Characterization of female leads took many elements into account. Not only did I take into account my findings from the first two themes, but I also looked at their mannerisms and the casting of the characters as well.
In regard to mannerisms of the female character Lizzie McGuire (2001) made a total of 24 feminine behavioral movements (knee bend, hands-on-hips, or submissive behavior). Each show’s female lead moving to more present time recorded doing these kinds of behaviors less and less as Gabby Duran (2020) only expressed 1 example of this. In the earlier shows such as Lizzie McGuire (2001) and Hannah Montana (2005), both characters acted dumb or clumsy around boys however in Jessie (2011), Girl Meets World (2014), and Gabby Duran and the Unsittables (2020), these mannerisms were never present. Lizzie McGuire (2001) demonstrated more stereotypically feminine mannerisms throughout the episodes. Hannah Montana (2005) also demonstrated feminine mannerisms such as putting her hands on her hips. Next, came Jessie (2011) who 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 her style. Lastly, Gabby Duran (2020) represented the least feminine stereotypical behavior by displaying very minimal stereotypically feminine mannerisms.
In regard to casting physical appearance-wise, every character is thin and attractive. There was not a lot of change over time regarding physical appearance, however, Gabby (2020) and Riley (2014) were the only female leads that were not white. Gabby (2020) is of Venezuelan descent and Riley (2014) is of Middle Eastern descent. However, regardless of the actress’s race and appearance, all of them played American girls growing up in a middle-class lifestyle.
Lizzie (2001), Hannah Montana (2005), and Jessie (2011) were all characterized as either girly girls or princesses. Hannah Montana (2005) was the only one characterized as a princess because of her spoiled lifestyle as a pop star and superiority complex over other characters. Riley (2014) was characterized mostly as nerdy because of her interest in school and the way she is treated by her family. For example, in one episode she thinks she is being independent and stays out 5 minutes past her curfew. She thinks she is going to be in huge trouble; however, her parents just laugh it off and think that she needs to loosen up and be less hard on herself. In Season 1 Episode 15 her dad says “So when you come in here at 7:07 acting all dangerous, it’s hard *laughs* I’m sorry I can’t even keep a straight face,” (Jacobs 2014). This is an example of her characterization of being nerdy because she is so focused on school and has a very minimal social life. On the contrary, Gabby (2020) was characterized as a tomboy and had a very rebellious personality, caring little about school and popularity. By analyzing all the different aspects of characterization, I found, the female lead did not change a lot in regard to qualitative coding as they got older, however from show to show there were clear differences in how the female leads were characterized over the course of 20 years.
With these results in mind, it is clear that over 20 years the characterization of female leads in Disney Channel shows has changed. Evolving from more stereotypically feminine stereotypes to characters with less stereotypically feminine style, interests, and mannerisms. This mirrors to some extent different waves of feminism throughout the past few decades, specifically the #MeToo movement which took off in Hollywood in 2017.
