Bend It Like Beckham

Bend It Like Beckham

The movie “Bend it like Beckham” is an inter-racial comedy that projects a young Indian women's love for soccer and the obstacles and setbacks she has to face to follow her dream. It presents an interesting view of cross cultural beliefs and in this paper I plan to explain some of these concepts while discussing the examples.

The Indian culture is a collectivist culture where the emphasis is on group success and individual ambitions are generally set aside for the attainment of group goals. They have very strict in their beliefs, everything is very formal, and there is only one right way of doing things. The roles each gender plays are consistent and stable throughout generations and the bending or changing of these roles is not acceptable. This includes sexuality and traditions. Males in the Indian culture are expected to get married, have children, and provide a stable and wealthy income for the family. However in the movie Tony, a male friend of Jess's, tells her he "really likes Beckham". During this conversation is when Jess finds out Tony’s true identity, he is gay. The Indian culture does not accept the gay lifestyle thus Tony keeps it a secret to meet the cultural beliefs of his parents. The set expectations for all Indian women are to want to get married, have children, stay home, cook for their husbands, and be a good wife. Pinky, Jess’s older sister, wanted nothing more than to satisfy all of the macro system, exosystem, and microsystem values but Jess wanted more. Jess has played Soccer, or as they call the game in England, Football, since her middle childhood and loves the game. She has amazing skill and passion but has never played anywhere apart from her local park with a bunch of friends. Her talent is spotted by Jules, a player for a local team, The Houndslow Harriers. She asks Jess to try out for the team. Jess easily impresses the skeptical coach, Joe, and he allows her join the team however Jess's parents, especially her mother,...

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