How The Summer I Turned Pretty Explores Girlhood and the Glorification of Self-Sacrifice
Oh, The Summer I Turned Pretty. What gives?
I understand that the series ideally wants everyone in Cousins at the same time, but Taylor just gave up New York City, Belly just gave up Paris, and I’m just giving up!
I’m kidding on that last point, but keeping in mind that this season has been an interesting peek into gendered storytelling, the series touches on what amounts to a Rite of Passage for Girl and Womanhood — Sacrifice.
TSITP Season 3 Uses Taylor as Belly’s Foil
It’s been a bizarre season thus far for Belly’s characterization. For starters, despite a time jump, she feels unusually stunted in her growth and development.
The love triangle feels like a question mark, but not for the expected reasons, and things have been choppy all around.
But what’s also been interesting is that the series has pushed Taylor forward with a more pronounced storyline that almost feels too little too late, or rather, too late in the game.
Taylor has always been a compelling enough character, and the television series excels in this regard. In many ways, even her romantic relationship with Steven feels more grounded and dynamic than the main romantic plot of the main trio.
But the final season spending so much time on Taylor and her endearing but flaky mother feels unusual and mostly unnecessary — or maybe it’s more that it feels like a “choice.”
However, it has drawn fascinating parallels between Belly and Taylor — parallels that could’ve been more worthwhile if the series had explored them sooner.
It raises a lot of points about class and privilege. And it also, arguably to Belly’s detriment, gives us a stark contrast when it comes to maturity.
What has been weird is how this season tends to undercut its own lead. Belly feels more inaccessible and one-dimensional than she has ever been, in a time when we expect the opposite from her.
Having Taylor there to contrast with makes the differences between the two more glaring.
Taylor’s arc is presumably to set up her romantic endgame with Steven and explore why she has struggled with making a commitment to him or letting her guard down.
The Parentification of Taylor is on Full Display
What we have come to see from Taylor is that she takes on a parental role with her own hare-brained mother, who means well but is just generally a hot mess.
It’s the classic (and annoyingly problematic) trope of a working-class single mother who can’t seem to function on her own, has a host of men, or just a problematic one, flitting in and out of her life, and an exasperated child — usually a daughter — having to take charge.
Lucinda seems sweet and genuinely loves Taylor. You can see that, but she’s also the type of mother who has caused her child to grow up too fast and holds her child back.
Taylor doesn’t get to thrive the way she wants — and she actively is working toward being the anti-Lucinda. Because of Lucinda’s neediness, irresponsibility, and instability, Taylor emerges as an independent, jaded young woman who guards her heart and focuses on other things.
Taylor takes pride in her independence and prefers to handle things on her own, as she doesn’t want to be like her mother. And it’s noticeable in her approach to college.
Taylor is the classic case of a young woman from a lower socioeconomic class who knows the social hierarchy advantages of sororities. It’s interesting to see Belly, who’s been comfortably upper-middle-class her whole life between her own family and the Fishers, not grasp why Taylor pursued the Greek life.
It allows her to socialize and make connections, opening her up to possibilities and status.
The Series Subtly Displays the Normalization of Sacrifice
But all of Taylor’s work can be for nothing if she once again steps into the parental role and sacrifices her dream opportunity and shot at actually getting ahead for the sake of helping her mother with debt.
It’s the trappings of family and a cycle of sacrifice combined with self-sabotage that often seems ingrained in women — and it starts at a young age.
The most frustrating thing about watching Taylor’s journey is how relatable her actions are in the moment.
As much as you want to shake her for taking an initiative that Lucinda isn’t even asking of her, the fact that it’s such a default response to postpone, put off, and sacrifice for what one can argue is a “greater good” weighs heavily.
I want so much more for Taylor and found her choice upsetting, but I also know that for all my griping, I would’ve likely done the same thing. Because the reality is that from girlhood to womanhood, we’ve come to glorify the notion of sacrifice.
TSITP Ties Taylor’s Sacrifice with Nobility
Somehow, we associated it with nobility.
In reality, Taylor’s decision to give up NYC and self-sabotage her own journey is not much different from Belly’s decision to give up Paris of her own volition under the guise of being with Jeremiah.
