Bend It Like Beckham Film Analysis

Bend it Like Beckham is a 2002 British film depicting the lives of two teenage female soccer players. Jess Bhamra is the daughter of strict Punjabi Indians living in a borough of London. She’s had a deep love for the game of soccer her whole life, yet her parents do not allow her to play because of their cultural beliefs. Despite her parent’s rules, Jess often plays with boys in a park where she first encounters Jules Paxton. Jules sees Jess playing in the park and invites her to join the women’s team she plays for, the Hounslow Harriers. Behind her parent’s backs, Jess joins the team and quickly becomes close friends with Jules. Bend it Like Beckham shows the clash that occurs when religion and culture intersect with sport, while also touching on subjects such as homophobia and gender norms.

Jess’ parents emigrated from India before she was born. Although she’s English by birth, her parents raised her and her sister Pinky according to the strict morals they were taught as children. In the eye’s of her parents, girls were supposed to learn to

cook and sew in order to attract the best men when it came time to arrange a marriage. They certainly weren’t supposed to participate in sports since it was considered unladylike and would ruin their chances of finding a husband. When Jess is invited to join Jules’s soccer team she knows her parents would not approve so she tells them she has a job so that they won’t question her when she leaves the house everyday for practice. Jess’s parent’s unwillingness to accept changes that conflict with their cultural beliefs is a major theme in the movie.
Jess is caught practicing with her team multiple times throughout the course of the movie and each time she’s brought back home, put into traditional clothing, and forced back into the kitchen with her mother. The power of elders within her culture also has an impact on Jess. While it may be easy for her white friends to simply say no to their parents, the religion and culture Jess was raised in teaches children from a young age to always respect their elders. Later in the movie, it’s revealed that Jess’s father had tried out for a cricket team when he first arrived in the United Kingdom, yet had been laughed at and turned away by the blatantly racist players. His scarring experience had turned him away from ever trying out for any type of team again, and he extended the same rule to his daughters out of fear of them getting hurt.
Many of the Punjabi beliefs emphasize the heteronormativity and restrictive gender roles that are strong within the community. The idea of building a young girls’ life around her future husband implies that the greatest thing a woman can aspire to is to be a good wife with a successful husband. Putting this type of pressure on girls at a time when they are most unsure of themselves is destructive and confusing. When a couple of women witness what they believe to be Jess kissing Jules at a bus stop, Jess’s parents are distraught at the negative cloud cast over their entire family. Pinky’s wedding is broken off when her fiancee’s family hears the news and the blame is placed entirely on Jess. The deep rooted homophobia within the community not only negatively impacts Jess, but also her friend Tony. While talking about Jess’s future in soccer, Tony reveals to Jess that he is gay. While she accepts him for who he is, they both realize he can’t come out without being shamed and ostracized by the people closest to him.
However, the homophobia displayed in Punjabi culture is not exclusive to the Indian community. When Jules and Jess get in an argument, Jules’s mother overhears the fight and misinterprets it as an argument between a couple. She immediately jumps to the conclusion that Jules is gay and begins to cry, wondering where she went wrong in raising her. While she claims that she has no problem with Jules’s projected sexuality, her actions speak otherwise. Earlier in the movie Jules had let Jess borrow a pair of her mother’s shoes for her to wear to her sister’s wedding. When the wedding day arrives, Mrs. Paxon sees Jess wearing her shoes and lashes out, telling her to “get your lesbian feet out of my shoes.” The strong, anti-gay mentality within the Indian community, as well as Jules mother’s actions towards both her daughter and Jess when she presumes them to be dating, illustrate the theme of homophobia in Bend it Like Beckham.
In addition to homophobia, the topic of sexism also has a large presence in Bend it Like Beckham and is intertwined with heteronormativity in many aspects.

When the movie delves into Joe’s background, he confesses that his father had pushed him to pursue soccer even though he didn’t really want to. After Joe’s career was ended by a knee injury, he began coaching the local girl’s team. In the eyes of Joe’s father coaching girls is embarrassing and not up to the level of coaching men. Joe’s father’s opinion perpetuates the idea that women’s sports aren’t as good or exciting as men’s. Although he’s clearly not alone in his sexist beliefs; women get less funding, less support, and fewer opportunities than their male counterparts by far, especially in England where soccer is a highly masculinized sport. Jules and Jess knew their only opportunity to continue playing would be to get a soccer scholarship to a college in the

USA.
While it may be classified as a comedy, Bend it Like Beckham addresses many of the issues faced by female athletes of color in today’s society. Jess’s struggle between wanting to please her parents and continuing to play the game she loves illustrates the power elders have in some cultures. Her father’s rejection from the cricket team is an example of how racism not only affects the person it’s directed at, but everyone close to that person as well. The accusations and fear shrouded in homophobia not only impact Jess, but Jules as well. Female athletes are often called homophobic slurs based on their appearance or perceived sexual orientation. This homophobia is often closely related to sexism in the world of sports as sports are often considered to be a “man’s world.” Female athletes aren’t treated with the same respect as male athletes which is demonstrated by the lack of opportunities provided to Jules and Jess, as well as Joe’s father’s disdain when he finds out his son is coaching girls. A combination of cultural and social issues are brought to the forefront in Bend it Like Beckham, while still providing the viewer with an interesting and quick-witted storyline.