Cartoon Lizzie

By: Darian Hans

Lizzie McGuire is a teen comedy show that premiered January 12, 2001 on Disney Channel. This comedy show consisted of two seasons that had sixty five episodes. Lizzie the main character is a thirteen-year-old “shy, compassionate and clumsy teen who dreams to fit in and be the popular girl at school, with the help of her two best friends Miranda and Gordo” (Corizza). Her relatable aura creates a safe scene for middle schoolers to find a bond with the teen. Lizzie Mcguire was intended for middle school girls to have someone that goes through similar experiences as them. A lot that was touched on were things like clothing trends, parent protection, and best friends. Let’s discuss a few reasons why Lizzie McGuire is so important to girls and girlhood culture to this current day.

The tiny cartoon figure that represents Lizzie’s inner thoughts pushes through the intersections of identity by creating an all too honest voice inside of Lizzie’s head. A great number of the things the cartoon would say were things that Lizzie wanted to say but she chose not to. Through these in head thoughts Lizzie entangles herself with life lessons that teach her and the young girls that watch important divinations for later in life. A few things she is educated on is to not lie, to ask for help when needed, and when to confront someone when it is important. While learning all of these new things she is also faced with some hardships like bullies, her friends eating disorder, and no privacy in her bedroom.

Time and time again throughout the series Lizzie had her privacy boundaries pushed. Most of the time her parents were rushing into her room to tell her something but others as well as both of her best friends ushered into her room to wake her up and tell her something. Seeing how she deals with this privacy barrier being broken in a positive way on the outside by not getting angry and talking calmly to whoever rushed in and on the inside being mad, and frustrated shows that, “girls’ need for a space of privacy and leisure within the home” is substantial to their “identity formation” (Sawyer Fritz). This not only pushes against her personal space but also that in no form does she have privacy even when her door is shut.

In many shows from the late nineties to the early two thousands we see many larger issues that were not handled correctly or brought to light. These shows were an outlet for many girls to be able to relate to, but having things like eating disorders, lying and so many more hard topics that were brushed on creates a hard balance for girls to follow. Countless amounts of girls have a voice inside their head that thinks about what to do, what to think in a situation, or what we really should like to say in any instance even if it's not what they are really thinking. Lizzie has a tiny animated alter ego that would pop up on the screen during an episode when Lizzie was thinking something but didn't actually want to say something, being that voice inside her head but an animated version . Ironically this little cartoon looks nothing like Lizzie other than the blonde hair, almost as if she is a little imaginary friend that speaks her mind, in Lizzie’s mind.

In the show Lizzie deals with many hardships like stated previously, in one instance Lizzie’s friend stops eating because she feels as if that is the only thing she really has control over. Lizzie’s alter ego makes Lizzie think about confronting her friend over and over again due to her concern. Although she did talk to her friend about this and it magically ends her eating disorder, it is known that an eating disorder will not just go away by talking to a friend about it and it is stated that, “Miranda should definitely have seen a professional to talk about her body image issues and other struggles” (Erskine). Having a television show with the intended audience being teenagers can “become a common source of comparison for many young viewers who evaluate their own self-worth and bodies based on models they see on television” (Jankoski). This creates a very bad environment for teen girls to begin thinking about their own self worth and bodies in a negative way.

Lizzie McGuire takes us through her day by day teenage life showing us how middle class white girls in the two thousands typically went through middle school. This gave parents a better idea of some situations their daughters could be put into. This helps us analyze girlhoods by now currently having social media and seeing now Lizzie McGuire still being referenced in newer shows and comedies. Using this show to analyze girlhoods and girls today shows the progress of television shows like Andi Mack, Girl meets World, Liv and Maddie. The shows now have taken into consideration older shows like Lizzie McGuire and now the “can-do” girl is less prevalent than the “at-risk” girl. There is a sense of being normal rather than being perfect in society's eyes.

Many girls born in the ninety’s to the two thousand’s grew up with Lizzie being someone they looked up to. To this day the craze that happened on the internet when it was released that Lizzie McGuire was coming back to Disney+ was immense for many different generations of girls and women. A reboot for the show was in production but soon got canceled due to a disagreement in the storyline that involved a cheating scandal for the main character. The show being accessible to teen girls now has impacted girls culture. Although the reboot was canceled many still follow the star in her everyday life. Having this in a digital exhibit helps girls culture in this day and age since social media and digitalization is so prominent in the 21st century. All sixty five episodes are available on Disney+.

