Bellies Up!

In this episode, we discuss how the hit show, "The Summer I Turned Pretty," perfectly coincides with the nation's declining birth rate and represent current cultural attitude surrounding women's rights.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Valerie Gorham

WKNC Podcast Content Creator

What is More Than You Think!?

“More Than You Think!" is a podcast that explores the deeper layers of pop culture, uncovering how today’s trends connect with the political, economic, and social climate shaping our world. Each episode dives into the ways music, media, and cultural moments reflect — and influence — the society we live in. "More Than You Think!" is a podcast produced by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2 at NC State University.

Valerie Gorham: Good morning, usa.

Valerie Gorham: Good morning.

Valerie Gorham: Or whatever time it is, whoever's listening, it's me again.

Valerie Gorham: Hi, it's me again.

Valerie Gorham: Kwan Mills.

Valerie Gorham: Just kidding.

Valerie Gorham: It's me, Valerie, the host of More than you think, episode three.

Valerie Gorham: And as always, we are going to be connecting pop culture events to politics, socioeconomics, the political and economic state of the world right now.

Valerie Gorham: And, you know, I saw a TikTok earlier this week.

Valerie Gorham: It was Willow Smith, and she's getting into quantum physics or something like that.

Valerie Gorham: So.

Valerie Gorham: Quantum physics, daughter, or political and economic state of the world, son?

Valerie Gorham: You tell me, what do I choose?

Valerie Gorham: I choose neither.

Valerie Gorham: I choose myself, which is what everyone thought Belly was going to do in the summer I Turned pretty, which is our topic for today last episode, I ended it by saying that were going to talk about how the summer I Turned Pretty connects and reflects on the current declining birth rate in America.

Valerie Gorham: And just like the title of that new Kristen Bell show, you might be thinking, nobody wants this, Valerie, but actually you do.

Valerie Gorham: Because I wrote a whole freaking thesis in my notebook and I'm about to get these bullet points out of the paper and into this mic and explain to you why the summer I turned Pretty actually matters.

Valerie Gorham: A lot.

Valerie Gorham: A lot what?

Valerie Gorham: Woo.

Valerie Gorham: More than you think.

Valerie Gorham: More than you think, huh?

Valerie Gorham: That's the name of the podcast.

Valerie Gorham: Okay, so I'm just gonna get right into it and start by giving a little background on what exactly is going on with the declining birth rate.

Valerie Gorham: So, as you may know, now, women have rights.

Valerie Gorham: Yes.

Valerie Gorham: That's great.

Valerie Gorham: Now that we have rights, we have jobs, we have our own money, we're getting educations.

Valerie Gorham: And because of those things, we are getting married later in life.

Valerie Gorham: And some of us, not at all.

Valerie Gorham: I mean, I'm not old enough right now to be married, but, like, 100 years ago, I would have been a freaking spinster.

Valerie Gorham: So right now, yeah, I'm not married, I'm in college, I'm getting an education, and I'm getting that freaking bag.

Valerie Gorham: So, yeah, and I know you can't just say, per chance, but per chance I might get married someday.

Valerie Gorham: And I know that's also not how you use that word either, but per chance, you know, but that's not the point.

Valerie Gorham: The point is what I'm doing right now, which is the same thing that a lot of, in fact, most other women in America my age are probably doing, which is finishing college.

Valerie Gorham: Now, the other ones might not be as chronically online as I am, but that doesn't matter.

Valerie Gorham: We're still going after the same things.

Valerie Gorham: And I'm going to tell you guys now some statistics.

Valerie Gorham: Statistics?

Valerie Gorham: Yep, statistics.

Valerie Gorham: Yup, yup.

Valerie Gorham: About the declining birth rate.

Valerie Gorham: So first off, only 3ish years ago in 2022, the birth rate was 1.6.

Valerie Gorham: So 1.6 children per woman hasn't even been a full three years yet.

Valerie Gorham: And the birth rate has already declined here in 2025 to about 1.2.

Valerie Gorham: And I got this information from a CBS News article.

Valerie Gorham: So, you know, it's legit.

Valerie Gorham: Legitness.