But what’s fascinating is that Taylor’s choice can easily read as “noble” because of who she does it for, even when the situation is just as toxic.
Taylor’s choice is made from a sense of maturity, foresight, and responsibility. And even if it plays out in her favor in the end, her willingness to be self-sacrificial is held in some high regard.
Subsequently, Belly falls into the trappings of self-sabotage and sacrifice, too.
Learned Behaviors — Is Self-Sacrifice Generational?
It’s meant to align with Laurel’s fears, while simultaneously prodding at what types of sacrifices are worthwhile.
Laurel reflects on how marrying young, having kids, and embarking on this life so soon led to her missing out on forming her identity.
But these are also admirable sacrifices, as she was in love, and she raised a wonderful family. Somehow, Laurel’s ideal of sacrifice is similar to Taylor’s noble move of doing it for family rather than Belly’s actions driven by codependency, trauma, grief, and fear.
The series explores the notion of sacrificing oneself for love, but the impact varies depending on the type of love.
Either way, the result is the same in that womanhood is automatically associated with that of sacrifice.
From Laurel to Susannah, TSITP’s Exploration of Womanhood is Complicated
And it’s something both young women have internalized in some capacity or another.
As much as Laurel is fighting the engagement, it’s evident even to her children that she made sacrifices to have the life that she has with them. And it’s normalized.
And the series and the characters place Susannah on this pedestal in large part because she was self-sacrificial in life and love. It’s a graceful, peak expression of femininity and idealism.
It’s also established a concept and ideal that Laurel constantly measures herself against and Belly feels compelled to live up to in some way — the legacy of a woman who was selfless in her love and endlessly giving so much of herself until there was nothing left, but with a smile.
The truth is that Belly giving up Paris isn’t on Jeremiah. Even if we factor in that he gleefully agreed to her choice and expressed that he didn’t want her to leave in the first place, it’s something he didn’t share until after she made a choice.
Belly Is Conditioned for Self-Sacrifice and Doesn’t Even Realize It
He didn’t actively want to influence her, but Belly’s decision to sacrifice something of which she desires is rooted in the normalization and glorification of sacrifice and her own fears.
Frankly, she likely would’ve found a reason to stay behind anyway. It’s been evident all season that she’s fearful to take any big steps and actually step out into the world free of the comfort she finds in Fisher boys, Taylor, and her family.
She’s afraid of going out into the world alone and having to face it and see who and what she is. But, to most, that fear isn’t noble or cute — it’s something where she’d have to hold her own self to account.
But sacrifice? Society conditions women to believe that there’s nothing more admirable than some twisted form of martyrdom.
Belly actively chooses to be the emotional caretaker of those around her. We’ve seen it with her friends and family, but we’ve consistently witnessed it with both Conrad and Jeremiah.
Belly and Taylor’s Sacrifices Diverge and TSITP Treats Them Very Differently
It’s much easier to romanticize the idea that love is sacrifice — and lumping self-sabotage and self-sacrifice in with this idea of being a good person, or rather a good woman.
Belly takes it upon herself to serve the emotional needs of Jeremiah in a time of heightened tension — his father is a piece of excrement who verbally and emotionally abuses him, his brother is understandably not handling the news of their potential union well, and his academic and work life is less than ideal.
For Belly, prioritizing these things — her relationship, her feelings, and those of everyone else around her — takes precedence. She doesn’t even realize how self-sabotaging that behavior is across the board.
Her sheltered and even privileged upbringing only heightens that quality.
But what’s fascinating is that the narrative at least hints at Belly’s sacrifice in this specific instance as foolish, childish, and immature. It’s very clearly a self-sacrifice.
Girlhood, Am I Right?
However, it’s also been a consistent theme of the series for Belly since the beginning — for many of the female characters all around.
And we’re to regard Taylor’s sacrifice as something out of obligation and loyalty — honorable.
But in the end, isn’t it all the same? Regardless of socioeconomic status, motivations, or how romantic love factors in, the results are all the same.
The mark of a girl — of a woman– still comes down to her ability to sacrifice gracefully. It’s practically a rite of passage.
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