She begged him to do right, seriously she begged him. The boy everyone believes to be at the centre of this conversation is Barry Keoghan, but after listening to Sabrina Carpenter’s new single “Manchild”, which just dropped last night, it seems that the song is a f-ck you to men in general. 

 

Is it the best song I’ve ever heard sonically? Not on first listen, but it definitely is fun and has a similar country-pop essence to “Please, Please, Please”. Think Shania Twain circa-2002, just more sexually explicit. I can’t imagine Shania singing the lyrics “did you just say we’re finished? Didn’t know we started”. However, I can see myself being obsessed within a week or two, and those usually are the songs that stick. Whether or not the two songs’ similarities were intentional is unknown, but if we’ve learnt anything about Sabrina, it’s that she loves an Easter egg. 

When she announced the single on Instagram in this cheeky (literally lol) teaser from the music video, she captioned it “this one’s about you!!!”. Barry famously deactivated his social media soon after the breakup reports first surfaced amid a slew of online hate after the cheating rumours (oh, we’re getting into it) and a caption like that plays up the online chatter and in response gets the public more interested in the single and potential new album, go off queen. Side bar: I want the confidence to wear shorts that short now that I've got a Pilates booty lol. 

 

The video, directed by Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia, is super tongue-in-cheek just as we would’ve expected Sabrina to be. We see Sabrina in Daisy Dukes in the middle of what looks like a desert, hitchhiking all while looking like the sexy pin-up doll that she has been cosplaying for the last year – jumping from car to car with different trash men. Trash being the key word here because that scene of her holding onto a garbage truck as she is riding the freeway? It’s a yes for me dog. Plus, those pigs in the bathtub that she is vibing with as she says “hey man!” couldn’t be more transparent. Men are dogs and they are pigs – but they give us what we need when we need a fix so we can’t let go. I see you girl. The video brought the message of the song to life for me and made me appreciate what she was trying to convey way more. 

 

 

Fans have noticed that she teased the lyrics “I choose to blame your mom” back in April, which brings on doubts of the song being exclusively about Barry. Barry has talked about his mom’s struggles with addiction in the past, so it seems unlikely Sabrina would go there. She also expresses in her social media post that she wrote the song just after the Short n’ Sweet album came out, leaving the timeline of her and Barry’s relationship questionable since the two were very much together around the time of that album’s release in August 2024. 

 

However, she also wrote on that very same post that the song is the “embodiment of a loving eye roll” and even thanks men for “testing” her. While she is certainly insinuating that the song isn’t exclusively about Barry but rather about sh-tty men in general, that still doesn’t take away the Easter eggs in the song that can be connected to her relationship with Mr. Saltburn. Let’s unpack shall we?

It was reported back in December that the two had split up and the rumour mill had a field day. Let’s be honest, every time a popular celebrity couple breaks up there are going to be rumours. What we don’t do is then feed into them by reposting TikToks that could insinuate that there is truth to them. I’m talking to you Breckie Hill. Hill would eventually clarify her misstep, but whether or not it is true, to me this is an example of many TikTok influencers’ lack of media literacy and ability to handle a PR crisis. 

 

If Breckie with the good hair didn’t get some Keoghan dick out of this (ew), at the very least she could use some media training. Also don’t get my bitch Sabrina involved in unnecessary drama like this. If the lyrics to “Manchild” are any indication, cheating doesn’t seem to be the case anyway. In fact, it kind of sounds like he was just a f-king idiot lol – allegedly of course. Anyone who sings lyrics like “half your brain just ain’t there” and “I like my men all incompetent” is definitely sending some kind of message, and being with a man of intelligence is not it lol. 

Perhaps the most ambiguous Easter egg connecting the song to Barry is the consistent use of the Irish fiddle throughout the songs instrumentals. Barry is an Irishman from Dublin, and Sabrina even mentioned how those Irish boys are “hard work” during a recent concert there. The fiddle is one of the most associated instruments with traditional Irish music, and given that it is also commonly used in country music, the incorporation into “Manchild” makes sense, especially around the last minute of the song. Sabrina and Jack Antonoff can deny it all they want but my girl is a shady bitch, and I mean that in the best way because so am I, so if this wasn’t a dig at Barry then maybe I can teach her a thing or two. If it is – then bravo my love, well f-cking done. 

Beyoncé said this best back in 2011, but women should be running the world. I’m a firm believer that majority of men have an issue with maturity. Not to get political, but yesterday’s bitch fight between the two men I refuse to refer to by name is a prime example. The fact that Sabrina chose to drop a country-pop song about a “Manchild” on the very day that two of the world’s biggest culprits are having their own break-up is just even better promo than I could’ve predicted myself. I didn’t expect the first break-up during Pride month to be those two buffoons but hey, it’s 2025 and I should expect the unexpected. 

 

Moral of the story is that men suck. Groundbreaking, I know. As if my six years of being single and dating losers in Toronto wasn’t enough of an indication. However, Sabrina does have a way of validating those of us who are victim to the spell of testosterone. She sings it best in the outro: “I swear they choose me; I’m not choosing them”. Same girl, same.

Photo credits: YouTube/ Sabrina Carpenter

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