Valerie Gorham: And then the reasons that they stated for this are what I stated earlier.

Valerie Gorham: Women are getting educated.

Valerie Gorham: Women are waiting longer to get married and have kids and start families.

Valerie Gorham: Another thing that was mentioned in the article is that childcare is really expensive and people can't afford it no more.

Valerie Gorham: Okay.

Valerie Gorham: I don't know if that is like people wanting to choose themselves over children or people not willing to sacrifice, like, their lifestyle style to have a kid.

Valerie Gorham: But I mean, that's.

Valerie Gorham: Honestly, I feel like that's probably a good decision that most people are making.

Valerie Gorham: It's like, if you don't have enough money to raise a kid, you probably shouldn't have one.

Valerie Gorham: The frick.

Valerie Gorham: I mean, seriously, imagine someone gives birth to you and then you don't have anything.

Valerie Gorham: The frick.

Valerie Gorham: I'm gonna be upset about that if I'm a baby.

Valerie Gorham: Another thing that's just like a social element that, you know, you don't have to do any research on it, but it's just something that you see as a girl, as a guy, anyone, is that now women, since we, like, have our own money and bank accounts and property and stuff, we don't have to depend on men financially.

Valerie Gorham: Which is nice because then, like, if you're like, married and you're getting like abused or cheated on or something, you can just get divorced and get the heck out of there, which is great.

Valerie Gorham: And even in some states, for example, this state of North Carolina, if your spouse cheats on you, then you can get some money.

Valerie Gorham: Cha Ching.

Valerie Gorham: And it's also not like a very big social expectation for women to get married immediately anymore.

Valerie Gorham: So there's like, not as much pressure for women, even though there still is a lot of pressure, but there's not as much pressure as there used to be.

Valerie Gorham: Like, say 200 years ago where it was like, if you don't get married by the time you're like 15, that means that you're like an old hag, you know?

Valerie Gorham: But now there's not that social pressure to get married.

Valerie Gorham: Like, before you've even like, had your quinceanera.

Valerie Gorham: Like, it's.

Valerie Gorham: It's not there anymore.

Valerie Gorham: So now us women, we don't have to.

Valerie Gorham: We don't have to put up with men's bad behavior.

Valerie Gorham: If a man is goofy and silly and not doing his best at the relationship, dump him.

Valerie Gorham: You can dump him.

Valerie Gorham: Yay.

Valerie Gorham: And then if you're like, what, 12?

Valerie Gorham: Nobody is going to be like, oh, my gosh, you guys were supposed to get married next year.

Valerie Gorham: Nobody's gonna say that.

Valerie Gorham: Because now women can have lives outside of, like, just being wives.

Valerie Gorham: And not to say that I don't think being a wife is probably really awesome and cool.

Valerie Gorham: It probably is.

Valerie Gorham: But before we had our rights, weren't really allowed to be anything else other than, like, wives and moms, which moms are amazing and moms rule the world and moms created everything.

Valerie Gorham: Shout out to all the moms.

Valerie Gorham: But it's also nice to have options.

Valerie Gorham: It's also nice to have options.

Valerie Gorham: If you don't want to be a mom, you don't have to anymore.

Valerie Gorham: Or if you want to be a mom and have a career at the same time.

Valerie Gorham: Two in one, you can do that.

Valerie Gorham: Or if you want to have a career first, then be a mom later, you can do that too.

Valerie Gorham: And now let's just give a quick background on the summer I turned pretty.

Valerie Gorham: So end of season one, Belly, the main character, she ends up with Conrad.

Valerie Gorham: They're both in high school, but Conrad's about to graduate.

Valerie Gorham: I think she is about to go into her junior year, and she ends up with him.

Valerie Gorham: Season 2, his mom dies and his brother is also kind of into Belly, so.

Valerie Gorham: So at the end of season two, she ends up with his brother Jeremiah.

Valerie Gorham: Season three, a bunch of crap happens, and they end up engaged.

Valerie Gorham: Belly and Jeremiah, they end up engaged, which nobody approves of in both of their families because they're both in college.

Valerie Gorham: And Jeremiah, like, doesn't have a life plan.

