Bend It Like Beckham is a 2003 film starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightly. Jess Bahmra, played by Nagra, lives with her traditional Indian family who expects her to soon get married and settle down. However Jess is much more interested in soccer, playing whenever she gets a chance. After Jules Paxton, Knightly, observes Jess playing soccer in the park, Jules invites Jess to a team practice. Jess devotes more time to soccer joining the team Jules plays for, all the while developing a friendship with Jules. Jess's parents oppose the idea of her future involving soccer and attempt to intervene when they see how dedicated she is becoming. Yet Jess finds ways around the restrictions her parents enforce. The movie follows Jess's conflicts between family tradition, her dreams of playing soccer and developing relationships. This movie passes the Bechdel Test for multiple reasons. Primarily the story focuses on a female with a goal that does not involve a man. Besides the two leading actresses there are various established female characters which engage with one another on matters other than men. The film in whole circulates around the female in sports and includes the topic of a woman's expected role in society. Bend Like Beckham is an enjoyable film with an engaging story line which is entirely inclusive to females. This movie ceases from being old.
Bend It Like Beckham meets the standards of my own anti-gender bias film test as well.
My standards being:
Bebé Jesús loves his oso de peluche (teddy bear), Teddy, so much he can't imagine ever living without him. One day Teddy goes missing. What does Bebé Jesús do? Will he ever be with Teddy again? Watch to find out on this mini-telenovela "¿Dónde estás, Teddy?"
I can’t remember.
It sounds like an excuse, but it’s always been a serious problem for me. What I can’t remember, I can’t write, talk about, or do. The vivid details that many people love to write about are missing from my mind, which makes it difficult to write anything well.
I can’t picture things in my mind. I don’t remember what a face looked like the second I turn away from it, I don’t remember what a voice sounds like the second I stop listening, I don’t remember what a sensation feels like the second I stop feeling.
I can’t remember my sister’s words and actions and feelings when she was accepted into SLA. I can remember that she did. I can remember that she was excited. But that hardly makes for a good story to say: “She got into SLA. She was excited.”
I can’t remember what it felt like to blow past a deadline last year, or the year before, but at least I can imagine the feeling of dread knowing you need to write, you can write, you have to write, you will write, you don’t write. This feeling is constant.
It’s amazing how literal things can be sometimes. Before I came to SLA, I thought being “under pressure” was just a figure of speech. But since then, I’ve come to be familiar with the vise around the temples that is missed expectations. The pain of not knowing is a splitting headache, one that lets up only when I allow myself to not care. This feeling is constant.
I consider myself to be good at making words line up with punctuation so that they sound nice. Sometimes those words even mean something.
I am not a good writer. I can’t conjure descriptions that instantly bring to mind the feelings my readers and I have in common because I don’t remember what those feelings were like. I can’t conjure descriptions of the canyon I hiked down in 9th grade because I don’t remember what the canyon looked like, what it felt like. I can’t conjure descriptions of what it felt like to be in the hospital thinking I might have to give up one of the only things I love because I don’t remember. I can’t conjure descriptions because I can’t remember.
It’s frustrating trying to remember and not being able to, not being able to write. Frustration is a hot feeling, an angry, bitter feeling, a feeling of disappointment, a feeling of entitlement. I need to remember in order to write, I think, and if I don’t I’ll fail. I should be able to remember, I think, so why can I not? I know the answer, of course, is that I don’t know, and that answer is as frustrating as the question.
I can remember frustration vividly because I am describing it to you, my reader, as it happens.
Some of my earliest memories involve the Atlantic Ocean, swimming in it and laying on its beach in the sun. I remember these things happening. I am sure the water was salty and the sun was hot, these are facts. The sand was gritty, and the jellyfish stung, these are facts. But feelings: how the water tasted, how the sun and sand and felt, how the view looked from the crest of a wave, are missing. I can’t write about those memories, despite cherishing them, despite them being part of the core of my identity, because I know nothing about them that isn’t common knowledge.
I’m talking to my parents. It’s 2014, and I have an english benchmark still to start that was due several days ago. We’re angry at each other because we each feel like the others aren’t listening. They ask why I haven’t started my benchmark. I say I don’t know.
I can’t remember.
It hurts, sometimes. I don’t, or maybe can’t, deal with it very well. The pressure builds, and as it does the familiar feeling of pressure on my head builds with it. I want to do anything else but think, even as I know I need to think, even as I know I need to write, even as I know I need to remember. But I can’t, or maybe don’t, remember.
