My Top Disney Channel Episodes as a Feminist

The Disney Channel Influence

From shows like Hannah Montana and The Owl House, to movies like Descendants and High School Musical, Disney Channel has been a staple of kids' television since the early 90s. In the digital age, TV has a significant influence on how children view the world, so it's important that we look at the messages these shows send.

Despite being for kids, Disney Channel has dealt with some important real-world topics - Racism, Eating Disorders, Sexuality, and more. Sometimes their attempts fail or send across the wrong message, but it's also important to look at times when Disney Channel has truly sent across a valuable message.

One area in which Disney Channel has made strides is feminism. They have made numerous episodes dealing with stereotypes, objectification, and more. In this article, we will be looking at what are, in my opinion, some of Disney Channel's best episodes in dealing with feminism.

5) Girl Meets STEM

Girl Meets STEM is the 26th episode of season 2 of Girl Meets World. For the science mid-term, the science teacher, Mr. Norton pairs up all the students in his class in duos consisting of one boy and one girl. He explains that for the experiment, one partner has to drop a mystery marble into a beaker of water. The next day, the other partner has to analyze the mystery solution, find out what it is, and conduct an experiment to turn it back to clear water.

Riley's partner, Farkle, tells her to drop the marble, and he'll conduct the experiment. Riley is offended, saying she wants to do more than just drop a marble, but Farkle insists.. In the afternoon, when students are supposed to drop the marble, Riley realises that every group sent the girl to drop the marble so that the boys can do the actual science part. She believes that girls in STEM are being held back by the boys, and as protest refuses to drop the marble. Riley also rallies the girls in the class against the boys, saying they have been holding them back from realizing their full potential.

Later, Riley asks Farkle why he didn't believe in her to do the science part, stating that Marie Curie was a woman. He apologizes, explaining that it had nothing to do with gender, just that he knew he had more scientific knowledge than her. As the midterm comes to an end, the only group who has clear water in their beaker is Riley's, since she never dropped the marble. She realizes that the experiment was never truly about the sludge. Mr. Norton reveals that the experiment was really about the girls realizing their true potential, because most girls tend to give up on the sciences as they grow older. He says that over the past 35 years, other than Riley, the girls have always dropped the marble without much arguement.

This episode raises awareness about the difficulties women face in STEM and it being a male dominated field, which is an important message for young girls who like science, or are beginning to drift away from STEM subjects. This is also different, since Disney Channel doesn't have many female characters who enjoy science. However, there are execution of this episode that make it rank in fifth.

Until this episode, Riley has shown no interest in any STEM field. Furthermore, I don't like that Riley immediately jumped to it being a gender issue, and that she is entitled to be the one carrying out the experiment. It is shown time and time again in this show that Farkle is a science genius, so it ultimately makes sense for him to be the one doing the experiment.

4) Roll Model-a-Rooney

In fourth place, we have Roll Model-a-Rooney. In this episode, Liv finds out that the show she's shooting, Sing it Lounder!! is having an episode where the girls compete against the boys in a woodblock derby race. She's excited, because in the original episode of Sing it Loud! the boys won the race, and she assumes that this time the girls will win. However, Zach tells her that the boys will win again, because cars are "boy stuff."

Liv gets even angrier when she sees the car the girls will be racing is a sparkly pink high heel with wheels, because Zach says shoes are "girl stuff." Liv tries to explain to her younger co-stars, Priya and Ruby, that this isn't okay, because girls can like cars. The girls don't understand, saying that girls don't like cars. When Liv asks them why they think that, they say it's because that's what they've seen on T.V, illustrating the importance of Liv's point. To prove that girls can like cars, Liv challenges Zach to an actual girls vs boys woodblock derby race, stating that the real winner can win on the show.

At first, as the girls are building their woodblock derby car, Ruby and Priya are somewhat reluctant, having never built anything before, but the three of them end up building a working woodblock car. They then go on to win the race, proving to Zach that girls can like cars and building.

This wasn't the first time that Liv & Maddie tried to deal with stereotypes and sexism, but it wasn't handled the best. When Liv tries to give examples of stereotypes, the only ones she can come up with are the color pink, and girls liking shoes. Furthermore, the show has shown time and time again that not all girls are the same - every female character has been written very differently - Maddie and Willow are athletes, Alex loves STEM, Andie loves cars and mechanics, and more.

3) How K.C. Got Her Swag Back

Unlike the other two episodes on this list, When K.C. Got Her Swag Back isn't mainly about feminism, but it does have one scene in particular that truly sticks out. In this episode, we see that K.C. loves to play basketball, and that she's very good at it. Mikal, a kid from her class shows up at the court with his friends, demanding she leaves so they can play. She shows him she cam play by shooting the ball directly into the hoop. Mikal claims its "Nothing but Luck," leading K.C. to challenge him to a one-on-one game to take place on Friday.

