Friday Night Lights Stereotypes
Friday Night Lights Captivating audiences and myself from the first episode, Friday Night Lights, has a complex and dramatic plot line. Dillon, a small Texas town, rallies around the high school football team on their journey to the state football championship, but the voyage is not without love, drama, and learning experiences. The characters within the program have diverse dispositions, representing the wide variety of personalities within Southern culture. Friday Night Lights exploits the events of what would happen in a real Texas football town through a fictitious story, while highlighting many common themes of Southern culture, such as, escapism, the Southern Belle and Gentleman stereotypes, and the depiction of “white trash”. Football
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Tami Taylor, the head coach’s wife, displays characteristics of a Southern Belle by being a supportive wife, a mother-woman, and hosting many events for the football team, for example the obligatory pre-game dinner (Episode 4). Adele from Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening, carries out these same traits and is described to have “the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm” (Chopin 26). A piece of Southern literature rarely goes without a Southern Belle, but portraying the Southern Gentleman stereotype in Friday Night Lights is even more common. Coach Eric Taylor, Jason Street, and Matt Saracen all embody many chivalrous traits. For example, Matt Saracen is left as the man of the house at sixteen years old, and he quickly takes on the responsibility of taking care of his. This is demonstrated when Matt returns home from work and he discovers his grandmother has wandered out of the house, causing him to search for her (Episode 4). This same duty of care and being the household provider is exhibited in Native Son by Richard Wright. Peggy the chef explains to Bigger how Mr. Dalton provides for his wife and daughter, and extends the care to his hired help by investing in them financially and emotionally (Wright 55). Regardless of how the Southern Gentleman is displayed fiscally, they always hold a loyalty to their family and do what they can to take care of them. Without the Southern Belle and Gentleman stereotypes being explored through Southern representations, a piece of the Southern culture would be
Tami Taylor, the head coach’s wife, displays characteristics of a Southern Belle by being a supportive wife, a mother-woman, and hosting many events for the football team, for example the obligatory pre-game dinner (Episode 4). Adele from Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening, carries out these same traits and is described to have “the embodiment of every womanly grace and charm” (Chopin 26). A piece of Southern literature rarely goes without a Southern Belle, but portraying the Southern Gentleman stereotype in Friday Night Lights is even more common. Coach Eric Taylor, Jason Street, and Matt Saracen all embody many chivalrous traits. For example, Matt Saracen is left as the man of the house at sixteen years old, and he quickly takes on the responsibility of taking care of his. This is demonstrated when Matt returns home from work and he discovers his grandmother has wandered out of the house, causing him to search for her (Episode 4). This same duty of care and being the household provider is exhibited in Native Son by Richard Wright. Peggy the chef explains to Bigger how Mr. Dalton provides for his wife and daughter, and extends the care to his hired help by investing in them financially and emotionally (Wright 55). Regardless of how the Southern Gentleman is displayed fiscally, they always hold a loyalty to their family and do what they can to take care of them. Without the Southern Belle and Gentleman stereotypes being explored through Southern representations, a piece of the Southern culture would be