Essay about Bend It Like Beckham Essay

Bianca Caldas Ms. Coniglio ENG 3U February 22nd, 2013 Gender inequality vs. Culture issues In the movie “Bend it Like Beckham”, Jesminder’s family is living in a world full of injustices. The fact that they are immigrants living in England challenges them to fit in the community. Not only they suffer from culture discrimination and gender inequality but throughout the movie her father, Mr. Bhamra also feels rejected by not being able to play cricket due to these consequences.
At at the end they realize that racist and close-minded individuals are everywhere and if you desire to be a star, you do not have to accept anybody’s negative opinions but alternately put in the effort yourselves. When moving to another country, culture impact is what shocks families the most. In this case, Mr. Bhamra does not get accepted into a sports team because the way he presents himself, dressing differently from the norm, and the coaches do that welcome that.
Due to this past experience that took place when he first came to the country, he closes many doors to his daughter, Jess, by not letting her go to practices, being on his wife’s side and thinking that he is only doing that to protect her from getting rejected and influencing her to profound her Indian culture values. This turns out to be a very difficult situation for Jesminder to handle because without her father’s support, she might end up being a failure.

People say that gender stratification is not a common treatment amongst individuals anymore. But in the film, Jess’ father prohibits her from playing soccer because he assumes that it is not a sport for females, and that she will end up obtaining rejection from coaches and friends, just like he did as a teenager. Also because his wife acquaints him with false information stating that Jesminder’s sexuality would change, which results frightening him and causes him to restrain her from the activity completely.
Jess accepts this in a very harsh way but does not give up and continues to play soccer without her father’s permission. The modern society states that culture and gender inequality is not in common use anymore, but that does not mean people will stop applying these injustices to others. Throughout the film Mr. Ghamra forbids Jesminder to carry out her passion, which is playing soccer, because he does not agree that ladies should perform the sport and because is not an Indian –like culture task.
At the end of the movie he realizes that he cannot guard her forever and that she needs to defend herself alone with courage if she is willing to take risky chances. He becomes aware that it is not the world’s duty to change others but the person’s own to face their challenges. The situation shown in the film proves how Mr. Ghamra and his family suffered from different cultural conflicts between each other and others surrounding them.
Certain gender issues and inequalities ,as a result of culture misunderstandings, also affect them. Although Mr. Bhamra did not accept his daughter eagerness to play soccer he realized that letting her persuade her dreams was the best option for her future. Concluding that, according to the film, it does not matter what people say or influence you to do, anything is possible and if you do not risk given chances, others will take along with your dreams.