Gender Issue in Bend It Like Beckham
Exploration of Race and Gender Identity in the Movie ‘Bend it Like Beckham’
SCL 4110 - Gender and Culture Research Paper
Zairen Tasnin
11 April 2013
Word Count: 1,754
Gurinder Chadha is a British filmmaker who wrote, directed and produced the movie Bend it Like Beckham (G. Rings). The movie was premiered in the United States in 2003 and it had won praise from both critics and moviegoers for its accurate representations of the Asian culture (G. Rings) and initiating the topic for investigating a cross cultural study. Bend it like Beckham shows the socializing of the Punjabi Sikh families and the British English societies. It also stages the battle of a young teenage to breakdown the stereotypes placed upon her by her family (M.A. Chacko). Throughout the movie the audience is familiarized with the topics of feminists’ racism, sexism, religion, discrimination and stereotypes. The cultural identity can be defined as our sense of belonging to a particular cultural or ethnic group (M.A. Chacko). Bend it Like Beckham the audience to spectacle Jesminder 's battle to discover her own cultural identity by exploring the main themes of religion, race, and gender.
The main emphasis of this film is on the main character, Jesminder Bhamra (Jess), who is an 18 year old British Indian Sikh teenage girl (G. Rings). She comes from a traditional Indian Sikh family and her aspiration and desire to play football, however due to cultural and traditional conflict, the concept of her playing football is at odds with her familial promises (A. Ratna). In the movie, Jess must decide if she is keen to follow an aspiration of playing football or is she going to respect her parents’ wishes for her to attend University, get married to a ‘nice Indian boy’ and also not break the traditional stereotypical boundaries of her Sikh culture of being woman. However her life is flipped upside down when she meets an English girl named Juliette Paxton (Jules). Like
SCL 4110 - Gender and Culture Research Paper
Zairen Tasnin
11 April 2013
Word Count: 1,754
Gurinder Chadha is a British filmmaker who wrote, directed and produced the movie Bend it Like Beckham (G. Rings). The movie was premiered in the United States in 2003 and it had won praise from both critics and moviegoers for its accurate representations of the Asian culture (G. Rings) and initiating the topic for investigating a cross cultural study. Bend it like Beckham shows the socializing of the Punjabi Sikh families and the British English societies. It also stages the battle of a young teenage to breakdown the stereotypes placed upon her by her family (M.A. Chacko). Throughout the movie the audience is familiarized with the topics of feminists’ racism, sexism, religion, discrimination and stereotypes. The cultural identity can be defined as our sense of belonging to a particular cultural or ethnic group (M.A. Chacko). Bend it Like Beckham the audience to spectacle Jesminder 's battle to discover her own cultural identity by exploring the main themes of religion, race, and gender.
The main emphasis of this film is on the main character, Jesminder Bhamra (Jess), who is an 18 year old British Indian Sikh teenage girl (G. Rings). She comes from a traditional Indian Sikh family and her aspiration and desire to play football, however due to cultural and traditional conflict, the concept of her playing football is at odds with her familial promises (A. Ratna). In the movie, Jess must decide if she is keen to follow an aspiration of playing football or is she going to respect her parents’ wishes for her to attend University, get married to a ‘nice Indian boy’ and also not break the traditional stereotypical boundaries of her Sikh culture of being woman. However her life is flipped upside down when she meets an English girl named Juliette Paxton (Jules). Like