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Recommended: Media effects in contemporary society

This paper looks at the film Bend it like Beckham, and societal conflicts highlighted in the film. The film was made in 2002 and directed by the Kenyan born, British filmmaker Gurinder Chanda. It is categorized as a comedy/ drama/ romance film. The main character Jasminder “Jess” Bhamra is the youngest daughter of a Punjabi “Sikh” family who lives in London England. Jess has a dream of becoming a professional female soccer player, but her parent’s strict rules and society’s strong ideals stand in her way. The movie shows how she perseveres against the odds and achieves her dream. The title is used as a metaphor for how Jess bends the rules of her parents and society and goes for her goal. The same way David Beckham is able bend the ball in a way to confuse the goalie and score a goal. The movie brings in to view conflicts in society, which includes discrimination, Stereotypes, gender roles and racism.

The film starts out with a scene of a soccer match in which David Beckham passes the ball to his teammate, and she heads it in for a goal. The next scene shows a panel of sports commentators talking about the amazing header and how the girl, whom we learn is jess, is the next big football star. They have Jess’s mom in the studio with them, and when they ask her if she is proud of her daughter, she says that she is not and that Jess has brought shame to the family. In their culture girls are not supposed to play sports and wear revealing clothes, though the only thing jess revealed was her legs. The next scene is Jess’s mom barging into Jess’s room where she just happens to be watching television. We realize that the first two scenes were Jess daydreaming and I believe this was to foreshadow the overall theme of the movie and what i...

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...on certain things while allowing them to come to their own conclusion. During the soccer matches they tended to zoom in on the players feet and the ball. Personally I believe that they were trying to highlight that females have great skills when it comes to ball handling. Portraying that they are really good at soccer. There are also a few scenes where they slow everything down or don’t have any music in the background. I think this was to put the focus on how real the situation was. This may have just been a movie, but the content was real. Relating directly to aspects of everyday life that many people can relate to. It is still relevant today because even though there has been a change, we know that society’s norms are rooted in history and we cant change history easily it takes time and perseverance, which jess showed in the way she persevered to reach her goals.

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