Valerie Gorham: And also Belly's mom is just, like, low key against marriage because she was married to Belly's dad before, but they got divorced because, like, they just weren't compatible or something.

Valerie Gorham: I don't know.

Valerie Gorham: But now they're in, like, a weird situationship and it's just like a side plot in the show that nobody cares about.

Valerie Gorham: And we don't know why it's even in the show, but it's there.

Valerie Gorham: And if you've already seen the show, like, you don't need to know all this.

Valerie Gorham: But basically, Jeremiah and Belly did not end up getting married because Conrad confessed His love for Belly on the night before her dang wedding.

Valerie Gorham: And she was like, no, boy, get away from me.

Valerie Gorham: But she was low key into it.

Valerie Gorham: Low key deep inside.

Valerie Gorham: And then Jeremiah, like, didn't show up on the day of the wedding.

Valerie Gorham: And he was like, low key, we shouldn't get married because you kind of want my brother.

Valerie Gorham: And she was like, well, like, yeah, but no, I choose you.

Valerie Gorham: And then he was like, I'm not doing all this.

Valerie Gorham: And she was like, yeah, we probably shouldn't get married.

Valerie Gorham: They broke up and stuff.

Valerie Gorham: And then she, like, in a panic, goes to the airport, uses the money that they gave her as a gift for her engagement, and goes to Paris.

Valerie Gorham: But she was originally supposed to go to Paris for a study abroad thing, but she cancelled because Jeremiah, her fiance, was like, no, stay with me.

Valerie Gorham: Let's get a cake.

Valerie Gorham: And then she ends up in Paris at the end of season three with this cozy little life that she's made for herself.

Valerie Gorham: She's made friends, she has a job, and it's not a great one, but she's living and she's vibing.

Valerie Gorham: Conrad shows up in Paris, a grand gesture like that of the movie Barbie, a fashion fairy tale.

Valerie Gorham: And they spend the night together.

Valerie Gorham: It's romantic, it's beautiful.

Valerie Gorham: But then in the morning, he's like, oh, I'm gonna stay here with you.

Valerie Gorham: And she's like, girl, no, get away from me.

Valerie Gorham: And he's like, no, I want to be with you.

Valerie Gorham: I love you.

Valerie Gorham: I've changed everything about myself and I still love you.

Valerie Gorham: You're the only thing that doesn't change about me.

Valerie Gorham: And she's like, I don't.

Valerie Gorham: I can't do this again.

Valerie Gorham: He leaves, he gets on the train, and she's like, wait, why did I just do that?

Valerie Gorham: I actually love him.

Valerie Gorham: So.

Valerie Gorham: So she goes, chases after him, finds him on the train, confesses her love for him, and they end up together at the end of season three.

Valerie Gorham: So it goes.

Valerie Gorham: Season one, Conrad.

Valerie Gorham: Season two, Jeremiah.

Valerie Gorham: Season three, Conrad.

Valerie Gorham: And now there's a movie coming out to, like, finalize the whole series.

Valerie Gorham: But I feel like we could have done that with the show.

Valerie Gorham: They're just trying to make a little Monet, which I guess makes sense because, like, a lot of people watch the show.

Valerie Gorham: But anyways, let's connect this to the declining birth rate.

Valerie Gorham: Now.

Valerie Gorham: Now, in the context of the story, Belly represents women having choices because she is constantly trying to choose between Conrad and Jeremiah.

Valerie Gorham: And in this choice, Jeremiah symbolizes the old.

Valerie Gorham: For example, he cheats on her.

Valerie Gorham: He asks her to stay home with him.

Valerie Gorham: He asks her to get married super young.

Valerie Gorham: He represents kind of that lack of freedom that women used to have.

Valerie Gorham: And I know this is, like, silly, but, like, the show is based off of a book, so there's symbolism.

Valerie Gorham: And I'm not going to say that Jeremiah represents tradition because he's certainly not a traditional man because he also doesn't provide anything for Belly.

Valerie Gorham: He doesn't have any money, he doesn't have any plans in his life.

Valerie Gorham: But he definitely represents the idea that women are here to service men, whether that's emotionally, psychologically, monetarily, or otherwise.

