“Bend it Like Beckham” Episode Transcript

B.J. [B]: Greetings and salutations and welcome to This Ends at Prom.

Harmony [H]: A coming of age podcast highlighting cinema about or about marketed towards

teen girls.

B: I'm one of your hosts, BJ Colangelo and I'm joined by my wife

H: Harmony Colangelo, a trans woman who grew up watching none of these movies.

B: Is today's movie a queen B

H: Or are we killing the teen dream?

B: Get in loser, we're analyzing the movies people make fun of us for loving.

[Intro song plays, "TItle" by the Sonder Bombs]

B: Welcome back, prom party. If you're like, wow BJ, real 911 operator voice of you today, it's

because I had a major pain flare up at 3 in the morning last night. I got no sleep. So my voice is

showing it.

H: It's fine, some people like it when you're sultry sounding.

B: Yeah, the person who probably likes it most is friend of the show Devan Taylor. So I guess,

you're welcome Devan. What's interesting is when we had Devon on the show we talked about

Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging. Today we're talking about another British film. Look at

how that comes -- life just being poetic and full circle. Friends, today we are talking about a

movie that I'm sure a lot of people are going to be excited about. When we announced it on

Patreon, people were extremely excited. We're talking today about Bend it Like Beckham. But

friends, we're not alone today. Our guest is assisant professor of women, gender and queer

studies and the podcast host of Whatever I'll Watch It, Alexia Arani. Hi.

Alexia [A]: Hi!

B: Welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you. So Bend it like Beckahm, why this movie

for you?

A: Oh my gosh. So I was obsessed with this movie when it came out on DVD in the US. I had a

huge crush on Kiera Knightley, which I will unpack later. I revisited it maybe about six months

ago and felt like a lot of my feelings had shifted. While I still liked the movie and was shocked at

how gay it was, there's a lot to unpack in the movie. I feel like there's so many different ways

you can interpret the different thems around modernity, nationalism, multiculturalism, queerness,

so I just felt like there would be so much for us to talk about.

B: I agree completely. This is a movie that, for me, I watched a lot growing up because a lot of

my friends were the goth kids and the jock girls. That was my group of my people. A lot of them

were on AYSO soccer teams and eventually played into high school so this was a very seminal

movie for a lot of them. Obviously being a preteen white person in America I was not able to

fully unpack a lot of the themes in Bend it like Beckham until I was much older and upon this

most recent rewatch there was so many things jumping out at me and I was like oh I finally have

the language to explain what this means. So I agree with you completely. I wanted to save

Harmony for last because her exposure to this movie is wild to me [laughs]

H: Yeah, here's the thing, Alexia when you brought the list of movies I was like oh I'd love to talk

about any of these. I went oh sick, Bend it like Beckham, it's a soccer movie right? It's summer,

we haven't done a sports movie in a while. That will be really cool. And I asked BJ, is this a Like

Mike situation? It's a David Beckham version of that? And she goes, nooo not at all. We put it on

and I realized I knew nothing about this movie. I didn't know it was British. I didn't know a damn

thing other than a vague idea of, the poster has two girls, and that's all I remember. I had this

idea in my head like it's another soccer movie, like maybe She's the Man, but not with gender

stuff. This has way more going on than that.

B: [laughs] There's plenty to dissect in She's the Man, which we will eventually do, it is on the

list. People have been asking. But what was so fascinating when we were watching it and it

became apparent this is centered around a British Indian second generation child, you were like

I had no idea this was part of this story. I was like yeah, that's a huge part of this. We ended up

looking at the posters and the poster in the UK release is just a decapitated--that sounds

terrible--the head is out of frame [laughs] it's a headless body in a sari holding soccer shoes

behind the back. I was like, that is really striking, I understand what this poster is saying. Then

you look at the posters in the US and it's very much, Kiera Knightley-focused [laughs] which is

really telling to me. There's a couple versions where Kiera Knightley's face is photoshopped so

she's not cheering, she's looking at the camera and smiling while Jess is cheering. I was like oh

I don't like that [laughs] that is definitely prioritizing the secondary lead in this movie because...

America. But you know, we will get into that. So Alexia, if you had to explain what this movie is

about to someone who's never seen it, what is going on in this movie?

A: As you mentioned, Jess Bharma is our protagonist. She's a second generation Punjabi Indian

living in London with her family. She's obsessed with David Beckham, she's a super talented

soccer player, and she eventually gets recruited to play for the girls team by Jules, who is

played by Kiera Knightley. We basically explore how both Jess and Jules follow their passion for

soccer despite pressure from their family to be more feminine, to focus on getting a husband.

Despite teh fact that this is such a gay movie, there's this random romance thrown in with thier

male soccer coach becuase this was 2002 and they wanted it to make money.

B: Yup. [laughs] And our soccer coach, Joe, is played by Jonathan Reece Meyers and there are

so many shots of him in this movie where they were like, he has huge lips and a brooding face,

we just really need to focus on that. It's alarming how often it happens [laughs]

A: I feel like he's constantly doing the Zoolander face.

B: Yes! And part of it, it's just his face. You look at him and you're like that's why they cast you in

that Elvis mini-series, which he was fantastic in. But you look at it, and you see what they were

doing here with him.

H: He's very pouty, he's very pretty, this is why he is my favorite David Bowie knock off.

A: That man is also a gateway to lesbianism.

B: You're not wrong though. He has all those pretty features, for sure. Well before we dive too

much deeper, here's our morning announcements.

B: Welcome to the morning announcements. As a reminder, you can support the show on

Patreon. Patreon.com/thisendsatprom. Over on our patreon we offer things like our schedule

ahead of time, wonderful playlists curated by Harmony, Sadie Hawkins dance episodes focused

on teen boy movies, and we're currently focusing on our TV homecoming series through Pen15.

We offer a free bonus episode every month for our subscribers at only $1. If now is not the right

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media, #thisendsatprom or @thisendsatprom.

B: Alrighty, so Harmony set the stage for us. What was coming out or existing around the time of

Bend it Like Beckham?

H: This one is difficult to nail down because it's international so looking at what was released in

America around this time kind of skews it. I did notice a weird trend that I didn't really think about

which is that in the late 90s and 2000s we became very interested in importing British films,

probably for reasons like, very masculine driven ones like Trainspotting or any Guy Rtichie film,

the cost of them was really lo wso the profit was really good margins. But also Hugh Grant made

a billion dollars in rom coms and on one of the posters for this it favorably compares it to

Bridgets Jones Diary.

A: [laughs] What?!

