As pop princess Sabrina Carpenter’s legendary tour, “Short n’ Sweet,” promoting her album of the same name, was coming to a close, on November 20th, 2025, fans in attendance were advised not to throw things at the singer while she was on stage.
Concerningly, this boundary was soon ignored when a yellow rose with handcuffs was thrown onto the stage mid-performance. In retaliation, Carpenter, a figure beloved for her kind demeanor and relatability, hurled the rose back into the crowd with a strength that could put major league baseball records to shame.
A video captured of the event portrays the rose nailing a fan’s camera right in the lens, causing the video to cut abruptly.
Yikes. What a hectic beginning of the end for an already eventful tour.
Fans subsequently took to social media with their opinions of the singer’s actions. Interestingly, there was a great division in netizen opinion, with the two major camps being in favor of Carpenter’s actions and those condemning her reaction, citing fan safety as a major concern.
Those in favor of her reaction, such as Adi, a TikToker and avid ‘Carpenter’ as fans named themselves, mentioned how “[Carpenter] told everyone not to throw anything on stage prior to this moment! Also turns out it’s a rose attached to handcuffs according to comments, so that’s even worse!”
On the opposing side, a viral post on Twitter from a user by the name of koci_supremacy questions the potentially excessive reaction. “Ok, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Sabrina and throwing stuff at artists on stage should really… stop… but there was no reason for her to [throw the rose and handcuffs] either?”
Despite this, Carpenter has not received any major backlash prompting her to make any public statement on the event. The same cannot be said for Cardi B, who was sued for an incident within a Vegas nightclub in which the rapper infamously threw her microphone at a fan who had thrown their drink at her during her live performance back in 2023. The event was subsequently sensationalized by media outlets, and as reported by Julius Miller of the L.A. Times, “just weeks [after the incident], the microphone was auctioned on eBay and fetched $99,000.” This auction became a key component of the lawsuit against the rapper, with Jane Doe citing “exacerbated emotional distress,” Miller reports. Cardi B’s actions, while mostly deemed as an ‘improper escalation’ of the situation, are representative of a larger issue of the scrutiny, particularly of women’s actions during times of stress, such as being heckled or harassed, or having things thrown at them.
Though Cardi B and Carpenter both had things thrown at them on stage, and when they threw things back (Sabrina threw back the rose with handcuffs, Cardi B threw her microphone), both faced criticism for their actions. Though Carpenter faced significantly less backlash and has not been sued for the event, as per public knowledge, she was still condemned for putting her fans in danger; however, if the handcuffs had hit her, she too could have been hurt. Cardi B was doused with water, and even though she probably shouldn’t have thrown her microphone into the crowd, potentially leading to a concussion for the fan it hit in the head, the backlash did not fit either performer’s crime.
Similarly, when Chappell Roan took a verbal stance against constant harassment of herself and her family members, she was on the receiving end of waves of backlash, leading to her threatening further release of her music because fans are threatening her livelihood & affecting the lives of her loved ones. The issue of harsh criticism for women retaliating, whether it be physically or verbally, is an issue that transcends stardom. Though this is more so a display of how this level of scrutiny may only intensify with the rise to celebrity status.
The reaction to female celebrities responding, no matter how morally correct (or incorrect) their response to public harassment, represents the broader issue of women & girls are condemned for their ‘incorrect’ response to being harassed or threatened. Their reactions are subjected to public scrutiny and picked apart for their percieved inadequacy, whether that be a gap in their memory that makes their overall credibility ‘questionable,’ or their inability to conform to the standard of the universal ‘perfect victim,’ the constant scrutiny can be largely attributed to misogynistic societal rules.