My emotional reaction to Bend It Like Beckham was to feel the release of joy at the end of the film when Jess is finally wished well by her parents in the pursuit of her love for and talent in soccer. I felt enormous release in this eventual nurturing quality developed in her parents by JessÆ obvious love for and talent for something that goes against most of the norms for this traditional Indian family.
Being raised in a traditionally ethnic family, I related to both Jess and her good friend and fellow soccer-player Jules. In the film I could relate to JessÆ and conflict with her ethnically traditional mother who continually tries to guide her development in line with conventional values Jess that Jess finds limiting. Jess development is limited because she does not want to learn how to cook traditional Indian dishes or get married to a nice Indian man. She wants to play soccer. As she tells her mother at one point, ôAnyone can cook aloo gobi, but who can bend a ball like Beckham,ö (Chadha, 2002). Beckham is in reference to the continentÆs biggest soccer superstar, David Beckham. In this confrontation we see Jess try to assert her individuation from both her mother and norms and roles in her cultural environment she finds limiting to her personal growth and happiness.
I could also relate to JulesÆ confrontation with her mother over sexual identity issues. While I always knew I was conventionally heterosexual, instead of thinking I was a lesbian because I liked sports my mother said I would be considered a tomboy because I had male friends and liked to hang with them more than my female friends. When I did I was usually in jeans and a hoodie or sweatshirt, so she thought I would be considered masculine or unladylike. JulesÆ mother often confronts her daughter over her sexuality because of JulesÆ love of sports. At one point she says to Jules who has borrowed her shoes, ôTake your lesbian feet
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