H: Yeah! It's like the funniest British comedy since Bridget Jones Diary! I'm like uhhh, okay. I

know nothing about this movie except BJ goes, it's bad. I don't want to watch it. I had to ask her,

Bridget Jones isn't a teen film but everyone I know always watched it with their mom, is it

because Hugh Grant was there? And she said yeah, that's it. So I think we had a novel interest

in British culture especially coming off the backs of Spice Girls and girl power. And leading into

the 2000s it's this weird period between 9/11 and mean girls where most of the teen fare was

very safe. It was not super confrontational, you had some outliers that were more edgy like

Party Monster or Pumpkin or 13 but like, those were basically indie releases that didn't make

money. The closest things you had to a teen film during this period was like, A Walk To

Remember or Lizzie McGuire or the Princess Diaries, Freaky Friday, maybe Blue Crush. Things

that are either Disney or feel like Disney. I think it's this tumultuous time in American history

that's making us look abroad, like how we love to set films in the 90s and earlier so then we

don't have to account for cell phones in our writing. It's like setting a teen film post-911 without

going, let's not account for the everything going on in this country. Let's go somewhere else.

LIzzie Mcguier is going to Rome, why not?

B: I think that's a really good point. I think that's also what makes this film so important. While I

would not describe this film as safe by any stretch of the imagination, I do think it was

accessible. But it was willing to have tougher conversations than a lot of hte other movies that

came out during this time period. I don't want to say that's why it was successful, because that's

not true, there were a lot of reasons why this film was successful, but I think that's why this

movie is still looked back upon so fondly because it was willing to be like, hey let's have

uncomfortable conversations though everything around us feels uncomfortable given the state

of the world at this point. But I think we needed that. We needed that outlet and we weren't

getting it as teenagers.

H: Yeah this is a movie that is much more worthy of praise because it has plenty going on as

opposed to Amanda Bynes going for a friendly romp in What a Girl Wants. It's got stuff but this

has way more stuff.

B: I would agree. Alexia, how about you, any theories?

A: It's interesting hearing y'all talk about this because I hadn't really thought about the 9/11

context that much. But this is a movie that really celebrates multiculturalism during a time when

there was a lot of rampant xenophobia, especially towards a Sikh family, like the father wears a

turban and talks about experiencing racism because of that. I hear what you're saying that it

explores some tough themes but I also feel like it does play it kind of safe in terms of having the

traditional brown family that needs to lean into the independence of their daughter and letting

her play these sports and at the end of the day it's like, look joe this white guy can play cricket

with them and everyone can be happy and live in the same place together and bond over

sports. SO I feel like it was creating this imaginary of how we wanted ethnic and racial relations

to be during a time when it was not that.

B: Totally, I agree with that completely. There's a couple moments specifically that kind of prove

that theory. Probably the best example is after somebody uses a slur towards Jess at a game

and she's really upset about it and she's trying to explain to Joe, you don't understand this, and

his response was, ``I'm irish, I get it [laughs].

A: I was screaming.

B: It's like okay buddy, maybe to some extent you understand but no. You are still white [laughs].

THat's not the same weight at all, my dude.

A: Since we're already talking about this, I feel like I'm always shouting out Sara Ahmed who's

one ofm y favorite feminist thoerists. She's written a lot about this film, a lot of it quite critical. I

don't necessarily agree with all of it but part of the things she writes about is racism in this film is

really depicted in this film as something brown people need to let go of, like holding onto their

hurt feelings is the thing holding them back. We see that in that exchange you're talking about

where Joe is basically like, I'm Irish, we all get picked on, you just have to keep playing. It's

really the same transformation we see in the father as well where in the beginning he doesn't

want her to play soccer because he experienced racism in spots and then realized he's holding

her back and he needs to let go of his fear of racism to let her continue in her life.

B: I'm glad you brought that point up because I do agree with that sentiment and I like what you

said earlier about how this movie operates as a fantasy about what we wanted race relations to

be like because I feel like at their core, 90% of teen movies are fantasies. They are painting a

world that we do not live in, whether it's something like Mean Girls and Heathers where thoes

sorts of cliques obviously exist bu tnot that extent, this is some cartoon villainy happening here,

but then you also have that in the positive with love stories that are completely unrealistic or

situationslike this where like, these race relations are all so, in my opinion, and of course I can

fuck off into the sun if I'm wrong becuase I'm white, but it also feels as if a lot of hte racism

depicted in this movie is depicted from an indivdiual level. There are some people who are

going to be shitty to you, not there is a sytemic oppressive state hat exists for people who are

non-white.

A: Yeah I agree completely.

[Clip from the film plays, Jess's dad says: Those bloody English cricket players threw me out of

their club like a dog. I never complained. On the contrary, I vowed that I would never play again.

Who suffered? Me. But I don't want Jesse to suffer. I don't want her to make the same mistakes

that her father made before. Accepting life, accepting situations. I want her to fight. ANd I want

her to win. Becuas eI have seen her play and she is brilliant. I don't think anybody has the right

to stop her.]

B: [laughs] There's so much to talk about. But let's first focus on our character of Jess and sort

of who she is, what she represents. How do you feel about Jess as a character ,Alexia?

A: My first instinct is I do really like Jess. One of the things, as people have revisited this film

that's striking, is that not much happened with this actress after this film. And I know for myself,

as I mentioned watching this as a kid, I had a huge crush on Kiera Knightley. Going back and

watching it as an adult, I have a huge crush on Jess.

B: Okay, interesting.

A: So I definitely think there's something there about my own journey around decolonizing

attraction and learning about the way white supremacy shaped what I was taught was beautiful

in the early 2000s. So watching this time I'm really struck by Jess's character. I mean, I can

have my critique of the ways her culture is perhaps portrayed as holding her back but I don't

want to get too hung up on that because I feel like we also see a similar storyline with Jules with

her white English culture. Overall, I think her story arc is very relatable to viewers for many

different reasons. I know for the onviosu one this is clearly a metaphor for queerness. I think any

queer kid can really relate to what Jess is going through. And I love that she is really torn. She

really does love her family and wants to respect them and values her culture but at the same

time she does need to be true to herself. So I think that's a story that pretty much anyone can

relate to, depending on their own experiences.

B: I definitely agree and my feelings on Jess as well, she for the most part is our guide into the

world. We're seeing a lot of things through her lens and her perspective, which of course any

time we have that with a character, immediately that's an unreliable narrator. THa't snot meant

to be an insult, it's just like our perspectives when we're teenagers, this is why we get, oh my

god my mom is ruining my life! Which isn't necessarily true in the grand scheme of things. It

might be how you feel in that moment. When she's practicing how to do David Beckham's kick

she has that visual of her family being in the way of her goal, like literally in the way of her goal.

So that is a very relatable feeling as a teenager, thinking it's your family, your environment in a

lot of whit eteen movies. It's presented as your location, your small town is holding you back. I

think it's very interesting in this it's presented as your culture or your family. Interesting, you

know, pressing save in my brain on that one. And I love that you mentioned having a crush on

Kiera Knightley when you were younger and then Jess as you'er older. I have been ride or die

for Pinkie since day one [laughs]

A: Oh my god.

H: [laughs]

B: Even as a tenegaer I was like she's fun! She would be someone I would love to hang out

with. But as an adult looking back, it's like oh no, Jess is the grounded person I would probably

actually need in my life. So that' show I feel. Harmony, how about you?

