Cultural Assessment: The Film Bend It like Beckham

    Cultural Assessment Assignment Name Institution N3352 Legacy of the Family Date   Introduction The film Bend It like Beckham focuses on the experiences of Jesminder (Jess) Bhamra a young woman of Sikh Punjabi origin raised in England. The family that seeks to hold onto customs and culture and the family members are not enthusiastic as she wants to be a football (soccer) player like David Beckham (Chadha et al., 2003). Jess is at crossroads as she wants be like everyone else and make her own choices, but she still wants to respect her family’s tradition. Jess parents lack of approval in her playing soccer and living close to a community of fellow Sikhs meant that there were more restrictions than fellow players whose parents supported their efforts. Description of Movie Family Like other Indian families, the social relations in the Bhamra family are rigid as are the gender roles where people are expected to conform (Chadha et al., 2003). Jess’s mother disapproves her habits of going out and playing spots as it reflects badly on her a teenage girl and the family. Additionally, the parents expect to an arranged marriage in future with a groom chosen and accepted by the family and the groom’s family. There is pressure to maintain a positive family image and especially among female family members including Jess’s married  sister, as they are expected not to do things that ‘shame’ or  tarnish the family’s name at any cost. Since Jess is free spirited this creates tension with her family who wanted to restrict her social life. Juliette (Jules) Paxton who is Jess’s friend and of English descent also came from a conservative family, who desired that, she stayed at home rather than engage in sports. Assessment of Culture and Ethnic Traits In the comedy film, there is more pressure for women to conform to the socially accepted ways and roles. For instance, Jess was expected to spend more time at home and do household chores and cook rather than engage in sports like boys. It is not the immediate family who closely monitor the lives of girls and women, but also the British Indian community in the neighborhood.  The people also come together more often for events and ceremonies like weddings, which brings people closer together, and even in such case traditions influences what males and female members of the society do and act. There is a strong sense of community, and sincerity influences how the people interact and communicate with each other. In the rigid family structure the father makes the major decisions, but the mothers mainly focus on managing the household (Friedman, Jones & Bowden, 2003). At the same time, Jess and her sister were expected to obey their parents and not question them as they would be seen to babe rude not ladylike. This is one of the reasons there was tension between Jess and her parents, even as her father became more accepting that playing soccer was not bad after all.  Th...