Fans around the world are staying up until ungodly hours for episode releases, waiting with bated breath to see which brother Belly Conklin will choose in The Summer I Turned Pretty’s final season.
There’s Conrad Fisher, her brooding, beautiful first love. He’s fresh out of Stanford Medical School and quite clearly still infatuated with Belly. Then there’s his younger brother Jeremiah, the goofy golden retriever-type she’s been with for the past four years. She’s engaged to the latter while the former tries to win her back. A lot is going on.
While the show centers particularly around Belly’s love life, the looming question arises that perhaps she won’t choose either of the brothers after all. Instead, maybe she’ll choose herself in an epic feminist twist. For what it’s worth, viewers have spent years criticizing Belly for her indecisiveness, for her constant tether to either of the boys, for supposedly destroying a family. Scroll through the comments of any TSITP TikTok edit, and you’ll find at least a dozen comments calling the main character a “bop”: a Gen-Z term that essentially categorizes a woman as sexually promiscuous. And while it’s true that Belly hasn’t always put herself first (cough, Belly considering giving up Paris for Jeremiah, cough), wanting sex or romance doesn’t deplete her autonomy. In fact, the overall idea of her embracing her sexuality or romantic desire is inherently feminist.
…and Belly’s not the only one causing a ripple
Sabrina Carpenter’s been in the public eye for most of her life, but her fame skyrocketed only recently. Even before the astronomical success of the Grammy Award-winning hit “Espresso,” Carpenter was on a steady incline as the world fell in love with her cheeky innuendos. “Nonsense” became a fan-favorite for the overtly sexual outros she customized for each show on the Emails I Can’t Send tour. And she only went deeper for her next album.
Though the Short ’n Sweet Tour was never marketed as suitable for children, Carpenter’s provocative choreography still horrified some parents. Performing her song “Bed Chem,” Carpenter and one of her male dancers mimed sexual intercourse behind a curtain, showing the audience their silhouette. For “Juno,” she displayed a different sexual position each night to complement the lyric, “Wanna try out some freaky positions / Have you ever tried this one?” And to top it all off, she recently announced her seventh album entitled Man’s Best Friend. The cover photo depicts her on her hands and knees as a man pulls her hair.
Carpenter has also recently been grouped with Sydney Sweeney (best known for her work in Euphoria) who’s spent most of her life as a Hollywood sex symbol — and is now using that to her advantage. In May, Sweeney announced she would be selling a soap infused with her bathwater. Then in July, she teamed up with American Eagle to promote jeans in a promiscuous advertisement.
What the people are saying
Alluding to the idea that Sweeney and Carpenter pander to the male gaze, the general public has been quick to tear both celebrities apart:
“The concept of being a man-hater yet making your album cover a pic of you getting on your knees for a man while he grips your hair in a degrading manner is so odd,” said one X user regarding Carpenter’s album cover.
Another commented on Sweeney’s jeans ad: “There’s so many ways this is weird…the sexualized throwback to an old ad which featured a 15-year-old model. The fact these jeans are in partnership with a [domestic violence] charity???”
Feminine sexuality has always been controversial
“Women who use their sexuality and feminine side [have] always been a target for debate,” said Sofie Roos, a licensed sexologist, relationship therapist, and writer for Passionerad. “Especially in today’s climate where it’s extra controversial that women with big platforms use them in a way that many think is doing feminism a disservice.”
Roos explained that she believes Carpenter uses her sexuality and promiscuous entendres as a way of self-expression—and as a benefit to her career.
“I have asked myself why it leads to so much debate online,” said Roos. “Is it because she chooses to own her sexuality and actually wants to brand herself this way? If that’s the case, then the ones being for equality should respect her choice to use her own body the way she pleases.”
And she agreed the same was true of Sweeney’s jeans advertisement — though she acknowledged some of the backlash has also been due to the potentially racist undertones.
“Many find it provoking that she uses her sexiness and shows lots of nudity in a campaign for a reason I don’t really get,” explained Roos. It’s like we can’t let women be both good in business, be smart, hot, equal and independent at the same time.”
While conversations surrounding female-first issues have (rightfully) become louder in recent years, feminism has begun to make something of a circle. There’s the new TikTok trend where women explain how they maintain a demure persona to appease to “traditional wife” standards. During a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jessie Murph performed one of her latest singles “1965,” singing, “I think I’d give up a few rights if you would just love me like it’s 1965.”