H: This whole discussion is really interesting because right before we sat down to record BJ was

reflecting with me on the kids that played soccer in her high school and how all the girls ended

up being straight. There' sthis reputation of soccer being extremely gay and I thin it's funny the

only out lesbian im y hgih school was the captain of the soccer team. So that was just an

interesting tidbit. But I have a question. So this is one of those things where I don't have the

research or history so I'm a little out of my depth in some of the details. Is this a situation, do we

know... like Camp, which we laid into June, they had to change the sexuatliy of one of the

characters because the studio demanded it. Was this supposed to be a queer film? The whole

time I’m sitting here for like the first third especially I'm just turning to BJ going, why is it so gay?

Why is everything about this so gay? She's like well, spoilers, there is a subplot with them. I'm

like okay but is it intentional? I had this realization where we're watching and BJ was saying oh

this is how I was with my best friend, we were very touchy feely. Maybe it's that in a lot of sports

movies that I"ve seen growing up, which are American, but also they were boy movies, you

don't touch your friends in boy movies. You weren't close with them. That adds this element

from my experience where this looks more queer becuase it's so much more intimate looking.

Even though it's just a bond of teammates. Do we know, was this changed?

A: Yes. Yeah, so it was definitely supposted to be gay. I mean, It's still gay but it was meant ot

be more explicitly gay. I've heard mixed things between the driection was worried about

backlash from teh queer desi commun ity in the UK and that the stuido was worried about not

making enough money.

H: Which is funny because this is the highest grossing soccer movie in history.

B: Yeah, what were you learning about it? It's the highest globally but in the states it's at third?

H: Oh yeah it's behind She's the Man and Kicking and Screaming with Will Ferrel.

A: Oh my god.

B: Oh great [laughs].

A: That's so disrespectful.

B: That cinematic classic! So something interesting I read in terms of Jess's characterization is

this idea of bending. Bend it like Beckham isn't just a reference to the actual kick which I've tried

to explain to people because Americans don't care about soccer, football, what have you. It's

basically like kicking a curveball. So not only does it reference that, it is also this idea that

people like Jess and to some extent Jules, are not breaking the rules of their family, they're

bending them. Which I have some conflicting thoughts about. But Alexia, I was curious what you

feel about that idea about rule bending vs breaking?

A: Well now I feel like I want to hear your thoughts and then I will respond.

B: So the thoughts I have, I feel like bending rules inadvertently positions the person who is

doing it into a model minority box of they're not going against the status quo, kind of both

sides-ing a little bit, which I'm not a fan of. I wish teen characters had a strong autonomy, but at

the same time, I grew up in a very close-knit, Italian family and there is a sense of familial

obligation that is really difficult to explain to people that are not from cultures where family is so

important. So I also understand the rule bending and I feel very seen by the rule behind

because I really got good at it, just constantly being a velociraptor testing the fences on things.

So I get that as well. So that's why I'm conflicted. In my adult brain I'm like break the rules. At

the same time I'm' like, oooh but you also have all of these conflicting feelings about familial

obligation and also culture and wanting to maintain culture when the world is trying to erase

your culture and why it is important to maintain that and it just gets so messy.

A: Yeah. I'm in a weird positionality with this movie because I do have Indian family. My

grandfather immigrated to the US from India, but he kind of took the opposite route of Jess's

family where he very much was interested in assimilation, giving up his religious practices,

language, so I've really grown up without a strong connection or sense of my cultural

background. Researching for this movie, I saw a lot of things written about queer desis about

how affirming it felt for them to see a family that looked like their own and a character that

looked like them. Even though I am Indian, that's not something I can relate to because my

upbringing was very different. I just wanted to acknowledge that as well that Jess is a really

important character fo ra lot of people in the queer desi community. But about the bend it, i'm

thinking more about queerness again. And I'm stuck on Sara Ahmed for some reason [laughs]

she has a book Queer Phenomenology where she talks about straightness as a literal direction.

So straights move straight up the relationship escalator, get the kids all of that. Queerness is like

this bendy, curvy line that takes you to unexpected directions. So I'm actually thinking about the

bendiness about queerness in this movie and the ways that we have to jsut kind of stuff

ourselves around the corners of heterosexualtiy and waht's expected from us.

B: I think that's really interesting. This is just me maybe fantasy booking, but I think Jules - again

she says she is not a lesbian, she says that she is straight, she shows that she has affections

for Joe. But I feel like if we were going to revisit Jules ten years later after she's left her

hometown and gone to college in the states, I feel like somebody would be like, have you heard

about comphet? And she would break that down a little bit. That's again where it gets

complicated becuase on the one hand I love there's a character who does fall under that very

specific tomboy trope that I know plenty of poeple have mixed feelings about, as they should,

with any trope, but the fact that there is this character who doesn't subscribe to the very specific

and rigid femme gender roles that are often put upon people who are assigned female at birth, I

think that' sgreat, but at the saem time in my heart of hearts I'm also like, but what if you just

don't fully understand attraction and how that can function becuase its the early 2000s and we

arent having these conversations yet. So I'm curious how Jules would end up in the future.

A: As far as I'm concerned, Jules is canonicaly bisexual and Jess is a lesbian who likes the

attention of a white guy.

H: [laughs]

B: Ooh, I love this read actually. I subscribe to this read, I think that's great. That romance with

Joe. First off, the power dynamics are not great. He's their coach, not awesome. But Jess is so

much more alive when she's with Jules than when she's with Joe. Joe's just kind of there.

A: She has no chemistry with him.

B: None! He's kind of a hunk, you would think this would be someone you would be very excited

about but she's just.. it's not there. But you get her on screen with Jules and they both are

glowing.

A: There's no connection and they establish so many times throughout the movie that she's not

into dudes. Like there's multiple times where she's like, me, a man? or the girls watching them

play soccer like oh that guy's cute and she looks confused like, what that guy is cute? She's so

established as gay and then all of the sudden wer'e supposed to think she's interested in JOe, I

don't buy it.

H: [laughs]

B: I agree.

A: You know what it might be.. have y'all ever had that queer experience of you have a crush on

a woman and to get closer to her you're like oh I have a crush on the guy that she has a crush

on or that she's dating?

H: I've not had that specifically but I've definitely been on okcupid and it's like we're a fun loving

couple, just looking for some whatever, and I'm like, the girls' cute. I will tolerate the guy.

B: I definitely during high school would be very flirty with a guy who I knew had a crush on a girl

who I had crush on because it was this weird proxy for me where I was like now I get to be third

wheel when I really just want to be really close to this person [laughs]

A: Yeah there's that moment where Jess goes to Jules's room for the first time and she sees the

picture of Jules and Joe. She seems really bummed out about it. And I don't believe for a

second she's bummed because she likes Joe. I feel like she's hurt because she likes Jules. So

there's this weird, cross mixing of desire where I think proxy is definitely what's going on.

