The theme of Boys, Books & Babysitting developed through content analysis in multiple ways. In the quantitative coding, I counted how many times the character mentioned having a crush on a boy, mentioned their own appearance, and concerns with popularity. For the qualitative analysis of this theme, I was able to watch the shows and understand what the character’s interests were. Whether it be school, work, or sports, etc.
Lizzie McGuire (2001) made the most comments referring to boys/crushes at 23 comments over the course of 5 episodes. This decreased drastically as Hannah Montana (2005) and Riley (2014) from Girl Meets World only mentioned this 8 times throughout the 5 episodes. For example, Hannah Montana (2005) stated in Season 1 Episode 1, “He’s so hot and I’m so lame,” (Peterson 2006). This is an example of a comment about putting herself down because of a crush on a boy. Jessie (2011) mentions having a crush 2 times, and Gabby (2020), from Gabby Duran and the Unsittables, does not mention this at all.
There was a similar pattern when it came to referring to social status and popularity. Lizzie McGuire (2001) made 21 comments over the course of 5 episodes in contrast to Gabby Duran (2020) who made 0. Lizzie McGuire (2001) made a total of 6 positive comments about herself whether it be about her appearance of personality/talents and 15 comments putting herself down in regard to appearance or personality. Hannah Montana (2005) also made more negative comments about herself than positive ones. However, these positive and negative comments were not as present throughout the shows, Jessie (2011), Girl Meets World (2014), and Gabby Duran and the Unsittables (2020), which suggests that the characters were not as self-centric.
Lizzie McGuire (2001) referenced boys and having a crush drastically more than other females and also made a lot of comments about her appearance and self-conception. One comment in Lizzie McGuire that was made to her was from her principal who stated, “Jealousy is not pretty on a girl,” (Rogow 2001). Although this is not something, she says about herself it is a contributing factor to her characterization and self-perception. Hannah Montana (2005) had the second-highest frequencies of mentioning appearance and popularity. Next, came Jessie (2011) who also demonstrated similar patterns to Lizzie (2001) and Hannah (2005) however to a much lesser extent. She was way less concerned with herself, however, her feminine representation was more shown through body display and mannerisms. Riley (2014) from Girl Meets World references boy crushes more often than Jessie (2011) but was the most focused on school out of any of the other female characters. Lastly, Gabby Duran (2020) represented the least feminine stereotypical behavior by not mentioning boy crushes at all during all 5 episodes and making minimal comments about her own appearance.
In regard to the character’s interests, none of the characters played sports. Lizzie McGuire (2001) spent a lot of her free time with friends and doing activities such as biking, walking, and having sleepovers. Hannah Montana (2005) mentioned schoolwork very minimally however she also had a secret life as a pop star so that took up most of her free time. She was also very dedicated to spending time with her friends and family and enjoyed shopping and fashion. Jessie (2011) was not a student and very dedicated to her work as a nanny (as that is what the plot of the show is about). Later on, in the show, Jessie, Jessie (2011) develops an interest in writing and publishing an article. Riley (2014) is the first character who displayed a strong interest in schoolwork and spent her free time exploring New York City with her friends and trying to become more grown-up and independent. Gabby (2020) expressed no interest in schoolwork or being social however she was very dedicated to her job as a babysitter and was always down for something mischievous or pranking someone. Gabby (2020) was also the most confident, making few comments about her appearance and many positive comments about her self-conception overall. For example, in nearly every episode she would state, “Nobody does *blank* like Gabby D.” (Alber 2019). And depending on what she was doing in that episode it would either be ‘babysitting’, ‘pranking’ , etc.
By analyzing the number of times that these characters reference certain things as well as looking at their interests it is clear that over time there were some obvious changes. Hannah Montana (2005) and Lizzie McGuire (2001) displayed similar interests in regard to boys, popularity, and appearances, Jessie (2011) mentioned these things a little however much less and was more concerned with doing a good job at work and developing a relationship with the kids she nannied for. Riley (2014) was the most interested in schoolwork whereas Gabby (2020) was not interested in school but was dedicated to working and spent her free time pranking and having fun. Throughout the course of 20 years, the interests and conversations of the female leads in Disney Channel shows evolved over time and became less and less stereotypically feminine. The two first themes of changes in style over time and boys, books & babysitting all attribute to and influence the final theme of reimagining femininity.
