annotated bibliography #2 completed

Guadia Azize
Instructor: Magdalena Bogacka
Eng. 101. 0800
November 19th, 2010



Annotated Bibliography



Bissinger, H.G. Fiday Night Lights: A Town a Team and

A Dream. Cambridge: DA CAPO PRESS, 1990.

The author, Bissinger, follows the real-life drama of a high school football team with more history than the town itself. this book tells the story of how one football team raises the spirits of not only the individual athletes, but also that of the local community who never fails to fill "Permian Stadium" to capacity and watch their favorite foot ball team. Topics range from the devotion to a football team in texas to feminine supporting roles and to the emotional moments that bring a bunch of battle-tested young males, helplessly to their knees. This is a well developed narrative in which young adolescent men are portrayed as heroes, and in losing, they are given the form of a cohesive team that gives a spirited effort, but falls short of its goal.

The author, the winner of a pulitzer prize, has written for N.Y.P.D Blue, and is also a contributing editor. The source is quite valuable as it relates to the performative behavior enacted by young high school athletes as they interact amongst themselves and with the opposite sex. This is a reliable source because the author invests a good deal of his time on surveying "The FootBall Team", as he is also a sports fan. However, his affiliation with sports gives a biased perspective on the matter being that he develops an emotional connection with the players themselves. Nonetheless, I agree with his description of masculinity as displayed by the atheletes in "friday Night Lights".

The souce will be helpful as it corrolates with the collective performative behaviors of masculinity as presented in the "Girl Hunt". Moreover, this source has confirmed my opinion concerning men's performative rituals that are incorporated to achieve in-group status. For instance, Coach Gary Gains ushers in a new season of Permian FootBall welcoming his players suggesting "There is twelve hundred boys in Permian High School. You divide that by three and there is four hundred in every class. You guys are a very special breed ...."(Bissinger, 24). The coach is re-energizing the players' testoterone-driven personalities to solidify their roles as a cohesive unit. A type of one-manship that is talked about in "The Girl Hunt".


Butler, Judith Gender Trouble: Feminism And

The Subversion Of Identity New york:

Routledge Classics, 1990.

This particular book talks about the divisive strategies incorporated by the heterosexual epistemology in which identity is used to subordinate a specific groups such as homosexuals, femininity and bisexuals just to name a few. It covers topics ranging from sex/gender signification to solidifying masculinity through the father and son bond to questioning the pratriarchy that makes up labels for the perceived inferior gender. The author goes into detail about the gender contradictions implemented by the dominant male-order.

Judith Butler is maxine Elliot Professor In The Departments Of Rhetoric and Comparative literature and the Director of the Program of the critical theory of the university of California, Berkeley. She received her P.H.D in philosophy from the university in 1984 on the french reception of hegel. This souce is seemingly useful in suggesting that gender is a repeated social performance, where as gender is not thought of as a biological trait. The information illustrated in this source relates to the performative behaviors described by Bissinger, who personally paints a collaborative team effort manifested through supportive group interactions that takes place both on the field and in the locker-rooms. Judith Butler includes reference points made by Faucult, Freud, Kristeva, Irigaray, and wittig all well known academic scholars who have studied the meaning of gender by comparing and contrasting the contingent perception of gender identity in different cultures, particularly in the western hemisphere. The author's opinions, for the most part are objective considering the neutral perspective on feminist theory, masculinity and the other non-heterosexual identity that someone could be involved with to distance himself/herself from the subordination of gender.

I can use this source to illustrate how masculinity has influenced the perception of gender in the context of American culture. Furthermore, it has re-asserted my previous belief on the necessity for young adult males to engage in collective masculinistic rituals to out-do each other or supress the opposite sex by objectifying women or hindering their movement for gender equality. for example, the author questions, "what best way to trouble the gender categories that support gender hierarchy and compulsory herosexulity?" (Butler, xxx). She talks about the contradictory notions that females have to challenge to develop a sense of worthiness by putting less emphasis on the contingent gender binaries.


topic sentence


My argument focuses on how the collective performances of masculinity shapes and influences gender roles in the context of American cuiture.