In what ways is Friday Night Lights a book about sports and sexuality? There are, of course, the Pepettes, but what else from this text is either explicitly or implicitly about sex or gender performance?
Friday Night Lights is a book that is mostly in part about a football team in a small town, Odessa Texas, that is faced with many struggles and trials, the guys on the football team is held in high regards in Odessa. They are looked at as the town hero’s, which places a major emphasis on male sexuality, in that the women are considered minuet, as the whole town looks up to the football team and expects nothing but Championships, from the team. Today football is known as a fun sport for young men of all ages, quite the contrary for the young men on the Panthers football team of Odessa, Texas. A lot of pressure was placed upon the young men of this town, which made the book even more about a group of young men, who was the center of attention in this town. Friday Night Lights is explicitly known for its gender (male) performance.
Who's your favorite athlete in this book and why?
Boobie, was my favorite athlete on the Permian team, reason being Boobie considered himself the epitome of the football team. He thought he was unstoppable as well as irreplaceable, he never expected the turn of events his life would endure regarding his football career. Although he was stripped of the one thing he loved the most, he found out that there is life after football, even it’s at the expense of him not obtaining his dream, and he was eventually able to gain the courage to see a positive in his situation. He was a person who you didn’t expect to ever find the strength to regain a positive mindset after his unexpected end of his career.
Why do you think Bissinger chooses to include a chapter about the Oil Boom/Bust, the rivalry with Midland, and the 1988 Presidential Campaign in this book that is supposed to be about a high school football team?
In my opinion, Bissinger included this chapter, because all three were in correlation of each and each of the events would impact the Panthers of Permian football team in the year of 1988. The Oil Boom/Bust affected the town tremendously in that a lot of the people in the town left because of the Oil Bust, which would place an ever greater pressure upon the football team. The time of the Oil Boom/Bust was leading up to the rivalry game with Midland; the team needed all the support they could get with this team that they feared the most. At this time the Presidential Campaign was going on and the town was depending upon the hope of the Democratic Party to make a financial gain for the town.
Works Cited
, Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004, c1990, 2003.
