Masculinity In Friday Night Lights

The T.V. series Friday Night Lights ran from 2006 to 2011 and portrayed a small town in Texas where football reigns and fulfills both a social and cultural void for the small Texas town known as Dillon. The main character of the show Eric Taylor holds the position of head football coach for the East Dillon high school. A position which brings power and respect, consequently with power brings with it scrutiny under the eyes of the public. The show in its first couple seasons shows the stereotypical authenticity of an American small town. A town filled with religion, patriotism, and tradition, all of which stem from the role in which football plays. Where every male is expected to play on Friday, and be in church on Sunday, parents push their

kids hard both on and off the field and where masculinity is expected out of all of its participants.
However, as the show progresses, one can begin to see the battle that the male characters face in masculinity and the challenges that they face when faced with oppositions that could make them be seen as less of a man in a small Texas town where everybody knows everybody’s business.

The culmination of this struggle with masculinity can be seen during the twelfth episode of the fifth season in which Eric Taylor’s wife, Tami Taylor, wishes to take a job that would not only make her the bread winner for the family, but would also require them to leave Dillon. This episode is the pivoting point in the series for not only Eric Taylor but for other characters in their relationship with

masculinity.
What the show Friday Night Lights does in the beginning of the series is set up the ideal masculinity within its male characters. Men who wield respect in their community, act tough and never cry, this Hetero-Masculinity can be seen when comparing the female cast of the show who can be seen as emotional, crying often and are often placed in situations where help from the male characters is needed. However as the series begins to progress one can see the character’s role with masculinity to begin to change to less “authentic” masculinity and begin shaping into a more realistic portrayal as they deal with issues within both the public and private sphere of small town Dillon. The male characters begin to show more emotions than they had in the beginning of the series. The epitome of the change can be seen in the episode mentioned above where Eric Taylor is confronted with options of relinquishing the title of top earner in his family in order to make his wife happy. Tami Taylor says during the episode "I've been a coach's wife for 18 years. It's my turn". It is during this episode that shows the conflict between the public opinion and the private life in the face of masculinity. While letting his wife take the job would improve his home life, allowing the two spouses to become equal and work together, the public opinion of Eric Taylor may be tarnished because he was not able to provide his wife with enough for her to simply stay home and be a wife. Ultimately Eric Taylor supports his wife in her decision to take her new job offer, showing the transformation from the earlier seasons where such a thing would have never happened.
What the viewer sees as the program progresses into the later seasons is the change in view in which the male characters change their view on masculinity.

Masculinity in the show shifts away from the American hegemonic view, one of toughness, rough, and in your face and shifts to being constructed around not one thing that makes a man, but the culmination of making the right decisions for themselves both in the public and private spheres of their life and taking care of the ones they love are what truly make a man. It is this new construction of masculinity in Friday Night Lights that separates it from other authentic American football shows and movies where the men must always act tough no matter what issues they are faced with. This shift in the representation of masculinity on prime time television is not just being done by Friday Night Lights. Other shows such as the Big Bang Theory are revolutionizing main characters in shows, which portray males. The Big Bang Theory is a show where the four main characters are male scientist in California. They are in no way deemed the stereotypical males; they are scrawny, love comic books and have sub par social skills. However the show has become one of the most popular primetime shows currently on T.V. What both Friday Night Lights and the Big Bang Theory show is that American primetime T.V. is shifting away from the stratification of masculinity, meaning the hierarchy of men is slowly dispersing in pop culture as it becomes more

acceptable to be a seen as a man for a variety of reasons not just for the authentic hegemonic male which was the norm for so many decades.
That does not mean that the essential characteristics that America has come to give men have all but disappeared. Men are still expected to never cry, to have muscle, be the breadwinner for their family, all things that represent the stereotypical American male. However the emergence of non stereotypical males as main characters on prime time television have helped to ease the gaze of society upon non-stereotypical male in today’s society. While the problem is nowhere near being fixed, these shows are some of the first steps in changing popular cultures view on masculinity and what a male must be in order to fit the category.