Conflict in Bend It Like Beckham

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Kelsey Hedges
Mrs. Brigger
Pap English II
4 November 2014
Does Mother Truly Know Best?

In a world where equality of genders, races, and sexual orientations are rapidly making

strides toward improvement, older generations may find difficulty in identifying with and advising those who follow them. This misunderstanding between generations is evident in Bend it Like Beckham. Jess, a young Indian girl who lives in England with her family, struggles against her parents to pursue her passion – soccer. Jess’s conflict with her parents regarding whether or not she should play soccer is resolved when her parents begin to understand the changing times along with Jess’s desires, demonstrating that parents are sometimes unable to see what is truly best for their children.
From the moment Jess is introduced in the film on, she is portrayed either talking about or playing soccer in nearly every scene she appears in.. Throughout the movie, she vents her feelings to a David Beckham poster affixed to the wall above her bed, and her love for the sport is clearly evident as she expresses to the poster how she longs for her parents to understand the passion she has for the sport. One day while playing in the park, Jess is invited to join an all­girls soccer team, practices and competes with the team, and learns that she has an opportunity to earn a scholarship which would allow her to play and receive an education in America. Jess’s love for soccer is clearly immense, and she aspires to make a career of it. Her passion for soccer

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combined with her new­found opportunities would be considered ideal, if only her parents approved. Jess’s parents are strongly opposed to her playing soccer for a multitude of reasons. Her

mother believes she should be focused on ideals important to traditional Indian culture, such as cooking Indian cuisine and finding a good Indian husband, as Jess’s sister, Pinky has done. In one scene in the park, Jess’s mother witnesses her playing soccer in shorts, and is immediately enraged by Jess’s lack of modesty, her legs visible to the many people ­ more importantly, men ­ in the park. Her father’s argument against the sport is presented when her coach attempts to persuade her parents of soccer’s splendor by paying a visit to their home. Jess’s father laments over his past love of cricket and the English cricket club which turned him away due to cultural differences. He desires only what will make his daughters happy, and so in prohibiting Jess’s pursuit of soccer, he believes he is protecting her from future heartache. Jess’s mother is too caught up in her own perception of how Jess should grow up and behave according to Indian culture to appreciate, or even consider, the desires of her daughter. Jess’s father is blinded by his own experiences in a time long gone so that he is unable to comprehend how much English society has moved toward cultural acceptance since his dream of playing cricket died. Both parents want what is best for Jess, but her mother believes that lies in traditional Indian practices, and her father believes soccer will only lead to sadness for her.

After seeing Jess play and how happy the sport makes her, Jess’s father allows her to

sneak out of her sister’s wedding to compete in a tournament where she is offered a scholarship to America. He then relates to the rest of Jess’ family the experience he had while watching her play in realizing that she has a talent and passion for soccer – that for her to pursue soccer does

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not conflict with, and in fact could be blatantly in the name of, Indian culture. This speech evokes a change of heart by Jess’s mother as she comes to realize that perhaps a career in soccer is what is truly best for Jess. After all, it makes her happy, she’s good at it, and she has been given an opportunity to pay for her education with it.

This conflict’s weight to film as a whole lies in the theme it illustrates: Parents, although

they mean to lead their children toward what is best for them, do not always know what the best is. Jess’s passion for soccer and the opportunities the sport lends to her make her pursuit of a future in soccer more fulfilling and beneficial to her than attempting to live by her parents’ plans for her. Jess was uninterested in marriage and depicted as unhappy in scenes such as Pinky’s engagement party and wedding, where she was surrounded by traditional Indian culture, but prohibited from doing what brings her joy ­ playing soccer. For this reason, Jess would be happier pursuing soccer than setting the sport aside in favor of a life governed strictly by cultural rules. Jess’s parents want what is best for her, they simply misunderstand what that is.
Jess’s parents grew up in a time where it was not socially or culturally acceptable for an
Indian girl to play soccer, especially in a country dominated by a culture other than their own.
Their inability to understand English society’s shift toward equality in gender and race demonstrates the theme that, due to a constantly shifting society, parents may not always be able to understand what is best for their children. The times are changing, just as they always have been. Each day marks a step forward, a step towards the future, which conversely is a step away from the past. As time goes on, people change. Society as a whole morphs to the needs, desires, abilities, and opportunities lent to it, and those whose minds do not follow this change in society may find it challenging to identify with the generations following them.