H: Oh yeah. The fact that the whole B plot to this movie is just mistaken relationship

conundrums that the parents keep ending up with these kids--well they're like 18--but that one

scene where they're like post-kissing Joe and Jules and Jess are fighting in Jules's room and

everything about it, they added like two line of dialogue for there to be this miscommunication so

mom could get a punchline out of it, because she assumes the worst because he lives in a

sheltered little life. Nothing about it, clearly that's the joke, that we were supposed to assume

one thing, but everything about it, he's an afterthought in this dialogue.

[clip from the film: Jules' mom, sobbing: Julia I saw you with my own eyes! Kissing after your

match. I'm not stupid you know. And anyway look at the clothes you wear. Jules: Mother! Just

becuase I wear trackies and play sport does not make me a lesbian! Me and Jess were fighting

because we both fancied our coach. Joe. As in male, Joe. Our coach, Joe. Man. Joe!]

B: Yeah the conflict between the two of them may be like oh, we had a crush on the same guy!

But listening to them argue I feel like I'm listening to a couple. It's just.. how it is. I guess to some

extent my best friend and I, any time we had any sort of disagreement, that was way worse than

any break up I've ever gone through, because that is my person, when you're growing up. And it

seems like Jess doesn't have a huge community of people she considers friends. She has the

guys she plays soccer with, she obviously has.. how does he identify?

H: We know he likes Beckham, a lot.

A: I'd say gay.

B: I don't know if they outight say it, but eh's gay. And their family is obviously like oh you have

known eachother forever, you should be together! They obviously know why that can't happen

and it's not fully put on front street. Because again, we had to censor a lot of things in the 2000s.

So subtext is champion here. But she doesn't really have this massive community of friends at

least to our knowledge. So when she does have Jules that becomes the thing sto fixate on, this

is your person. They get each other on a level that a lot of people don't because they are

competitive athletes. That's a very specific world. We talked a bit about in our Stick It episode

where I talked specifically about being a competitive baton twirler for almost twenty years and

how those relationships were so important to me because none of my friends understood what

any of it was and it was hard to have to constantly express the importance of that part of my life

to people who were not in it.

H: Yeah and I don't understand the intricacies of how this particular sport works because I was

like 4 years old but I think these two are also like the best players on the team and they have

this relationship on the field where one of them sets up the shot for the other and that's how they

get all of their points and they pretty much lead everything. THere's this closeness in that sense

that's like so powerful that you get good news after a game and then you kiss your friend on the

lips [laughs] which apparently BJ does that with her friends, I've never done that with my friends.

B: I mean not now that I'm an adult! But in high school oh my god yeah, that was just me. Is that

weird? Am I a weird person for that? I said it to Harmony last night very matter of fact and she

looked at me like, that's not a thing I've ever seen.

H: Again it's the closeness between boys and girls and I grew up in a completely different world

than you where you can't even sleepi n the same bed as ag uy on a road trip becuase it's gay.

B: Okay that's a great point. Alexia, how were you growing up with intimacy with your friends?

A: This is funny because I was bringing up thinking I was crushing on the guy when really I had

a cruson the girl. One of the [laughs] main examples of that, this girl who I befriended because I

had a crush on her boyfriend. But I used to literally spend the weekends spooning her watching

the L Word.

B: [laughs] the straightest thing I've ever heard.

A: And I didn't realize that was gay until decades later.

B: That makes me think so much of Fortune Teamster's stand up special where she talks about

how she just applied lotion to people when they needed it. Olh do you need me to lotion your

back? I can do that. And nwo as an openly queer adult she look sback liek what a weirdo I was.

Becuase when you have this queerness inside you and it's manifesting in ways you don't

understand, you know, sometimes you spoon people and watch the l word [laughs]

A: It was weird because I identifeid as bisexual from like, the age of 12. But for some reason I

didn't make that connection with the friends in my life I had crushes on, I made that connection

with Kiera Knightley and Angelina Jolie.

H: Well maybe that's the whole thing of teenage fantasies. The idea that a teen movie is a

fantasy it's not reality, oh well that's the dream of who you could get with as opposed to like --

I've always compartmentalized the people in my life so I've never really considered friends

anything more than friends. So I don't know is that how it was for you or again, am I the person

who's just over here like I don't do things with friends?

A: That's definitely not me anymore [laughs] but I think back in the day that's a good read.

B: I was very touchy feely with all of my friends. One, I was a baton twirler so you spend a lot of

time with people just in close proximity to each other. There's also a lot of comfortability that you

have with each other's bodies, and not in a seuxal way, but in a I'm going to be running a baton

around your body while you throw something in the air and are spinning around, you have to

trust that I'm not going to knock you over. Or I'm going to be doing a flying leap above your

head. You need to trust that I'm not going to kick you in the face. So that adds a level of intimacy

and also the fact that I was a theater kid. That also requires a lot of intimacy and a lot of trust.

So becuas eof that the friendships I made were all so extremely itnimate like cuddling at cast

parties in a non-sexual way or like ey i'm having a bad day i'm coming over and eating pizza and

were just gonna lay with each other in the middle of aliving rom and watch all of the sasons of

sex and the city that we got from Blockbuster.

A: Sounds amazing.

B: That was my upbringing so everything was really close. Tht continued honestly until I stopped

doing theater. Because those were the people I Was with. I was always really physically close

and intimate with them. It's weird. I think it's weird for people to understand which is why we get

the miscommunication relationship plots because I also think people struggle understanding that

there are some relationships that are non-romantic that are intimate. So that's why you see

someone being excited and touching and that is read as like, oh they're kissing! Or I saw that

kiss, and that means relationship and love when sometimes that's not the case. So there's also

a read that could be made in terms of like, almost asexuality in this movie where you can talk

about intimacy totally separate from sexualtiy and that's really interesting. I mean obviously

that's not what the text is telling us, it's a read that can be made. This movie has so much going

on [laughs]

A: I know, something too, this is kind of going back a little bit. I can't remember who it was, I

think maybe Harmony brought up that we don't see Jess hav ea lot of friendships, like female

friendships until Jules. I kind of want to unpack that a little bit becuase soemthing I was noticing

in my rewatch was that, this obnviously is supposed to be a feminist film. It's like women

breaking out of gender roles. But I felt like there was kind of a femmephobia that was upheld

throughout the film.

B: Yes!

A: Justice for Pinkie. Or like, the dads are the ones shown as the ones being really supportive,

they're the ones who lean into modernity, they're okay with cultural change, and the mothers are

confined to tradition, and they're really superficial and worried about reputation. Jules and Jess

seem to feel like they are better than other girls, like Pinkie and her friends, because they want

something more, not just something different.

