Bend It Like Beckham

Essay by luc3College, Undergraduate May 2004

download word file, 7 pages 5.0

Multiculturalism, "being the quest to achieve equal recognition and inclusion for the many diverse cultures which constitute the United States, is an unmistakable feature of our present society"(Long VII). According to Lisa Lowe's essay, "Imaging Los Angeles in the Production of Multiculturalism", multiculturalism involves:

The important differences and contradictions within and among racial and ethnic minority groups according to the discourse of pluralism, which asserts that American culture is a democratic terrain to which every variety of constituency making the existence of exclusions by recuperating dissent, conflict, and otherness through the promise of inclusion(Lowe 529).

Media is one of the biggest promoters of multiculturalism. Media representations help build our images and understanding of the world we live in. Studies have shown the importance role of the media in impacting public opinion (Fiske 21). Images of race, gender, sexuality, and cultural differences are in part generated by cultural representations in media.

Negative stereotyping presents harmful cultural images, therefore, multiculturalism is needed to diversify representations and capture the cultural wealth of contemporary America. Promoting multiculturalism through the media, informs the public of the inequities and injustices of our society based on gender, race, and class, and thus promote a positive understanding of multiculturalism. The movie Bend It like Beckham is an example of a positive multiculturalism in that it addresses cultural clashes, female independence and the importance of family.

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Bend It Like Beckham, directed by Gurinder Chadka, is an example of a multicultural film that deals with inter-ethnic issues. This movie deals with powerful

issues that today's teenagers in an increasingly multi-cultural world are facing, and it shows how these issues can be worked through and ultimately resolved. This is a movie about determination and about the delicate balance between honoring old traditions and being true to oneself.