{"id":274481,"date":"2010-02-04T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhrealitycheck.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/03\/friday-night-lights-abortion-plotline-mustsee-tv"},"modified":"2010-02-03T20:45:58","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T01:45:58","slug":"friday-night-lights-abortion-plotline-is-must-see-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/274481","title":{"rendered":"Friday Night Lights Abortion Plotline is Must-See TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nTwo weeks ago, DirecTV aired an episode of Friday Night Lights<\/em> (FNL) that very quietly
\nmade a mini-kind of television history. As many writers throughout the feminist
\nblogosphere noted with approval<\/a>, the show
\ndepicted a character having an abortion in a very nonpolitical, personal way.
\nThe last onscreen abortion in my memory is Claire’s on Six Feet Under<\/em><\/a>, although that was premium cable. Before
\nthat, as Jessica Grose pointed out on Double X<\/a>, we had Maude
\n<\/em>in 1972.\n<\/p>\n

\nIt’s been a long time, but FNL is the right show to break that barrier.
\nOstensibly about football, it’s really about small-town life in Dillon, Texas,
\nfeaturing some of the best female characters on TV and an honest take on teen
\nsexuality. My second column for RH Reality Check<\/a>, two years ago, discussed a great pro-choice
\nspeech made by an unexpectedly pregnant character on FNL, even as she wavered
\nabout keeping the pregnancy. A year ago, I wrote about<\/a> a talk between character Tami Taylor and her
\ndaughter Julie, one of the best "sex talks" I’ve ever seen on TV.\n<\/p>\n

\nMy guess is the writers of the show, so committed to exploring tough issues,
\nhave long wanted to tackle abortion. Their move to DirectTV enabled them to
\ntruly face the topic head on, as well as dealing even more explicitly with
\nrace, class, gender and sexuality than they have before.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe "abortion episode" centers around a young girl, Becky, who
\nis in love with an older character, Tim Riggins. After Tim gently rejects her
\nkiss due to their age difference, Becky has a brief fling with a boy her age, a
\nfootball player named Luke. She realizes she’s pregnant and initially wants to
\nget an abortion, but wavers when Luke begs her to think her choice through, and
\nalso when she realizes that her mother gave birth to her as a teenager. Tim
\nfinds Becky utterly distraught, and takes her to Tami Taylor, his former
\ncoach’s wife, for advice. Although Tami works at a different school than Becky
\nattends, Tim knows that the Taylors are one of the more stable families in town
\nand are used to counseling the youth of Dillon.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen Becky tells Tami she’s pregnant, Tami, a school principal who was trained
\nas a guidance counselor, follows counseling protocol, with a tender tone in her
\nvoice. She makes sure first of all that Becky is safe at home and not being
\nabused. She asks if Becky wants referrals to adoption or teen mom resources.
\nBecky says she’s not sure she wants to have the baby, and Tami says she can get
\nher that information as well. When she realizes Becky is safe at home, she
\ntells Becky the first thing she should do is talk her situation over with her
\nmother.\n<\/p>\n

\nBecky tells her mother, who flies into a fit–reminded of her own teen
\npregnancy–and they proceed forward with trying to get an abortion. The episode
\ndepicts the way anti-choice laws affect this family. Becky’s mother, a single
\nmom who waits tables to make ends meet, has to take two days off, one for the
\ninitial appointment and one for the abortion because of a waiting period. The
\ndoctor is mandated to tell them about the gestational age of the fetus, which
\nupsets both women.\n<\/p>\n