B: Yeah there's that line during PInkie's wedding where they're in the car and she's like don't'

you want this? and she's like, no I want more than that. I want to play soccer. I want to go to the

states. THere is some weird femme phobia stuff going on in here. It's weird because we see

PInkie's friends and they have the quote unquote shallow conversations about like well now I

can't wear my contacts if she's going to and there's such a staunch visual difference between

Pinkie and her friends and Jess who's in a sleeveless hoodie and has her hair in a ponytail. It's

clearly the not like most girls look of the early 2000s. So we have all of that, and then at the

same time, there is this constant stress of you have to look good for boys. You have to not be so

muscular. You need to be wearing more makeup. It's so interesting how themovie is at the same

time both so crtiical of these women who fall into these roles but at het same time is constnatly

hitting you with the messaging of like no but you have to be femme. Again it's interesting. Upon

rewatch as an adult and recognized as a kid that I probably took in the messaging of you don't

have to just be this way, there's more to life than just being a wife kind of a thing, and yeah that's

a good message to have but at the same time, how do I navigate that with oh but I have to look

a certain way? I have to do certain things? This is the pressure I'm hearing and having affirmed

by all of culture 24/7. How do you step out of that as a teenager? I think the answer is that's

complicated and causes a lot of us a lot of anxiety about our own appearance and place in the

rld and gender performance [laughs]

A: Yeah I feel like the film equates freedom with masculinity.

B: Ooh. I like that. I like that a lot.

A: It would have been nice to see a bit more from some of the other soccer players who are

maybe more femme. Or just have a different relationship to their gender than Jess and Jules do.

H: Yeah but I feel like.. this movie is already almost two hours long and I would love to have

elements like that explored, but I think the story that it's specifically targeting is the trickle down

influence of parents. Because we have that with all of our three main characters in this love

triangle. Joe has his dad who's like oh no, your mom is a walk in the park, she's laughs. She's a

great time compared to my dad. And then my brain goes to the worst things that dad can do like

ah, he's a drunk and he hits ya and he does all the things that my dad did. But the cruel irony is

that with both Jules and Jess's moms I see bad elements of my mother in there as well. So I

had this weird relationship where I'm like oh I like these moms, they're trying, but also they have

the sloppy, unpleasant parts of my mom so I don't enjoy them.

A: Yeah I mean I feel like they devoted that screen time to the fathers, giving their time to shine

and explaining why they acted the way they did and why they wanted to be better versus maybe

the mothers having a chance to talk about how things were for them in their generation. These

are all survival skills. As far as they're concerned, they're trying to help their daughter survive

but it's not really given the empathy in the way it's portrayed it's just like, ah these traditional

women are just holding us back.

H: Mhm. And don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for a heartfelt dad speech and Jess's dad has a

really nice one. But it is unbalanced.

B: I agree completely and piggy-backing what Harmony said, we love a good dad speech and

that is its own trope and it's one of those moments where we are seeing a character reckoning

with their own trauma through the lens of their children and I wish that we were able to see the

mothers do the same. I mean there are tip-toe moments where you think maybe we're oging to

finally unpack that but then it doesn't end up happening, which is so strange for am ovie that has

forever been positioned as a feminist classic. I think you're right, it does position masculinity as

freedom and also that masculinity is "the only way to subvert these gender roles." It's a very

binary way of thinking, whereas there are moemnts when you see Jules, who is presented to be

the tomboy character, who really doesn't like things girly and that's why mom has to hot glue

bows on shoes, but when we see her in other elements, she has such a sporty femme,

chapstick lesbian look to her. I don't read her as butch. But she isn't femme. She falls

somewhere in the middle. That on its own is subverting gender and that I don't think is given as

much weight as like, literally leaving a wedding and taking off all the traditional outfit and

presentation to then put on shorts. That I think is the stark contrast that we are trying to paint

here when they are both subverting these roles in their own way, but it's very clear that one of

them is seen as more powerful than the other.

A: So now I'm wondering what y'all think of... this movie does kind of have a makeover scene.

B: It does, weirdly [laughs]

H: Which one, the one where they go clubbing?

A: Yeah, they go clubbing and Jess comes out and she looks amazing.

H: She looks so good.

B: She looks so hot [laughs]

A: She looks incredible.

H: that dress is such a good fit, and that's borrowed? Oh jeez.

A: It's surprising too because she actually seems very comfortable in her skin in that outfit.

B: She does.

H: I think it's probably because she's dressing up for her rather than being forced to dress up by

her mom.

B: I think that's definitely part of it and I also think that the outfit that they give her specifically, it

feels like an extension of who she is. One, it's black so it's not like hot pink, which I think is not

really her thing. It is in an unconventional fabric, it looks like a pleather or a wet look that is

different than sequins or something that Pinkie would wear. When we even see Jules she has

that very specific halter top from the early 2000s that this backless and has the droop in the

front, that was a very popular look at the time. That with the pants makes it kind of edgy and fun.

But she does look very comfortablea nd the lip that htey give her is a very deep shade, it's not

trying to be hot pink or red or something typically associatedw ith femme colors. So the

makeover scene, to me, it just feels like somebody pushing her towards maybe where she sees

herself but is not sure how to express. But then at the same time, it is borrowed, so she doesn't

really have a full say. There's no scene where she's like yup this is it, this the outfit, that's the

one, it's just like, we gave you this. So again it makes it complicated, this whole movie is so

complicated to unpack! [laughs]

A: Hearing you talk too, I'm like oh my god it's goth femme. And that's so gay. So of course she

likes it.

B: Yes! Early goth femme.

A: I'm wondering too if part of her presentation is really trying to fly under the radar, like she

doesn't want to be noticed by guys.

H: Yeah I could see that.

B: Oh definitely because I mean they are going into a dark club and she's wearing the darkest

colors, her hair is down, so now we essentially have this beautiful black cloud around her face to

keep her hidden. Ooh, I think you may be onto something there.

A: Okay y'all are welcome to edit this out but I wrote a note that I thought was funny so I just

want to share it with y'all. So this is one of my iphone notes as I was watching: "They go

clubbing, Jess has a pleather little top and skirt, looks so hot. Joe is clearly checking her out.

Jules tries to seduce him dancing in a sparkly napkin and fails because obviously Jess is

wearing a backless pleather top."

B: Yeah. I mean [laughs] I don't know what it says about me, lies I do, but I would absolutely be

more drawn to the person in pleather than the person in sequins. And that's just my brand of

queer.

H: You are extremely biased though [laughs]

B: I know.

A: Me too.

B: And something else too, is Jess drinks a lot at this club. Like a lot. I don't know about y'all but

when I was in high school and college, if I was struggling with my gay feelings in a public space,

I sometimes drank a lot too to make it a little quieter, or to make me not care.

H: Umm, I don't have that personally but we already established earlier in the movie she drank a

coke when these two went to a pub together. So this is something that is arguably new in this

environment for her.

A: Do they show her drinking in that scene?

B: I think she has a glass of champagne. That's the only time we see it, but as she's acting it's

clear that she has been drinking a lot or just one and done type of thing because she doesn't

drink often [laughs]

H: Yeah I mean, it might be one of those situations where you can't show her drinking in order to

get the rating that you want because it is still trying to market to teens.

