First, with" The Summer I Turned Pretty," the name is regressive, and parts of the trailer were not impressive( haha, a little rhyme). A particular part of the trailer I want to discuss other than the homogenous regression of media showcased in the show's name is the clip where Conrad and Jeremiah's Mother ( the main character Belly's love interest) says to Belly, the main character; she was destined for one of her boys. I would've considered that an insult( and I still wholeheartedly take it as an insult even though Conrad and Jeremiah's mother, Susanah, may not have intended to read that way and not meant for me). Rather than hoping for Belly to have a bountiful future with high-reaching aspirations to achieve goals like becoming a doctor, lawyer, scientist, and otherwise independent of others in the professional world, the mother only sees and proclaims her to be one of her son's wives. Weird. While it may not be that deep to others watching it, the show is a step back because it is rooted in misogyny that the girl had to be destined for the boy. The authors may have wanted that moment where the mother's approval of any future relationship with the girl and her sons to kelp the mindless audience in awe, but it just made me sick. I remember watching the trailer at the fifty-three-second mark and thinking, wow, I feel gutted. The writers fully acknowledge the era we encompass but the subtleness of comments written in the work showcase the utter misogyny of it all. The name "The Summer I Turned Pretty" reminds me of the ending of Grease,  where Sandy changed to be deemed worthy of Danny Zuko finally. The question I have to ask the writers is, did we really need this? The authors who have written this show wrote the same utterly homogeneous line of work, not escaping the mediocrity of it all. The girl hopelessly falls in love with the boy, hoping he loves her back, and by some magic, he does. When will this end? While the line of work makes people feel good, they have to ask why and how to change it. It makes me feel as if no matter how many times we as a society can address the many micro-aggressions those who are not white males face, it's still cute in modern cinema to be seen by one of the boys- go to the nearest hell.

However, those were my initial statements about the show, or even more accurately, the trailer. Now that I have watched the show for its good, bad, and ugly, I can recognize the acting and writing are pretty good. Yet it does not make up for the fact of the subtle misogyny the film showcases with its title. I get the show is centered on romance, but the tid-bit about the main character, Belly's future, is not something that media should say today. After all, we can always be more even in romantic television. Not to mention that the whole point of Belly "turning pretty" is her developing breasts, getting rid of her braces and glasses - shocker. When will men have to change for us for them to be considered "attractive"?

Stay calm, Stay Bold, and Stay on the StackRuns.