The first, most prevalent them was style. In the category of style, I looked at clothing type, make-up, jewelry, and nail polish. Not only did I count how many times each character displayed these styles, but I also analyzed how these style changes evolved throughout the course of the episodes. For example, Lizzie McGuire (2001) wore a skirt/dress 8 times throughout the five episodes, Hannah Montana (2005) 6, Jessie (2011) 9, Riley (2014) 10, and Gabby (2020) 0. It was prevalent that all the female characters at multiple times throughout the episodes wore skirts except for Gabby Duran (2020) who only wore loose, more masculine outfits, including sweatpants and sweatshirts. When breaking down the episodes within each show it was clear that as the character aged, they wore more revealing, tight clothing. For example, as Lizzie McGuire (2001) got older and moved through junior high she wore tighter, more revealing outfits. Other, less obvious characters changed minor elements of their style as they got older such as wearing more make-up, jewelry, or nail polish. As stated previously all the female characters displayed ‘girly’ tendencies in their style by wearing skirts, jewelry, and styling their hair, except for Gabby (2020) who never styled her hair and only wore sweatpants, hoodies, and sneakers.
Through latent and manifest content analysis of the female character’s style, it is evident that the stylization of the females changed over time. Although not until recently, the 2020 show, Gabby Duran and the Unsittables was styled in less stereotypically feminine outfits. This leads to the second theme of Boys, Books and Babysitting which exemplified more diversity throughout the five different shows.