B: Yeah and the drinking ages are different between the UK and the US. So yeah that's a good

point, that might just be for ratings and censorship. But she does feel like she's letting loose a

little bit. I can't tell if she's letting loose because she's like yay I'm excited that I'm out on the

town or if its the combination of oh god, struggling queerness, or just the anxidty of I'm lying to

my parents, or a perfect storm of all ofit.

H: I vote for that one.

A: That scene is so hard to watch where Jules is trying to get Joe to go dance and then he just

wants to dance with Jess. And I'm like, I get it, but it's so hard to watch.

B: I get secondhand embarrassment when I see stuff like that [laughs] because it's like oh no

you're trying really hard and this is not happening for you and I'm just watching you flail in the

corner. It.. ugh, it's hard.

H: I mean I do love that whole scene BJ is like, this is embarrassing.. but also I really like this

song [laughs]

B: Okay, let's talk about that! They sneak so much of Mel C. in this soundtrack [laughs]

A: Sporty Spice!

B: Like there's even the joke that Jules's mom makes about why Sporty Spice doesn't have a

man, which is, first off, rude. She carried the spice girls because she is the lead on all of that,

but I love that they just sneak in Mel C music in all of this like yeah we love you Sporty Spice,

here's I turn to you in this club scene. I love this, give me more.

B: Okay but speaking of the dancing scene and Joe, Joe is not the ideal mate in my opinion, so

Alexia, what are some feelings you have about Joe?

A: Yeah I mean part of what makes that dance scene so uncomfortable is that Joe kind of has

predator eyes [laughs] the way he watches her walk out, the way he's trying to get her on the

floor, it's just very clear what his desire and intentions are. Like you said there's so many things,

we can talk about the age gap, she's probably 18, how old do y'all think Joe is?

H: Somewhere in his 20s. I wouldn't say earlier than 25.

A: Okay well regardless of the age gap, he's her coach. Obviously Jess's best friend and closest

teammate has a huge crush on him, which he's well aware of. But for me, the biggest red flag I

see is that he shares he had this really shitty father and I think, I agree Harmony, it's hinted that

he was perhaps abusive. But then it's like he replicates this same dynamic as the coach of the

team with the girls where he's really harsh with them and yells with them and later he's like oh

this is how my dad was with me. I don't know, I just feel red flags from him, I don't trust him.

B: He also shows up at people's houses. I understand we don't have text messaging as

common as we once did back then, but the frequency with which he shows up at Jess's house

is weird to me. I know some of it is like he's having the conversation with the parents because

he wants to get her on the team. I get that, phones exist. You could call. Maybe not show up

unannounced, maybe plan hey I'd like to come over and talk to you. Again, it's complicated

because then, what if they say no? One, respect the boundary but then we don't have a movie if

that happens [laughs]

H: Well yeah. Men, particularly of this era, they believe strongly in gestures, particularly grand

gestures. He could have made a phone call but it's more impressive he shows up, and that

matters more. I think that's probably what was going through his head.

B: Yeah I think it's just misplaced. It's not the way that you handle this. Joe rubs me the wrong

way in a lot of ways. I'm very much pro-Jess going to college in America and figuring herself out

and he can stay in the UK and coach soccer. I also think it's very weird that at the end he

announces they offered me the job to coach men. I said no I'd rather coach women and maybe

one day I can hire you to be on my team. It's like, you are planning years down the line for the

ways in which you are going to make sure this person stays in your life and that is very weird to

me [laughs]

A: Yeah I almost forgot too that his first scene is so bad. He's such a dick to Jess. And it's so

obvious it's because of her race, what hse looks like. And then he spends the rest of the movie

just whitesplaining racism to everyone like telling her dad like oh, it's not like that anymore, it's

not bad, and then telling Jess oh I'm irish, I know what it 's like. It's like dude, you were judging

and discriminating against her too when you first met her.

B: There is a really weird cyclical abuse pattern that we see kind of with him. Not even just the

issues with his dad but he's so shitty to her but then will be like oh I'm so sorry about your leg, I

also have scars. Nobody is going to care about it, you're going to be great out there. And I

understand in that moment it's like okay I'm relating to you, showing that people have scars,

validating that must have been really awful to feel, but you're super talented, go out there and

kick ass. I understand this is a coach's platitude speech. And it seems like there's a lot of that.

Where he will do something really shitty and then almost immediately after he does something

really meaningful, which to me has big dad hits you and then buys you a toy to apologize

energy.

H: I also feel like, as far as him.. maybe it's the writing...but everything he reveals about himself

is in a self-centered way where it's like hey, I'm relating to you by telling you that we're really

similar. Look how much we get along and have this same thing in common because I have a

busted knee which is exactly like your burn

B: [laughs] Right!

H: And all his relations are through himself.

B: Right. That also gets into a complicated territory because at least in the last 3-4 years we've

been having a lot of conversations about the way that people who are neurodivergent relate to

people and a lot of times it is through lived experiences because this is a way of showing

empathy and that makes the character complicated. Do we assume that his ways of relating to

her are in bad faith or is there something else at play? We don't know. The text does not tell us,

we can only speculate. Which is half the fun of analyzing movies, that's what you get to do, find

these scenes and interpret them in a hundred different ways. I don't know, art is cool. I like film

theory, it's fun.

A: So going back to that scene that y'all brought up where they're talking about the burn and

he's like oh I have a scar, it's thes same. He actually says to her, he's like once you go out there,

nobody is going to care. I feel like that stuck out to me because what he was saying was that

when people see your talent they're not going to care about your burn. And later guys are

making fun of her for the burn and she's like well I can still kick your ass and she starts to play

soccer. So I'm wondering what that says about.. I feel like it's implying if she wasn't a soccer

player, people would care. Because she has this access to soccer she's not confined by the

same feminine expectations put on other women or like if she had a burn and was one of

Pinky's friends that no man would be interested in. I'm not exactly sure what I want to say here

but that line just kind of stuck out to me that it seemed like, he wasn't saying nobody is going to

care, but nobody is going to care because you're a good soccer player.

B: I think it falls into a very popular social push in the 2000s of the handicapable and the

reframing of peopel with disabilities or any sort of physical, I hate the word deformity, but if

anything is out the norm, there was a big push of 'we're just like you' assimilation which whenver

those movements happen like we saw it in the States around the time of trying to get gay

marriage legalized, a lot of those plans for assimilation are becuase people are just really

desperate to try and make sure they have accesss and rights to things and that was a huge

thing in the 2000s was like, 'we're handicapabale, we don't have a disability, we'r ejust like you,

look what we can do despite our disability.' I think this conversation kind of falls in line with that

of, who cares that you have this really traumatic experience from a child that has left you

permanently scarred, you're really good at soccer so it doesn't actually matter! Umm, it does still

matter and that situation did happen and still stucks and this is a constant reminder of that. Both

can be true.