Valerie Gorham: Because she kind of does everything for him in this show.

Valerie Gorham: And it's interesting because if you go online after every episode, something happens that he does.

Valerie Gorham: And girls online are.

Valerie Gorham: Girls are the ones that watch this show.

Valerie Gorham: So girls online are like, talking about, why is she still with that man?

Valerie Gorham: She's not even that big of a catch, but she still deserves better.

Valerie Gorham: Like, and this was the constant discourse online is like, women hate Jeremiah.

Valerie Gorham: And as I said before, he represents all the opposite of everything that has to do with the declining birth rate.

Valerie Gorham: He represents bad male behavior because he cheated.

Valerie Gorham: He represents early marriage without any sort of preparation.

Valerie Gorham: Him sort of nudging her not to go to Paris and do the study abroad thing kind of represents the distraction of women from their education and, like, the refocusing on, like, marriage, family, home, and seeing how much women hate Jeremiah is very telling about what kind of society we live in.

Valerie Gorham: We live in a society like the Joker, the Woker would say.

Valerie Gorham: We live in a society where us women, we value our independence.

Valerie Gorham: And that doesn't mean that we don't ever want to get married and have kids.

Valerie Gorham: It just means that we want to have a say in who it is, when it is, how it happens, you know, and then back to the plot of the show.

Valerie Gorham: Eventually she does realize that, like, she's not going to end up with Jeremiah.

Valerie Gorham: And that decision that she makes, as well as going to Paris, which she had stopped herself from going for Jeremiah, all of those decisions are symbolic of her breaking tradition and going more down the declining birth rate route, which, as I mentioned before, involves independence.

Valerie Gorham: So she is going to Paris, traveling, making her own friends, making her own life.

Valerie Gorham: She has a job, she has her own place, kind of.

Valerie Gorham: She has roommates.

Valerie Gorham: She's finishing up college abroad, and she's not getting into any serious relationships.

Valerie Gorham: She does have, like, a fling with this, like, really charming Mexican guy named.

Valerie Gorham: I think Bonito was his name.

Valerie Gorham: But, like, he wasn't even that important to the plot.

Valerie Gorham: So, like, whatever.

Valerie Gorham: Finally, Conrad shows up at her doorstep.

Valerie Gorham: And, like, he actually literally shows up at her doorstep, like, at the front door of her, like, apartment.

Valerie Gorham: And this is over a year after the whole wedding debacle happened.

Valerie Gorham: So everyone's a little bit, like, chilled by now.

Valerie Gorham: And then they have this, like, romantic day together.

Valerie Gorham: They spend the night together.

Valerie Gorham: She shoos him away.

Valerie Gorham: I already mentioned this.

Valerie Gorham: Like, she goes back, finds him on the train, and then they end up together.

Valerie Gorham: And you might say, well, her ending up with a man anyways, like, that's not feminist.

Valerie Gorham: That's not progressive.

Valerie Gorham: Right.

Valerie Gorham: But I would argue that it is progressive because she makes this choice completely on her own.

Valerie Gorham: No one is forcing her.

Valerie Gorham: In fact, she has, like, a little monologue about it with Conrad.

Valerie Gorham: She's like, what if the only reason that we're trying to be together is because your dead mom would have wanted it?

Valerie Gorham: And another plot point that I think needs to be pointed out is that Belly's parents are divorced.

Valerie Gorham: And it's pointed out multiple times in the show that her father isn't around very much, which we all know.

Valerie Gorham: The term fatherless behavior.

Valerie Gorham: It describes usually a girl who.

Valerie Gorham: Whose father wasn't present very often.

Valerie Gorham: And so she looks for, like, a male figure in the men around her.

Valerie Gorham: You know, whatever.

Valerie Gorham: So I feel like it might be in the author's subconscious or in the writer's subconscious that Belly, you know, her father wasn't around so much as a kid, but these two boys, she's known them her entire life.

Valerie Gorham: So maybe she sort of looks for, like, that male love from these guys.

Valerie Gorham: Now, I just want to say one thing real quick.

Valerie Gorham: Fatherless behavior.