Later, a mission goes wrong, leading K.C. to lose all her self-confidence to the point that she wants to quit being a spy. Marisa takes her to the basketball court to help her regain her spark. K.C. refuses to play and Mikal shows up with his friends again. He makes fun of her for the time she barfed in class. Even though it isn't Friday yet, he suggests they play the one-on-one now. She says she doesn't want to play, leading him to say "You probably play like a girl anyway."

This makes K.C. angry enough that she agrees to play, saying "You bet I do, and this girl is going to school you [in basketball.]" Of course, she ends up winning and getting her confidence and swag back.

This episode wasn't fully about feminism, but the basketball scene is very empowering when you consider Mikal's insults. "You play like a girl" is an insult that most people pass of as normal, but it's casual sexism that can be very harmful, and propagate stereotypes of women being worse at sports. Unlike Roll Model-a-Rooney, it doesn't try to push every girl to be into sports or science or some stereotype-breaking hobby - Marisa is very much unashamedly a stereotypical girly girl.

2) Ask her More-a-Rooney

Ask her More-a-Rooney starts with Liv and Josh answering a Q&A on their show, Voltage. After the livestream, Josh points out that he got asked about the show and his work, whereas Liv was given compliments and questions about her looks. Liv mentions that she had never really noticed it before, since it was normal for her.

She starts wanting to be asked about her work and not just her looks, especially because she knows many little girls look up to her and she wants them to know that they are more than just their looks. The issue with the questions is even more obvious when Liv and Josh go to the Fan Pick Awards and are interviewed on the red carpet. Liv meets Kristen Bell on the red carpet, who shares her concern with every question being about clothes and hair.

Liv confronts a reporter during one of the interviews, but they say that the questions are what they are expected by the audience to ask. Kristen Bell asks him if these are the questions the audience expects, or what they were taught to expect by a group of people who don't think to dig deeper. Liv adds on that she loves fashion, but there is so much more to her work than just looking pretty.

A few things in this episode stand out in particular. With Liv not realizing the issue with the questions until Josh pointing this out, it shows how casual sexism can become normalized to the point that people facing it don't even realize its happening, or that its an issue. Another thing that makes this episode significant is that it wasn't a girl pointing out the issue, it was Josh who realized the disparity and mentioned it first. This is important because in a lot of episodes men don't seem to realize the issue. Along with the main message of the episode about being more than your looks, these make this episode really important for sexism and gender equality.

1) Rate-a-Rooney

Finally, in first place, we have Rate-a-Rooney. The boys in their school, specifically Todd, start rating girls based on their looks, on a scale from 1-10. When she finds out, Maddie is outraged, declaring that men don't get to just define them. The girls decide that they are going to fight back against the boys who are rating them. The girls all decide to protest by going to school the next day dressed in trash bags and wearing paper bags on their heads. Todd tries to 'take two points off' for trying to send him a message, but their protest seems to be working, until Willow ends up caving to the pressure to be rated high, curling her hair and wearing a dress.

This is significant because Willow is portrayed as a 'tomboyish' character who doesn't care about looks. Liv insists that Willow doesn't have to buy into Todd's rating system to be considered beautiful, but she wants to be considered beautiful, wants boys to like her. She tells the girls that this is the world that they live in. Liv says they can change the world, but everyone else gives up, saying that this is the world we live in.

Liv starts writing a song, because she realized that they can't change the minds of every person like Todd, but they can change how they look at themselves. Liv posts a video with the song, saying that people don't have to change themselves to fit others' idea of what a girl is supposed to be. The video shows girls smiling and putting on an image of what they 'should' be like, but being sad and confused inside, being overlooked in science, being judged by boys for dancing weirdly. But it also shows them winning science competitions, play basketball and dancing alongside boys, and ripping up Todd's rating signs.

This is, according to me, one of the most empowering moments on Disney Channel. It shows the impact of societal pressure and expectations, objectification and stereotypes. We see how people who don't see the issue exist, but how the way we look at ourselves can change things. It shows female characters who enjoy different things - STEM, Basketball, Music and more.

The Right Direction

In the media age, messages like this being spread across mainstream media are incredibly improtant. This is what younger generations are growing up seeing on TV on a regular basis. The characters they look up to impact the way they view the world. Rate-a-Rooney said that men like Todd would always exist, and that's true. But as long as this is what children are being taught, that can minimize it in the future.