A: BJ I'm like snapping over here. I feel like that's where my brain wanted to go but it wasn't

quite there yet, thank you so much.

B: [laughs] You are very welcome. This is a side tangent but this show is about how these

movies relate to us. I had a conversation the other day with someone who works with a

pancreatic cancer foundation, which I'm a survivor of pancreatic cancer, and I had to explain to

her how upsetting my existence is to a lot of family members of people who have lost someone

to pancreatic cancer. She was like, what, why?! I was like, because I'm a fat atheist. So my

existence debunks a lot of these mindsets that people have that make them feel better about

things like, 'oh they were the fittest, healthiest person in the world, the disease was just too

strong,' or 'they were teh most devout person in hte world and god called them home and that

had to happen,' I was like yeah, I don't fit into that nice survival narratvie and it fucks with

people. People don't like it when somebody who is chronically ill or disabled or has any sort of

visible affliction, if they don't fit into that motivational inspiration story, people hate it. Jess,

because she is good at soccer, is allowed to fit into that category of like, [in announcer voice]

this girl when she was a child, was burned on the leg, but she can still bend it like beckham.

Like that's how she falls into this equation of all of it. That's something in all honesty, did not

make that realization until we started talking about it just now and then the lightbulb went off.

A: Yeah, absolutely. It's interesting because it's like, we can interpret it along the lines of

disability as well as race and gender. You already talked a bit about the model minority and

there are all these layering ways in which she is doing that.

B: Definitely.

[Clip from movie plays. Jess: It looks awful. It's why I can't wear shorts ever. Joe: Jesus. That's

a stunner. I thought I had a bad one on my knee but yours is gorgeous. Look, don't worry about

it. Nobody's going to care once you're out there. What happened? Jess: You don't want to know.

JOe: Look. Two operations later, and it's still useless. Yours affect your game? Jess: Nah it just

looks awful. I was eight, my mom was working overtime and I was trying to cook beans on toast.

I jumped up to the grill to get toast and my trousers caught light so my sister put me in the bath

and poured cold water over me and pulled them off. Half my skin came with it.]

B: To pivot to something a little less serious but still just as important, I'd love to talk about

PInky's wedding and the situation surrounding it and everything about it. So Harmony, how was

your response to seeing this? This was your first time seeing what a Punjabi wedding looks like,

isn't it?

H: Yes. She said oh I can't just slip out and go to practice and go to the game and like, that's not

an option because this is way more complicated than you understand because apparently, this

wedding ceremony is like a week long.

A: [laughs] yeah.

H: And it was like that feeling when we did Shiva Baby and it was like oh yeah, you sit Shiva for

a week and I was like oh my goodness, that is just so much time with my family! I don't know

how to handle that! But at least in this circumstance it's really fun and colorful and everyone's

having a great time. I like this. Granted, the part of me that gets exhausted by people would

prefer it be one day. I personally would like to go to the wedding. The wedding seems great.

BJ: [laughs] Alexia, how about you?

A: So I actually did get to attend part of an Indian wedding in India when my uncle got married in

Jaipur, but I actually got a nasty migraine the day of the wedding itself so I wasn't able to see

the ceremony but because it is like a week of festivities, I got to take part. And yeah, Indians

know how to throw down. It was fun.

H: [laughs] Yeah!

BJ: Yeah that wedding looks like the most fun that anyone could ever have in their life. My

claustrophobia kicks in a little bit when you see the party at the house, I'm like ughh everyone is

touching! And of course COVID brain does that too, which is fun. But the thing that I think is so

beautiful about that scene is one, there is a subversion of the culture in terms of PInky is

genuinely happy to be married. She is so excited she gets to marry him, to the point where even

the videographer is like, stop smiling, Indian brides don't smile on their wedding day! Which is

clearly a reference to, sometimes people are not super thrilled about the person they've been

arranged to be married to, and Pinky loves her husband so she gets to experience that euphoria

of being a happy bride, which I think is really lovely and such a little tidbit that you think is a

throwaway line but there's so much being said with just that line. And she's having the time of

her life. Everyone is so celebratory. It is so fun to look at, because also, Indian weddings don't

fall into the same drab white people culture of weddings that we have all been subjected to by

the media forever. Oh my god, white people's weddings are so agonizingly boring. They're not

fun to look at [laughs] because everyone is wearing the most basic things humanly possible

whereas in a lot of traditional Indian weddings they are so vibrant and full of life and it truly is a

celebration. It's just so lovely to see, especially in the movie, I love how they will split between

Jess's game and the wedding and you see both Jess and Pinky having the time of their life, and

I think that's a really nice dichotomy, a bit binary, on the nose, but it's just nice visual storytelling.

A: So, I'm not sure I agree with the interpretation about PInky's smiling. So there's different

cultural reasons depending on region or whatever, but I think it's not so much that brides aren't

supposed to smiel becuase they're not happy with their situation, but it could be they don't want

to seem like they're fucking stoked to leave their family or in teh case of an arranged marriage, if

they're all smily it could be hinting that they've been really intimate when that's not supposed to

be the situation if they're being traditional and being pious. I feel like Pinky doesn't really give a

shit about tradition in that sense, she's been sneaking out and hooking up with her boyfriend for

al ongtinme. I think for me, I interpret her big smile as her just bucking tradition and I think that

she and Jess both do that but because PInky falls into more of a feminie presentation and is

comfortable with feminine gender roles she gets policed a lot less than Jess does.

B: Yeah I definitely can see that, for sure. I admittedly, my read on that came from research I did

on a retrospective that was done on Collider by Aeisha Pandoria and that was her read on that

scene so I was parodying what I learned from her. But I'm glad you brought that up, there's so

many different ways that this movie can be read. Which is why even though I feel like as adults

we can be critical than when we were younger, it is still such a rich text to assess. I just find that

very, very interesting. And something I didn't notice until rewatching it now, Pinky's husband is

just kind of a guy. Titu is just an average guy. He's not like this, mind-blowingly hot dude. He's

just a guy who wears button up shirts and loves her and really cares about her. It was really nice

to see a character really excited to marry somebody that wasn't drop dead end of the world

amazing because there is that really gross assumption that Jules's mom makes where she's like

I bet your parents are arranging for you to be with a doctor, because I think that is such a

stereotype that a lot of people just believe in their heads to be true. So you see his family come

over and talk with the Bharma family and when they leave I'm like he's just a guy! How nice is

this? That shouldn't be something I find really relieving but it's nice.

A: It's also nice to see an Indian man desiring an Indian woman because there's often this type

of Indian men wanting to date white women like, ah I don't want an Indian wife they're so

traditional, blah blah. I'm thinking of that movie...it's that Indian guy and there's a white girl who

goes into a coma?

H: The Big Sick.

A: Yeah, so I'm thinking about the Big Sick and how all of the Indian women in that movie were

portrayed as being just totally undesirable and backwards and like the only way this man could

be modern and free was by dating a white woman. So I was happy to see that trope not upheld

in this movie in that way.