I switch tabs, and find a comfortable spot, and read about how Joel Embiid is going to save the Sixers, how Chip Kelly ruined Christmas, and how LSV thinks Jace is a format staple. Because being elsewhere is safe. Not thinking doesn’t hurt.
But I can’t not think. Not thinking is dangerous. Not thinking gets me weeks behind with no way to catch up, desperately hoping that next time I think and do my work, so I don’t end up in the same situation, feeling lost and alone and desperate and failure.
The feeling is constant.Remember the Titans
The film that I’m reviewing is Remember the Titans, growing up it was one of my favorite movies, and I am happy to notice that it passes both the Bechdel and the Mako Mori test. Remember the Titans is about a white Virginia high school football team that has to integrate with a black high school that was recently closed. When the two football teams merge not only do the players need to learn to work together but the coaches too. Both coaches have two younger daughters, the white coach has a daughter named Sheryl and the black coach has a daughter named Carol. Both young women interact and chat about football and toys. While both young women aren’t really women it passes both test in my head, because neither test specifies age. The movie is an amazing representation of friendship, camaraderie and teamwork through all the perspectives that are evident in the movie.
What’s even better is that Remember the Titans also passes my test, which requires a movie to have at least two female characters with a prominent role in the film, each with their own story arc. They must conversate about something other than men and should not seem to be “in competition” with each other and at least one of the women must be a woman of color. Essentially my test is the same as the Bechdel and Mako Mori test, but with an added requirement about race.
In class we watched Frontline's Digital Nation. It consisted of a variety of stories about teenagers online. There was a teen with an eating disorder, teen with a secret identity, and another who was a victim of cyber bullying. It talked about parents wanting to know that their kids were safe online, and those who couldn't get through to their teenagers because they were staring at a screen almost 24/7. The most memorable part of the film was the child that hung himself because he was getting cyber bullied. I was so mad that the other kid was encouraging the child to commit suicide and felt that maybe if he wasn’t being manipulated or talked to like that, there may have been a chance that he could still be alive. It’s important to watch these shows because they bring awareness to the actions, repercussions/consequences, and lives of teens online. I will keep my family family safe online by speaking to my kids about online trolls or strangers. I would not want them to talk to anyone online that they don’t know. I’d at least ask that we follow each other on social media so that I know what’s being posted. I would also make sure that they don’t go on any strange sites or post anything controversial as well as anything about their private lives. It’s important to know internet safety in our families so that bad situations don’t arise and the unknown of the internet doesn’t start to confuse us. I would tell parents to make sure that their children don’t talk to strangers online or go on strange sites. I would also say that what a child is posting should be monitored, but not so much that a parent is smothering their child.
Abelardo was murdered and there was supposedly only one witness. Only Detective Eduardo can figure out who committed the crime.
Icarly: IFight Shelby Marx is a film that passes the Bechdel Test.
There are 3 strong women with names, and their names are Carly, Sam, and Shelby Marx.
They are talking about an MMA match, not a romantic interest. The match is the main plot.
Has absolutely nothing to do with romance or intimate relationships between a man and woman.
Icarly: IQuit ICarly passes the Mako Mori Test
The women have their own narrative, and their own issues that have nothing to do with relationships.
They don’t support another man’s story. There are boys that are comedians, they rival with each other, and then Carly and Sam become rivals after talking to the comedians. They had their own narratives. If anything, the boys were supporting THEIR story.
My Test: The Women Empowerment Test. This must not only portray women in a non-degrading way, but must also give women positive messages.
Film: Madea’s Family Reunion. It lets women know that domestic abuse is wrong, and that they should not tolerate that. It lets women know that they should never tolerate abuse from a man. It also gives positive messages about what true love really is.
Trailers
IQuitICarly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCDNAg5DS3s
IFight Shelby Marx: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIESdhfbgiw
Madea’s Family Reunion (clip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N_6--RgdAQ
2a.) A film with mostly women and maybe a male or two
2b.) Main characters consist of black women/girls
2c.) Have to have women who play independent rolesSociety has slowly but surely constructed and destroyed feelings of identity and belonging over a long period of time. Recently, relying on society's opinions has become the only advice needed in order to craft an image, personality, and identity for oneself in order to be accepted by masses. Trends have played a big part in this problem. Trends have been spread through all types of social media available for all age groups. Trends of makeup happen and then we all look the same, trends of big lips happen and we all get botox, trends of a certain name brand occur and we all wear the same outfits, yet we call this original. This is not something we should strive to cut out completely due to trends being used for supporting advertisements of clothing and consumerist items. The change that we need to make as a whole is being able to find ourself instead of others finding us.