\nFinally, late at night and right before her abortion, Becky comes back to Tami
\nand asks her advice a final time. The transcript is below, thanks to Melissa
\nSilverstein of Women + Hollywood.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\tBecky: I
\n\thave an appointment for my abortion tomorrow. Why do I feel so weird?\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tTammy:
\n\tBecause it’s a hard decision. Have you thought about what you want?\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBecky: We
\n\tdon’t have any money. I’m in the 10th grade. It was my first time and I threw
\n\tit away and I don’t want to throw my life away. It’s just really obvious that
\n\tmy mom wants me to have this abortion because I was her mistake and she has
\n\tjust struggled and hurt and everyday she wanted better. And I knew better and I
\n\twas just thinking forget about what she wants, what do I want? Maybe I could
\n\ttake care of this baby and maybe I would be good at it and I could love it and
\n\tI would be there for it. And then I think about how awful it would be if I had
\n\ta baby and I spent the rest of my life resenting him or her.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you
\n\tthink I am going to hell if I had an abortion?\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tTammy: No
\n\thoney, I don’t.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBecky: What
\n\twould you tell your daughter?\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tTammy: I
\n\twould tell her to think about her life, think about what’s important to her and
\n\twhat she wants and I would tell her she’s in a real tough spot and then I would
\n\tsupport whatever decision she made.\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBecky. I
\n\tcan’t take care of a baby. I can’t.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nBecky’s words, "I can’t" are the title of the episode. By its
\nconclusion, Becky has had the procedure; on the phone she tells Luke "it
\nwas the right choice." For the most part, we’ve watched a character arrive
\nat this decision from an honest, intensely personal, non-ideological
\nstandpoint.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn subsequent episodes, however, ideology enters the storyline in an unexpected
\nway. Becky ends up being able to return, somewhat, to normal, mooning over Tim
\nand trying to figure out what she wants from him. But the ramifications
\nfor Tami from her moment of midnight counsel will continue. Luke’s
\nmother, an evangelical Christian, shows up to Becky’s house to have a friendly
\nchat. Becky, happy to talk to any adult who seems caring, tells her the whole
\nstory. Luke’s mom seizes on Tami as the villain, unwilling to blame either
\nyoung person or Becky’s mom for what she believes is a terrible sin. She begins
\na single-minded campaign to get Tami fired, believing that Tami told <\/em>Becky to have an abortion. Tami is
\nher feisty self when the school board meets to discuss what happened, but her
\nstruggle against the anti-choice forces in town are far from over. As happens
\nover and over again on Friday Night
\nLights<\/em>, Tami will faces a series of conflicts between her personal and
\nprofessional integrity one one side and smoothing things over and moving
\nforward on the other. She has energized the academics at her school, and wants
\nto be able to continue helping kids without being harassed. This is what the
\nshow is all about–decent people like Becky and Tami, put in hard positions by
\nlife’s unexpected occurrences.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe irony is not lost on viewers: Tami is being accused of foisting her values
\non Becky. But she simply listened to Becky and didn’t judge her. Tami certainly
\ndoesn’t have an agenda, while her accusers do
\n<\/em>have an agenda for young girls in the town. I can honestly say that it’s
\none of the best depictions of the sheer irrationality that enters the discourse
\naround abortion that I’ve ever seen. This is a small town in the Bible Belt.
\nThere are no militantly feminist pro-choicers milling around to combat the
\nconservative faction. There are just those who empathize with Becky’s plight
\nand those who want to tell her what to do.\n<\/p>\n

\nNBC has picked up this
\nseason<\/a> of Friday Night Lights<\/em> for prime time
\nbroadcast in April now that Jay Leno is gone from that time slot. It will be virtually impossible
\nto broadcast this season without the abortion plot-line, but the show will be
\ncut down to make room for commercials, so it may be softened. It’s going to be
\nvery, very important to keep an eye on how this series is treated by NBC and
\nwhether it garners protests, because Becky’s abortion will really be momentous
\nif it gets depicted on a major network.\n<\/p>\n

\nFriday Night Lights <\/em>isn’t perfect. It lacks the tight, subtle writing of a
\ncable show and occasionally its unabashed earnestness leads to stereotypical
\nsituations (quarterback with an addict mom turns to crime to pay her bills,
\nfarm kid’s parents want him to skip practice to help out on the ranch). But
\nit’s a humane show despite its brutal story-lines, and the incredible casting
\nand writing make viewers believe in the uniqueness and moral potential of each
\ncharacter, even the "types." That includes the moral potential of
\nwomen who have abortions and help each other have them, and while that
\nshouldn’t be remarkable, it is. This is the season for feminists to tune in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, DirecTV aired an episode of Friday Night Lights (FNL) that very quietly made a mini-kind of television history. As many writers throughout the feminist blogosphere noted with approval, the show depicted a character having an abortion in a very nonpolitical, personal way. The last onscreen abortion in my memory is Claire’s on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4705,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}