Charli XCX calls out 'boring and misogynistic' demands for album cover

Charli XCX has called out the 'misogynistic and boring' demands for women's bodies and faces to be on artist's album covers.

This comes after the 31-year-old's cover for her upcoming album Bratwas widely discussed. The simple design consists of a low-res image of the word “brat” in the centre with a lime-green background.

The 'Von Dutch' singer responded to a recent post on X, formerly Twitter that criticised the cover artwork of a number of new and upcoming albums from female artists such as Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism, Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine, and Charli's new album Brat.

In the tweet, the user wrote: "art directors must be on strike. dear god..." along with sharing the four album covers that they clearly aren't impressed with.

To which Charli responded: "there is literally so much to say on this...."

In a follow-up tweet, she elaborated on her point and added: "i think the constant demand for access to women’s bodies and faces in our album artwork is [misogynistic] and boring."

Charli's point caused mixed opinions and prompted further discourse on the matter, as some agreed with the singer.

One person said: "Female popstars are the only artists that are still expected to put their face on the album artwork."

"Get them mother, they’re honestly so annoying," another person wrote.

Someone else added: "I don't think the younger generation get that it's definitely an underground artist aesthetic."

But others who disagreed with Charli's opinion.

One person wrote: "But whose demanding that? Genuinely curious. Doesn’t have to be that. No one is saying it has to be a body or your face. Just something creative."

"I don't think that's the reason people don't like the album covers girl," another person said.

A third person replied: "The cheap justification to defend an ugly cover, you can do better."

Fellow artist Grimes also gave her thoughts on the topic where she gave an alternative reason for the album artwork cover backlash.

"My analysis is less that it's a sexist thing but rather that the album art is aggressively 'anti-aesthetic' and fairly provocative," the 'Oblivion' singer wrote.

"It's the kind of art that elicits outrage online but i assumed that was on purpose. it's ur most memorable album cover, and the vinyl will look very good up as art on a wall.

"I suspect any distaste is more of a reaction to the fact that the art is explicitly poking the viewer and declaring its intent to be as loud as possible, at which point a certain number of ppl will always be annoyed. Which usually is a good thing."

Charli XCX's upcoming album brat is set to be released this summer, but a specific date has not yet been confirmed.

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