to believe she might have found, at the bare minimum, a “daddy” type (indeed, there are a few scenes in this “on the road” video that recall Del Rey’s epic “Ride”), he turns out to be a dummo too (see: the guy taking Carpenter on the open road via jet ski). 

So it is that Carpenter is better off in a bubble bath with pigs as she sings the pointed line at her bathing companions, “Amen/Hey, men!” From there, the montage of scenes ramps up, ranging from Carpenter and two other girls running from a gun-toting man in a trailer shooting at them (as Carpenter holds her IRL golden retriever puppy) to a random car explosion to Carpenter throwing a book at a dude like a morning star (the book, appropriately, is titled Abstinence: A State of Mind) in a setting that looks like the type of place the Zodiac Killer would try to claim some victims. Indeed, Carpenter repeatedly puts herself in harm’s way, trusting these manchildren in earnest, only to be hurt time and time again (even if not, in this case, physically). All harkening back to the Del Rey verse in “Norman Fucking Rockwell” that goes, “You’re fun and you’re wild/But you don’t know the half of the shit that you put me through,” in addition to, “You act like a kid even though you stand six foot two…/You talk to the walls when the party gets bored of you/But I don’t get bored, I just see it through/Why wait for the best when I could have you?”

Carpenter appears to feel the same in the final scene of the video, which shows night falling as she gets into yet another car (after switching out of a different one next to it that’s going in the opposite direction). And as that car drives off into the sunset—even though it’s surely not going to be a happy ending, as connoted by that trope—the turtle seen at the beginning is now being carried in the sky by a soaring hawk. So…progress? Or is it more of an allegory for how a turtle a.k.a. girl just has to take what she can get in this climate? A rather depressing prospect, despite Carpenter’s chirpy delivery.

In this regard, Del Rey’s discussion of a manchild was more honest as a result to her melancholic sound while talking about him. But perhaps Carpenter’s aim is to tell women they shouldn’t take anything about men too seriously at this point. Least of all trying to be with them long-term.