As we see, a great deal of shows that are geared toward the white middle class girls represent the can-do girl. Lizzie Mcguire’s cartoon produces the idea of thinking like an at-risk girl while not actually putting herself at-risk by keeping the thoughts inside her mind. The can-do girl being, “optimistic, self-inventing, and success-oriented” and the at-risk girls being described as, “failures” (Harris). Lizzie McGuire was the typical white, middle class, pick me girl. Lizzie having this alter-ego commonly goes against the normal ways of Lizzie’s outer image. We see this by the cartoon promoting the bad girl at-risk image which pushes the can-do girl on the outside to make the choice of being the good or bad girl. This contributes to the internal struggle with choosing good or bad and good always winning in the end but having those “bad” thoughts still coming through.

Ultimately, Lizzie Mcguire’s alter ego cartoon is the epitome of the at-risk girl while Lizzie promotes an over the top can-do girl. Lizzie having these thoughts that are never said out loud shows that there is no imminent line between can-do and at-risk girls. These ideas are very cloudy and realistically do not have a set picture. Television shows portray girls to be in these categories because of the social normativities placed on girls from the minute they are born. Girls like Lizzie are pushed into the tightest box that they can fit into and if they even try to get out a bit they are reprimanded and told to go back. Identity and the idea of the postfeminist girl are so broad that seeing girls in television shows that continue to fit into these expectations pushes these ideas onto the girls that are watching them. The postfeminist girl is “relating to or characterized by the more equal treatment of women resulting from the success of this movement” (Google). Television shows that blur the like of perfect are the shows that girls are watching today while they are still being educated on shows like Lizzie McGuire that began the blurring of this line.

In this video we see a few moments where Lizzie’s alter ego cartoon character is really expressing her inner feelings about situations. This is allowing her to feel what she needs to while not feeling the need to express it on the outside. Having these thoughts explains further the idea that the line of can-do, at-risk, and postfeminism girls is very fine and gets overturned a lot in this show while also staying within the guidelines. One states that, “Lizzie pretty much showed us that we all had an animated version of ourselves in our heads saying what we wanted to say” (J-BoZ).

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Grrrl Zines: “sites where girls and women construct identities, communities, and explanatory narratives from the materials that comprise their cultural moment”. (Piepmeier)

This is a zine I made to show the era and some of the inner voices of Lizzie’s alter ego. Showing her over the top outfits to portray her idea of maturity, and her inner thoughts that she wishes she could say out loud but wont.

Reference

Corizza, Greta. “Cartoons.” THE SOCIALIZATION OF GENDER: AN ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF MEDIA ON GENDER DEVELOPMENT AND STEREOTYPES, Luiss, 2015, pp. 40–41.

Erskine, Blaire. “Lizzie McGuire: Things Only Adults Notice in the Iconic Disney Channel Show - The List.” TheList.com, The List, 20 Dec. 2020, www.thelist.com/164244/lizzie-mcguire-things-only-adults-notice-in-the-iconic-disney-channel-show/.

Fritz, Sonya Sawyer. “‘A Room of Her Very Own’: Privacy and Leisure in the Victorian Girl's Bedroom.” Girlhood Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 2015, doi:10.3167/ghs.2015.080204.

Jada. “Animated Lizzie Being Iconic. - Youtube.” YouTube , 22 Apr. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mSSezWnEUk.

Pomerantz, Shauna, et al. “Girls Run the World?” Gender & Society, vol. 27, no. 2, 2013, pp. 185–207., doi:10.1177/0891243212473199.

Robinson, Tom, et al. “Portrayal of Body Weight on Children's Television Sitcoms: A Content Analysis.” Body Image, Elsevier, 5 May 2008, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144507001210?casa_token=QpKObC86Z_kAAAAA%3AB1-ymEdw60z2E6TUmR-DT1QyX2V046p6OGBfVco1TxzKk6HHqrca3_EGBx8q9mWtn5DSj-c4hDM.

Robinson, Tom, et al. “Portrayal of Body Weight on Children's Television Sitcoms: A Content Analysis.” Body Image, vol. 5, no. 2, 2008, pp. 141–151., doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2007.11.004.

“The ‘Can-Do’ Girl versus the ‘at-Risk’ Girl.” Future Girl, 2004, pp. 21–44., doi:10.4324/9780203490198-6.