Society has constructed the feeling of identity by saying “if you are this race” or “if you have these features” then this is how you are defined. Most people go with it. In This American Life: Status Update Ira Glass states “What they are waiting for is not just likes and comments, but a specific kind of comment. This is probably not gonna be news to any of you who have teenage girls in your lives but I bet lots of you do not know about this. They want comments from other girls. And they say the wording is pretty much always the same.” This is a prime example of how young girls create an image that is striving to be acceptable by other people. The rare few that do not listen to constructed trends of identity are seen as boring people and outsiders because they do not go with what other people say they are. Instead, they go by what they know and they know more about themselves than anybody else in the world. The people who go along with these types of trends are having their identity built for them and they show that they are okay with this because “everyone else” does it too. They feel as though they now belong. This shows that identity can only be created by trends and the thoughts of others.
Society has destroyed feelings of identity and belonging for these very same reasons. “Class can be harder to spot than racial or ethnic differences, yet in many ways it's the most important predictor of what kind of financial and educational opportunities someone will have in life.” This quote from PBS: People Like Us is a great example of society's views. A summary of this larger insight is how today's world is filled with people who do not know who they are, they know who they want to be. If their image does not fit a higher class they change it to do so, not because ethnicity defines class because it does not, but to show they are wealthier in some categories in addition to money. These additional topics are mostly a part of beauty including body parts, actions, and thoughts. With these topics in the minds of viewers of society, this information is taken in and used so that others think of them positively. This shows that identity is based off of the money on your body and just your body.
Most viewers of society are perceived as one person on social media but are perceived as another person in real life, personality and looks. It is quite easy to be somebody else over the internet. I do not mean this in a Catfish type of way but a I-am-uncomfortable-with-my-real-self way. For example, a teenage girl decides to exaggerate her good qualities by posting inappropriate pictures of her body for others to sexualize in order to get attention. This attention could be compliments that no child's parent should read. But it is trending, everyone is posting pictures of her butt and breast, so “why can’t I do it too?” they think. Which leads to another popular trend; name brands. I think back to a times when I was younger and had dress down days at school when I did not have to wear uniform. I would pick out a simple but cool outfit, then be on my way out the door. When I got to school everyone was wearing something completely different and satisfied with it. The kids today walk into others with the same pair of jordans and same hair cut as soon as they walk out of their house.
Something has always been popular, from a new style of clothing to new music. But it has come to the point where people try to be original. Even though the “original” trends of today go around, nobody realizes that this happened in the 70’s or 80’s. This goes for music beats, lyrics and vintage clothing. Original became a trend. And if everyone is original, nobody is actually original because everyone is being just that. They are all the same. They copy off of others to create a person they want to be. They create a person others look to be. Copies are not original. If anything, people should learn to be inspired than to copy stitch by stitch.
The movie I watched was Love and Basketball. It’s a love story about a girl named Monica and a guy named Quincy who are trying to follow their dreams of playing pro basketball while also trying to keep their relationship together. When I tested the movie with the Bechdel test, it passed. The main character, Monica talked with her basketball rival and later friend, Syd. Both women had many conversations that did not include any mention of a man. Next, I tested the movie with the Mako Mori test and it passed. The main character, Monica, has her own story that runs throughout the whole movie with the other main character, Quincy. Both Monica and Quincy realize that they want to be with each other at the end of the movie, but her story is kind of independent and doesn’t always have him in it.
For my anti-gender biased review, I would require it to
have at least have 2 women and men in it
the women should have a job
if possible, be a woman who isn’t white
the woman and man should be somewhat independent
2) My own anti-gender bias film test would be called the CP Test. The four questions would be...
a) Is there at least one named male and female character?
b) Is the male aiming to do something that doesn't benefit him getting "the girl"?
c) Is the female aiming to do something that doesn't benefit her getting "the guy"?
A movie that I am going to review to see if it fits my film test is Revenge of the Bridesmaids. In this film, there are a group of bridesmaids known as Abigail, Parker and Rachel who are trying to ruin a brides wedding simply because of the simple fact she was only marrying for money. On top of that, the bride, Caitlyn, stole her "best friend's" and one of the bridesmaids, Rachel, boyfriend. So, Rachel was a bridesmaid to her best friend who stole her boyfriend and is only marrying him for his money. I do not think this fits my film test because although there is a male character not doing anything to "get the girl", the whole movie was based around getting justice for the male AND getting Rachel her guy back. This goes to show that there aren't many movies in which guys/girls aren't aiming to just get "the guy" or "the girl".
