Every generation has a shocker, or many!
Vidya Heble, 58, Generation X

What Sabrina Carpenter has done is nothing new. Sure, the pose may be, but the act of defying conventions and even morals, such as they may be, is something women in public life have been doing for eons. And I’m not even talking about Mamta Kulkarni’s topless Stardust cover in the 1990s or Protima Bedi’s streaking on Juhu beach in 1974. Way back in the 1930s, Devika Rani scandalised cinegoers for generations subsequently with a passionate on-screen kiss that is reported to have lasted — get this — four minutes!

Second version of the album cover uploaded by Sabrina Carpenter. Pic/Instagram@SabrinaCarpenter

We’ve seen Madhu Sapre and Milind Soman interlocked, starkers, a snake wrapped around them, for a shoe ad in 1995. We’ve seen Madonna’s conical bra (I still don’t get why people got riled up over that in 1990). Sharmila Tagore raised eyebrows in the 1960s — before even I was born! — with a bikini photoshoot. There was Devika, Sharmila, Madonna, now there’s Sabrina. Gen Alpha will have someone else.