‘Suite Life’ Star Defends Disney Channel Girls Who Were ‘Heavily Sexualized’

It’s common to see Disney Channel celebrities compared to one another both during and after their time on Disney Channel shows or Disney Channel Original Movies, with the main comparison being one about their mental health and their reputations — and these comparisons are far, far more prevalent when it comes to female Disney Channel celebrities. Suite Life of Zack and Cody star Cole Sprouse recently spoke to the New York Times and revealed how the treatment of his female co-stars differed from his, and how that treatment is still affecting female Disney Channel alums.

“My brother and I used to get quite a bit of, ‘Oh, you made it out! Oh, you’re unscathed!’ No,” the Moonshot actor responded in the interview when the New York Times asked him about “surviving early stardom”. However, Cole Sprouse has obviously noticed the huge disparity in the exploitation of his female co-stars from back then on the Disney Channel (and the extra judgment that they undergo even now), because he made a point of defending them despite his own “trauma” from fame.

“The young women on the channel we were on [Disney Channel] were so heavily sexualized from such an earlier age than my brother and I that there’s absolutely no way that we could compare our experiences. And every single person going through that trauma has a unique experience,” Sprouse continued. “So I’m violently defensive against people who mock some of the young women who were on the channel when I was younger because I don’t feel like it adequately comprehends the humanity of that experience and what it takes to recover.”

The Disney actors from the time of Suite Life who seem to remain affected by their time with Disney Channel or Disney filmmakers include Demi Lovato, Debby Ryan, Lindsay Lohan, Ashley Tisdale, Brenda Song, Vanessa Hudgens, and Selena Gomez. Dove Cameron is a more current Disney star who has received lots of scrutiny and judgment in the same vein.

Even if one of the actresses hasn’t received negative press, she might still encounter the same situation as Lizzie McGuire actress Hilary Duff (i.e. comments about how well she’s doing ‘for a Disney Channel star’, even in comments about completely unrelated videos or interviews). Fame clearly was a challenge for Cole Sprouse too (and he’s made it clear that he’s not interested in a Suite Life reboot), but he’s also emphasized that the girls he worked with faced lots of uncomfortable situations as they were sexualized at a younger age on TV than boys were.