Bend It Like Beckham and The Presence of Feminine Masculinity

The objectives for this presentation were to discuss feminine masculinity using flashpoints from Judith Halberstam, and connect it to a class source and pop-culture source. Our objective was to get our audience to understand our views and the different views throughout the world on the topic of masculinity; whether it be with females or males.

The shared text that our group used was Bend it Like Beckham by Gurinder Chadha. We chose to use this shared text because it had a lot to offer in terms of female and male masculinity. This text allowed us to find different sections of it and connect it back to Halberstam in a way that made sense and followed along with our topic and objective. We know that this text supported us in the way that our final product was presented: in a fluid and relating way.

After we finished our presentation we were provided feedback from our peers which offered us insight into what other were thinking of our presentation. One point brought up had to do with the fact that, in our pop-culture piece – the woman who was giving the seminar, one of her points was that when she was in Nigeria and she tipped the valet after getting their car back, the valet said ‘thank you’ to her companion, who was a man. This tidbit brought up the discussion in how people think that these things don’t happen anymore, or if they do it doesn’t happen in the states. When in fact it happens all around the world, even today.

By doing this presentation we see many things. We see there is still stigmas and stereotypes that are placed on females as well as males. We also see that by the video that we put in our presentation that everyone should be a feminist because it makes you un-blinded by your own gender. We see that females are taught to aspire to marriage and men are not. Men are taught to provide for their families by any means necessary. Another factor that is brought up in the video is that females are taught to not get in the way of the male egos and to have ambitions but not too much.