Bend It Like Beckham

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Gurinder Chadha is a British film director who is infamously known for her work, Bend It Like Beckham, a movie about a young Indian girl wanting to play football. Although, at the surface the movie is centralized on the protagonist Jesminder Bhamra, wanting to play football, the movie goes deeper by introducing the audience to gender roles, culture, and sexuality. Throughout the film the Chadha expresses how these three social issues affect the characters and how they learn to become free by accepting who they are. The first social issue seen are gender roles, which can be cultural or personal. Gender roles are placed by society determining how males or females should behave within the context of a society. This is first seen by the character…show more content…
For generations the ideal image of females are pink, frilly, dresses because women aren’t meant to seem masculine. Masculinity is tied with sports such as football. Mrs. Paxton does not approve of Jules choice in being athletic in football, she’d much rather see her daughter dress more to her expectations, or go out with boys. Mr. Paxton however is a supporting masculine character who does not believe in this gender role. For example, “Jules also enjoys the support of her father, who would rather see her play sports than pursue boys. Such nods of approval from particular members of the male population provide an optimistic view that men are not necessarily the ‘enemy’, and that forward-thinking attitudes can, and do, prevail” (Raschke 125). Throughout the entirety of the film the audience watches as Mrs. Paxton attempts to understand her daughter and approve of her way of life. In one scene at particular Mr. Paxton is teaching Mrs. Paxton the concept of football using different bottles of spices and condiments. While gender roles are still prevalent in regards to Mrs. Paxton, she realizes that in order to keep her family together she must learn to accept that football can be the one

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