Eddy Chen/ Amazon Prime Video
There are internet boyfriends, and then there is Conrad Fisher from The Summer I Turned Pretty.
I mean, how could any woman sexually attracted to men resist? Conrad is gorgeous yet bashful. He’s a nerd in the body of a young Leonardo DiCaprio, a guy with the face of a male model who loves his mama and just wants to be understood. He’s thoughtful, he’s caring, he’s smart, he’s an actual doctor (to be), and at the tender age of 24, he has more emotional intelligence than most of the male population combined. He is in therapy, and he likes it.
And while his incredible looks, charm, and overall essence mean that he could probably have any girl he wants, Conrad is better than that. No, he has spent nearly five years yearning for one special girl—Belly Conklin. Sure, she’s getting married to his younger brother, but Conrad can’t help but carry a torch for his childhood friend turned high school love, no matter the odds of their story having a happy ending.
It’s no wonder that practically every woman alive is thirsting for our beautiful, sweet, emotionally intelligent king. He’s the perfect boyfriend. Too bad he is the most laughingably unrealistic character to perhaps ever have been on television.
Let’s be real, ladies. A man like Connie Baby does not exist. That may be why we love him so much. He’s a man written by a woman (Jenny Han) who is unsullied by the forces that make gender relations and dating so hard in this day and age. Like the manic pixie dream girl before him, Conrad has emerged during this fraught time period to fulfill a specific female fantasy, one that is so potent because of how far from reality it actually is.
Look, I was once 22. I get it. What young woman doesn’t want a guy who only has eyes for you, who believes in a soul connection rather than a physical one? Who instead of texting “u up” at 3 a.m. is writing you love letters (letters!) for months, even though you never answer? Who cares about the kind of lame stuff like the teddy bear he won for you at a state fair as much, if not more, than you do? Who calls having sex with you “making love,” probably because, to him, it’s a sacred act?
But let me ask you a question: Has anyone ever met a man in his early 20s that acts like this? Especially in the year of our Lord 2025?
I’m not saying that good men don’t exist, even when they are young. I met my husband when we were 23, and many of my closest friends have also been dating their spouses since around that same age. But were they Conrad Fisher good? Absolutely not. They were overall kind, genuine, and respectful, but they were also men in their early 20s. They acted like idiots a solid 50% of the time, if not more.
The finale of the series is where, for me, Conrad totally jumped the shark. I mean, seriously, can you imagine any man you personally know showing up in Paris just to get a glimpse of the woman they love, and then following after her like a puppy hoping that she’ll give him another chance? Showing such unwavering and hopeless devotion? Saying (and I’m sorry, but it’s true), “I like being under the same moon as you again?”
I’m not saying it’s right or fair; I’m saying it’s reality. Masculinity is a prison, and even the most emotionally attuned men seldom put themselves out there in a big way due to societal pressures of how they are supposed to behave. Grand romantic gestures? We’re lucky, most of the time, to get a text back.
Eddy Chen
If you survey modern gender roles and the overall dating scene among young people, though, it’s easy to see why Conrad has struck such a nerve. Among Gen Z, relations between the sexes are as fraught as they’ve been in recent history. According to a poll released earlier this month, young men and women have increasingly wildly different beliefs on a range of social issues, from “mental health, cultural issues and questions about gender and the workplace,” according to NBC News. As young women get more socially and politically liberal, men are veering to the right, placing an emphasis on traditional gender roles and, for some, leaning into frighteningly potent misogynistic views.
All of this has a huge impact on heterosexual dating, which if you read the accounts from those in the trenches, has never been more difficult. Young women consistently vent online and IRL about the hardships of finding an emotionally available partner, someone who respects them and their autonomy, in a sea of dating apps and MAGA bros. It’s even the theme of Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album, Man’s Best Friend, whose lead single “Manchild” exemplifies the frustration she, and other women of her generation, have with the men on offer.
Given this context, it’s no wonder that the lore and obsession with Conrad has exploded online. In previous seasons he had his fuckboy moments, to be sure, but his actions in season three have been so pure that they border on parody. This has led to the show’s fandom, in a large part, viewing him as not just the most beloved character, but the protagonist.
While a lot of fans’ conversations in the previous two seasons were about whether they wanted Belly to end up with older brother Conrad (Bonrad) or younger brother Jeremiah (Jellyfish), the Jelly stans have been largely silenced. Now most of the fan discourse online is about Conrad, and how unappreciated he is by both his brother and Belly.
Jeremiah has been so completely denigrated that the actor who plays him, Gavin Casalegno, has faced death threats, and the show’s official social media has posted public statements asking for fans to stop bullying him. The ironic thing is that, if anything, Jeremiah’s actions are pretty normal for an actual 22-year-old guy. He’s selfish, a bit manipulative, and when he is on a break from Belly, it takes him two seconds to sleep with another girl in Cabo. I’m not cosigning this behavior; I’m just saying it rings true.
According to Han, the dichotomy between the brothers’ maturity wasn’t meant to vilify Jeremiah but is actually a realistic depiction of how young men mature. Conrad, she tells Glamour, simply has had more time to work on himself, deal with his grief from losing his mother and with his anxiety disorder, and is now in a more secure place than Belly, who is still figuring herself out.
“I think for this story’s purposes, they now are at the same spot and have both grown, but I don’t think that means that Conrad’s a perfect person,” she says. “Nor do I think that means [he] quit therapy and no longer has anxiety. I think it’s something that you live with and figure out how to manage, and we saw him managing better and learning how to communicate better and being more vulnerable, just as Belly will continue to have her struggles.”
Sorry to Jenny, but I just don’t buy it. To me Conrad is wholly fantasy, the dream man for the millions of Gen Z and millennial (and even older) women who have spent their entire lives dating fuckboys in hopes of a prince. And we just can’t quit him. Fans are not only breathing a sign of relief this morning that the show will continue with an epilogue-style movie, but the actor behind Conrad, Christopher Briney, is leaning into his “dream man” persona. On Thursday the audio erotica app Quinn announced that Briney will be narrating its latest series, meaning more steamy Conrad-style fantasies are coming your way, if you’re into that sort of thing.
And is indulging in this fantasy so wrong? Absolutely not. Look, the world is a total dumpster fire right now, and you’re certainly not going to feel any better by spending your time swiping on yet another dating app. Maybe Conrad is what we need to make it through these troubled times—the hope that a man could exist with his set of perfect characteristics, beautiful face, and unwavering devotion.
I’m not holding my breath, but it’s nice to dream.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
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