Break Free-Reflection #2

Unfortunately this has been a slow week for me. Recovering from bronchitis made participating in the outing to the DC United game impossible. However, I did enjoy watching Bend It Like Beckham, applying it to our study of How Soccer Explains the World. Considering the radical hooligans of football as explained by Foer, Bend It Like Beckham gives a lighter, more humorous approach to English football. Through the movie, it became clear that Foer adequately explained the cultural divides football manages to transcend.

Looking at the Bahmra family, we see a microcosm for globalization. The elders long for their children to retain their culture, while the children explore the world around them and adapt to an English way of life. Yes, they speak the language of their parents and understand the basis of their Indian culture. They are also homogenous with their English counterparts. Jess grows up playing football as much as she can, but eventually her parents put an end to it in favor of her learning how to be a proper Punjabi. However, once someone tastes their passion and acknowledges their gift they never want to stop. This conflict encourages Jess to continue her passion and deceive her parents.

As the world becomes a more intermingled place, we will begin to experience the cultures of one another. I think that Jess only wanted to be more of an Anglophile. She saw football as a way to blend in with the world around her, it was also her passion and something she had been blessed to be gifted with. She saw the world as coming together. Traditional gender roles, as defined by her Punjabi culture were dissolving into the pages of history and she intended to be at the forefront of new wave of independent thinking and living for women around the world.

This was not the first time I had seen Bend It Like Beckham. After seeing it again, it was interesting to recognize how this movie could be used as a metaphor for globalization. I consider the film to be one of the most progressive forms of filmmaking in the modern time. Directed by an Indian woman, Bend It Like Beckham, reaches into the depths of Indian culture and spits out a beautiful story about learning to be an individual in a world that encouraged everyone to fit into the same form. As our weeks turn into months here at American, I hope to break out of the form and be my own person, just like Jess[minder] Bahmra (minus the football kit and boots).