All that is dark can become white: the rules of the game in <u>Bend it Like Beckham</u>

  • Naarah Sawers Deakin University

Abstract

The “light” and uplifting film, Bend it Like Beckham (2002), is deconstructed to expose its passive ideologies that equate physical darkness with regressive cultural and social outlooks and practices.  While Bend it Like Beckham constructs itself as a modern fairy tale of a girl achieving her dream of athletic opportunity and success (with a nice side-dish of romance), the film’s privileging of whiteness is both a cultural and a gendered norm that must be desired and achieved before that dream may come true.

Author Biography

Naarah Sawers, Deakin University
Naarah Sawers is an Associate Lecturer in Literary Studies at Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
Published
2008-02-18
Section
Alice's Academy