Eddy Chen\/ Amazon Prime Video<\/p>\n
There are internet boyfriends, and then there is Conrad Fisher from The Summer I Turned Pretty.<\/a><\/p>\n I mean, how could any woman sexually attracted to men resist? Conrad is gorgeous yet bashful. He\u2019s a nerd in the body of a young Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a>, a guy with the face of a male model who loves his mama and just wants to be understood. He\u2019s thoughtful, he\u2019s caring, he\u2019s smart, he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2014Belly Conklin. Sure, she\u2019s getting married to his younger brother, but Conrad can\u2019t help but carry a torch for his childhood friend turned high school love, no matter the odds of their story having a happy ending.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no wonder that practically every woman alive is thirsting for our beautiful, sweet, emotionally intelligent king. He\u2019s the perfect boyfriend. Too bad he is the most laughingably unrealistic character to perhaps ever have been on television.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s be real, ladies. A man like Connie Baby does not exist. That may be why we love him so much. He\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Look, I was once 22. I get it. What young woman doesn\u2019t want a guy who only has eyes for you, who believes in a soul connection rather than a physical one? Who instead of texting \u201cu up\u201d 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 \u201cmaking love,\u201d probably because, to him, it\u2019s a sacred act?<\/p>\n 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?<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying that good men don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n The finale<\/a> 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\u2019ll give him another chance? Showing such unwavering and hopeless devotion? Saying (and I\u2019m sorry, but it\u2019s true), \u201cI like being under the same moon as you again?\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s right or fair; I\u2019m saying it\u2019s 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\u2019re lucky, most of the time, to get a text back.<\/p>\n Eddy Chen<\/p>\n If you survey modern gender roles and the overall dating scene among young people, though, it\u2019s easy to see why Conrad has struck such a nerve. Among Gen Z, relations between the sexes are as fraught as they\u2019ve 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 \u201cmental health, cultural issues and questions about gender and the workplace,\u201d according to NBC News.<\/a> 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.<\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019s even the theme of Sabrina Carpenter<\/a>\u2019s latest album, Man\u2019s Best Friend, whose lead single \u201cManchild\u201d exemplifies the frustration she, and other women of her generation, have with the men on offer.<\/p>\n Given this context, it\u2019s 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\u2019s fandom, in a large part, viewing him as not just the most beloved character, but the protagonist.<\/p>\n While a lot of fans\u2019 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.<\/p>\n Jeremiah has been so completely denigrated that the actor who plays him, Gavin Casalegno, has faced death threats, and the show\u2019s official social media has posted public statements asking for fans to stop bullying him.<\/a> The ironic thing is that, if anything, Jeremiah\u2019s actions are pretty normal for an actual 22-year-old guy. He\u2019s 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\u2019m not cosigning this behavior; I\u2019m just saying it rings true.<\/p>\n According to Han, the dichotomy between the brothers\u2019 maturity wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI think for this story\u2019s purposes, they now are at the same spot and have both grown, but I don\u2019t think that means that Conrad\u2019s a perfect person,\u201d she says. \u201cNor do I think that means [he] quit therapy and no longer has anxiety. I think it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Sorry to Jenny, but I just don\u2019t 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\u2019t quit him. Fans are not only breathing a sign of relief this morning that the show will continue with an epilogue-style movie<\/a>, but the actor behind Conrad, Christopher Briney, is leaning into his \u201cdream man\u201d persona. On Thursday the audio erotica app Quinn announced that Briney will be narrating its latest series,<\/a> meaning more steamy Conrad-style fantasies are coming your way, if you\u2019re into that sort of thing.<\/p>\n And is indulging in this fantasy so wrong? Absolutely not. Look, the world is a total dumpster fire right now, and you\u2019re 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\u2014the hope that a man could exist with his set of perfect characteristics, beautiful face, and unwavering devotion.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not holding my breath, but it\u2019s nice to dream.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n
\n