Masculinity In Friday Night Lights

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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