Indian traditional gender role

 Recently, I watched a movie called "Bend It Like Beckham". In this movie, there are some scenes that represent Indian traditional gender role. As you may know, traditional gender role varies from culture to culture.

  In the movie, Jess, the protagonist is expected to marry a "good Sikh man". Since the gender role of traditional Indian female is to do the household chores, she is expected to learn cooking; such as dhal and chapati. If you don't know what dhal and chapati are, the picture is shown at the bottom of this blog. Despite the expectation from her parents especially her mother, she loves to play football and dislikes cooking. This creates conflicts between her and her mother.

 The scene that highlights the traditional gender role is when Jess' mother says " No Indian girls are expected to play football especially those who cannot even make chapatis". This quote shows that in Indian Sikh culture, girls are expected to be able to do all the household chores especially cooking  instead of fulfilling their personal dreams such as becoming a professional football player like David Beckham.

If you have watched the movie "Bend It Like Beckham" before and felt differently, please feel free to leave any comments below.  

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dhal(dried pulse whic has been split)                              chapati (unleavened flat-bread from India)


Word Count 226