Valerie Gorham: The term fatherless behavior, I hate that term so much because the connotation makes it sound like it's the daughter's fault that her father wasn't around, which is, like, the stupidest thing ever.

Valerie Gorham: Like, your dad leaves you at zero years old.

Valerie Gorham: Yeah.

Valerie Gorham: Like, what the heck?

Valerie Gorham: But it's true.

Valerie Gorham: Having one parent, not having your dad around, not having your mom around, that can affect a child in several different ways, and it can cause you to grow up differently or develop differently.

Valerie Gorham: And a lot of the time, you know, in a girl's case, when she doesn't have a father, sometimes she looks for, like, sort of a father figure.

Valerie Gorham: I'll be your father figure.

Valerie Gorham: Sorry.

Valerie Gorham: She looks for, like, a father figure in, like, the guys around her.

Valerie Gorham: That happens.

Valerie Gorham: That's true.

Valerie Gorham: Should we shame women for it?

Valerie Gorham: No.

Valerie Gorham: But obviously I said before, this show is Based off of books.

Valerie Gorham: So these characters probably go deeper than what we see on the show.

Valerie Gorham: So it's possible that Belly was having this sort of psychological thing happening in her brain where she needed to sort of find validation from guys around her because she didn't have a dad.

Valerie Gorham: But after being in Paris, she's changed, and she's completely independent.

Valerie Gorham: She doesn't want to make decisions based off of anyone else's standards, and she has created her own standards, which.

Valerie Gorham: That's freedom.

Valerie Gorham: Creating standards for yourself based off of what you believe to be morally right, that is like, true freedom, right?

Valerie Gorham: Yes, well, yes.

Valerie Gorham: And it seems like when she chooses Conrad, when she chooses to chase after him and go find him on that train, it seems like that was a truly free choice that she made.

Valerie Gorham: So, yes, it was a progressive choice.

Valerie Gorham: Yay.

Valerie Gorham: Good job, Belly.

Valerie Gorham: Finally.

Valerie Gorham: Jeez.

Valerie Gorham: And I can only really speak on the American reaction to this decision that she made, because I only really see, like, the Internet reactions by Americans.

Valerie Gorham: But there was basically, like, a nationwide celebration that she, first of all, broke off her engagement with Jeremiah, and then second of all, decided wholeheartedly that being with Conrad was the best thing for her to do.

Valerie Gorham: And this celebration of a fictional girl being independent, making choices for.

Valerie Gorham: For herself, educating herself, getting a job, being on her own, getting stronger.

Valerie Gorham: All of these things being celebrated are directly related to the declining birth rate, because those are the same values that are contributing to that declining birth rate.

Valerie Gorham: Independence, education, careers.

Valerie Gorham: And the CBS article that I read also said that it's going to continue to decline the birth rate.

Valerie Gorham: It's just gonna get lower and lower in America.

Valerie Gorham: And as you may or may not have guessed, there are certain political groups that are not happy that women have enough rights to the point where they are not having children, and so they are trying to stop that.

Valerie Gorham: I don't want to get too political on this podcast, but I do encourage you to research that, because it's actually quite scary and frightening for women.

Valerie Gorham: So go to your nearest woman and tell her it's going to be okay.

Valerie Gorham: Give her a hug, look her in the eyes, and tell her that you will do anything to prevent her from losing her rights and that you will buy her free pads and tampons for the rest of her life.

Valerie Gorham: But to sum up this entire podcast so far, the Summer I Turned Pretty is a metaphor for women's independence growing and the focus on the home and the family and raising children decreasing.

Valerie Gorham: Now, last episode, I did mention that I was surveying to get an idea of what kind of movies, music, and other forms of pop culture that the NC State students enjoy.

Valerie Gorham: But I really want to get more responses.

Valerie Gorham: So I'm going to save that for the next episode where we will not only be discussing that, but we will also be discussing the political significance of Bad Bunny being announced as the super bowl headliner.

Valerie Gorham: And that is a huge topic to cover with a lot of significance.

Valerie Gorham: So I am so excited to talk about that in the next episode.

Valerie Gorham: Until then, I love you.

Valerie Gorham: Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy.

Valerie Gorham: Bye Bye.

Valerie Gorham: Sam.