Disturbing Disney Channel Music Video

Metaphor · Sep 16, 2014

This just makes me so sad. My cousin just turned eleven a few days ago and started middle school. She asked me to watch an episode of Ant Farm with her, and I had never heard of it before. About a few minutes in to the show she turned to me and said she was nervous because she didn't think she was doing all the things a "teenager in middle school" was supposed to do. I asked her what that meant and she said that the girl China in the show as well as every other Disney star in shows like Austin & Alley, Jessie, ect. all want to be famous and they all date boys. She was worried because she doesn't want to be a famous singer and she doesn't want to date any boys yet.

It is so sad that every reality show like this promotes that being famous and dating is even acceptable at that age. I miss episodes of Lizzie McGuire where her biggest problems were surviving school. I am not saying that shows shouldn't have characters with aspirations or crushes, but there is no reason every character has to be a middle schooler or young high schooler that goes out to concerts on dates and sings.

Bindingkey · Sep 17, 2014

I've watched the show this corresponds with, the song and video are treated as a joke. The girl who sings it (that the show centers somewhat on) shows she doesn't like that it's the song and video that made her well known in the world her show is in, and she makes an effort to to do other things to overshadow this. The video isn't supposed to be taken seriously, and is actually meant to be embarrassing in context of the show.

I'm not saying that makes the show/song any better, the show is underwhelming on inexplicably high levels.

also, @Metaphor I really don't see how she could've gotten that from any of those shows??? because clearly every middle school kid isn't going on to becoming stars??? that is the most irrational fear I've ever heard, it doesn't make sense. clearly Disney Channel is showing the most rare of cases, things that don't happen every day. I mean, I never got jitters that I wasn't like Raven Baxter and having psychic images, or that I wasn't living a double life like Hannah Montana. I mean, Disney Channel has always emphasized showing sitcoms with themes that don't occur every single day. One of the shows is about a talking dog with a blog I mean really why is your cousin taking this channel seriously?

I'd also like to point out that the primary reason most of the main characters are in middle/high school is because, well, the target audience is middle/high school (loosely, I'm just emphasizing a point). And it's not like the themes for shows like Austin & Ally and Jessie don't happen. Internet stars are a thing, celebrities with tons of adopted kids (from a variety of cultures) do have nannies, it's not as if these things never happen. Again, they're statistically rare, but all in all both of these shows in concept make for very engaging points for lessons. Obviously, they've been generally underused, and obviously they're used in a terrible form of perpetuating stereotypical character types (not anymore, a lot of the shows have improved from many years ago), but still my point is the concepts are not the problem. It's what they do with the concepts that are the problem, they don't go anywhere. ANT Farm could've been a good, inspiring show but instead it suffers from poor writing and character development and is probably Disney's worst show in that it's only redeeming quality is China, who adds the real personality but even then she sometimes suffers from being a stale character.

And either way, Disney Channel is introducing new shows about truly regular kids like Girl Meets World and I Didn't Do It, both shows I personally believe show much more promise than the ones currently in their fifth seasons.