The new era is upon us
An era in which women embrace their sexuality, in which they take the power back. The idea of the female orgasm is not as unheard of as it once was. Lesbian romance isn’t as taboo (thank you Chappell Roan and Renee Rapp!), and female main characters often narrate their own experiences.
The female-first phenomenon has been attempted before. Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby,” released in 1975, featured vocalized orgasmic sounds while she sang of how she relishes intimacy with her partner. Critics deemed the song unnecessarily pornographic, and Summer faced intense backlash.
Perhaps that’s why it took so long for women to start embracing their sexuality again. Because even in more modern times, there’s a clear difference between reactions to male sexuality and female sexuality. Back to the Sabrina Carpenter example: Consider treatment toward fellow ex-Disney star Ross Lynch. Though he too performs rather promiscuously, singing sexually charged lyrics while shirtless, he’s applauded while Carpenter is scrutinized.
Shifting the narrative: Shameful to empowering
As we await TSITP’s series finale and Belly’s final decision, I’ll agree there’s beauty in the sentiment of “Women don’t need a man.” It’s absolutely true, and if Belly does choose herself at the end, it might be a power move. But it’s also true that she can choose one of the boys and herself—so long as she’s not giving up the latter for the former.
“I think Belly choosing a relationship wouldn’t mean she’s less empowered,” said Courtney Ryan, an Irish writer and dedicated viewer. “Belly is a complex character—we’ve seen her go from a shy, albeit naive teenager to a young adult who’s struggling with her emotions within a relationship she feels tethered to from shared grief.”
In all fairness, Belly hasn’t been the most mature this season. In Episode 4, she decided against attending her dream study-abroad program in Paris so she could keep Jeremiah company. She’s been fighting with her mother left and right over a wedding that (most viewers agree) shouldn’t happen at this age. But she’s 21: she’s going to make mistakes, and they’re hers to make. Longtime viewers who believe the series will follow the book’s ending and (spoiler alert) she’ll end up with Conrad, agree that this isn’t Belly. They agree that in the eleventh hour, she’ll change directions and choose herself by choosing Conrad.
Power doesn’t need to equal purity
But there have been allusions to the idea that the ending will be different. Courtney Ryan said, “(Belly) Choosing herself can mean choosing empowerment, but I don’t like the narrative that to be a strong, independent woman we need to remain single. I don’t think it’s a ‘one or the other’ scenario. You can be both empowered and be in a happy, healthy relationship.”
Niamh Culter, another long-time fan of the show, explained that the amount of jokes made about her sleeping with both of the Fisher brothers unfairly makes Belly’s autonomy a laughing matter and “bleeds into ideas rooted in purity culture.”
It seems that for the most part, we’ve moved past the idea of calling sexually active teenagers “impure.” Sex education is a required curriculum in 30 states, and most colleges have bowls of condoms readily available in dorm lobbies. It’s understood that while earlier generations were taught to save themselves for marriage, most teenagers simply don’t. You see this in frat culture especially: brothers openly promote their parties as hookup attractions for girls across campus.
It’s fair to say the feminist movement has regressed, but female characters and celebrities embracing their sexuality aren’t the reason. There are so many other factors: the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, persistent wage gaps, performative feminism, backlash against the #MeToo movement, and frankly, the cultural pushback against female sexual empowerment.
Embracing sexuality
No one questions a man who sleeps around. On the other hand, a woman simply showing cleavage on a hot summer’s day will be slut-shamed by total strangers. If it’s something we all do, isn’t it only fair that women be allowed to embrace their sexuality—loudly—without being shamed for it?
Women have sex. It’s natural, and it’s necessary. It goes beyond pure physicality; it’s a way of expression and interpersonal connection. In a recent piece for Divine Feminine Energy, Abby McHale wrote, “Our sexuality is the epitome of embracing ourselves as a spiritual being in a physical body and as a soul living here on earth. Our sexuality in some sense is the bridge between the two.”
Embrace a narrative where the female sexual prowess is a tool rather than a model for shame. That’s how we take back our God-given right to autonomy. We reaffirm that we don’t need sex to be happy or confident, but we can still want it.
We’ve had more than enough rights taken from us these last few years. We might as well keep this one.
