It’s July. It is time for a mindless summer read. However, instead of mindless escape, my recent beach reads continue to leave me slightly unsettled and unnerved because of the sheer inability to escape this one trope.
The sibling trope.
Not step–sibling– I will not unpack that trope now– or ever. And not “my brother’s best friend.” I admit, I rarely put that one down. I am referring to the ever-so-common “I loved one brother, and now I love his other brother” story arc that has become increasingly popularized in mainstream media.
There is no clear beginning to the trope; some argue that “Little Women” did it first. However, I believe that works of literature like “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott or “Casa de Bernarda Alba” by Federico García Lorca use the storyline of sisters fighting over a male suitor to make larger statements about the patriarchy and the lack of autonomy that women historically have regarding marriage and romantic relationships. “The Kissing Booth,” “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “My Life with the Walter Boys” and “Every Summer After” make no such political statements.
Not to mention, this trope ultimately is bound to be paired with another questionable, unappealing trope – the cheating trope.
I was particularly disappointed in the ending of “Every Summer After.” The story follows two childhood best friends who fell in love but were separated by a tragic mistake in the past, only to be reunited by the death of his mother twelve years later. The tragic mistake? She slept with his brother the first time she had doubts about their relationship after a year of dating and over five years of close friendship. He forgives her; they get married. Throughout the entire epilogue, she keeps reiterating that she doubts she is good enough for him, and as a reader, I was bound to agree. Was he able to forgive her because she kept it in the family? For such a fun, captivating beginning to the novel, the ending flopped.
It feels like a cheap attempt to write a complex female character. Audiences often struggle with flawed female characters, coining them as annoying, rude or simply impalatable– a favorite example of mine being Devi Vishwakumar in “Never Have I Ever” (Devi, they could never make me hate you). However, these tropes have proven to be massively successful in their TV adaptations. Instead of acknowledging the strangeness of flip-flopping between brothers, people instead fight over team Jeremiah or Conrad, making “The Summer I Turned Pretty” “the most-watched season of television” for Amazon Prime “among women ages 18-34.” In fact, the show gained even more viewers with the release of season 3. She’s perfect! She just lusts after members of the same family.
The looming political landscape makes the success of this trope even more confusing to me. The revival of the tradwife, the push for domesticity, and the nostalgia for the perfect family unit have been highlighted within conservative politics in recent years. Those streaming numbers span political differences, so it is strange to me that this theme, which ultimately makes holiday family get-togethers so very awkward, would be sought after time and time again by major networks.
With a month of summer left, I am still in search of that mindless read. Hopefully, my next one will rely on old faithful – a simple miscommunication.
Senior Lily Andrey is the Editor-in-Chief. Her email is landrey@fandm.edu.