H: I Just think it's really interesting to see this dynamic having grown up where I did. I don't want

to relate all of this through me, but it's that ugliness I saw in my mom where once I was hanging

out with friends in the city I was the white person in my group of friends and when I asked her,

how would you feel if I dated someone who was not white? And she went well, what am I

supposed to say to that?! And I go, well ideally, that it's fine. And she goes, well then it's fine!

ANd I'm like well now I don't believe you [laughs] so that's fucked up. I don't know, it's just, it's

weird to see this sort of cultural standard exist outside of just my racist white mother who would

be similar to Jules's mother but her mom at least tries. I think things just echo differently in

different cultures and I can't really speak to that with any kind of authority but I think it dredged

up some memories for me that I was not prepared for when I sat down to watch this movie.

A: Yeah and something you made me think of too, antiblackness is absolutely a thing in India,

as is Islamophobia, among people who are not Muslim. So that makes sense to me in terms of

why Jess says she couldn't date a black guy or a muslim guy. In terms of that perspective

towards a whtie guy or a gorra, like they say in the film, there is that moment after Jules's mom

makes a big scene at the wedding where the Indian aunties are sitting around they're like ugh,

white people can never let us be happy, we can never celebrate without them complaining about

something. So I imagine there might be a sense of, not the same outright discriminoatn that is

there against Black folks or muslim folks but perahps this sense of unsafety around whtie

people becuase not just racism but also Britain is literally the colonizer of India so there is a very

sepcific raical dynamic there so I imagine there' sprobably some feelings about that, that he

wouldn't fit into theri family or they wouldn't be comfortable and uphold their traditions.

H: Oh for sure. Even at a surface level, white people are annoying. Why are you crashing the

party?

B: [laughs] That's a good point to be made, and in a very strange way, it is also refreshing to see

a movie that doesn't position whiteness as the ideal. So often we'll see in movies where

somebody from a marginalized identity is almost encouraged to seek out a white partner

because they equate that with your life being better, so it's weirdly very nice to see a family

that's like white people ain't shit. We just don't see it very often [laughs]

H: Even to just extend that outward for what we do on this show, how often do we have to

acknowledge on 90% of the movies that we cover that there's only white people in it in the teen

girl genre? We don't see other things, period.

BJ: The teen girl genre is so unbelievably white. Compared to just about any other genre of film,

teen girl and the weird Christian propaganda films, they're on the same level with their diversity

in a lot of ways. So even just Bend it like Beckham existing, taking away all of our criticisms that

we have and all the conversations we had, the fact that this movie exists and that it made me so

much money is astounding. It completely bucks the trend of everything we've ever seen

historically throughout successful teen movies.

A: Yeah and I can't think of any other desi teen characters even now. Other than Mindy Kaling's

show.. Never Have I Ever.

B: You're right. The only other character I can think of is in the new Rebel Wilson movie Senior

Year. The actress is played by Avantika Vandanapu and she's been in a lot of Indian films, she

was in a DIsney channel original movie and on the series Diary of a future president, which is

kind of cute, because that's kind of her character in the Rebel WIlson movie is that she wants to

be president someday. She's Indian and that's kind of it. I'm sure someone listening right now is

screaming a movie very loudly at their phone, and I apologize that I cannot hear you [laughs]

but it's not very often and we do talk a lot on the show about the importance of representation

even when it's bad. This episode will come out after our Heathers episode where I talk about

Martha Dunstock in Heathers is not a great character but you can take her from me from my

cold, dead hands because as a fat person I need her. I think that puts a movie like Bend it like

Bekcham in such an interesting place culturally because this movie has so many things that are

mixed messaging but at the same time the importance is undeniable. So there's so much rich

content in this movie to dissect, we could talk about it forever. Bu tI like to think we've given a

pretty big look at all things bend it like beckham. I think that means Harmony, it is time. Bend it

like beckham is asking you to the prom, is it a yes, no, maybe, or are you buying her a ticket so

she can go on her own?

H: So watching this movie the first time I did not pick up on quite as many things as we

discussed in today's episode because that's the fun of the job that I get on the show, where I

don't know anything about the stuff that we're watching most of the time. So I didn't quite have

as many deep, digested thoughts as everyone else unfortunately, but I still think this is a really

fun movie that for the age group and demographic it is targeting, I think it's a great entry level

position to a lot of things that they will explore when they get older. I like to believe this episode

will be an entry point to discussing even bigger topics of this movie. So yeah i'm going to give it

a yes. I enjoyed my time with it. Also any climax that features Pavarati is big in my book

because I love him. That was a delight. That's my feelings.

B: Well beautiful. I do also want people to know there's a documentary about Bend it Like

Bekcham and its legacy, specifically in how it inspired a generation of young girls to sign up for

soccer and how there are some Indian athletes who are working today as professional soccer

players or footballers who signed up because of Bend it like beckham which I think is really

interesting. So look that up if you want more content. I haven't finished it but I was like this is a

really cool thing to assess. But Alexia, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show,

bringing this movie and so much of your insight. So many of the points you made are just

absolutely brilliant and it was really nice to have you. So if you want people to find you on the

internet [laughs] where can they find you?

A: Yeah, so I do keep my private life pretty private but I do have a podcast called Whatever, I'll

Watch It. You're welcome to follow me on instagram, it's @ whatever tv pod. I will be releasing

some new episodes soon on Broad City, which I imagine will appeal to your listeners so check it

out. Feel free to DM me. I'm pretty good at getting back to folks.

B: Amazing. Friends, you can find the show on twitter and instagram @ this ends at prom. You

find me on twitter and instagram @ BJ Colangelo.

H: And you can find me on twitter and instagram @ veloci underscore trap underscore tour.

B: And huge thank you as always to the Sonder Bombs for letting us use Title as our theme

song. Harmony, what cool band do you want people to check out that is inspired by Bend it like

beckham?

H: SO I really like this soundtrack and specifically like the more indie fare on this soundtrack. So

the band I wanted to shout out, I wanted them to be British because that seemed appropriate, I

needed them to be from the UK. So the band I want to plug is called the Tutts. I realized after

sitting down to record thise pisode that teh tutts broke up over teh course of the pandemic which

broke my heart becuase they were similar rto Taco Cat in that they wrote really good, feminist

music that is unbveliabbly catchy but it looks like the lead singer, Nadia Shived, has started

doing a solo career and has been working with Kathleen Hanna, so she's out doing things. If

you want to listen to the back catalog they have a couple albums that are really good, they also

have a phenomenal cover with Girlie of Mr. 10pm bedtime. I want to follow them as they do

other things. I really like this style of music and band and sound and I thought it was really fun.

B: Everyone definitely check them out. Maybe if there's enough listens they'll be like, oh maybe

we should get back together now that the pandemic is still going on but people are pretending

it's not [laughs] maybe we'll get new music that way.

H: I would love it. It's one of thoes things like Dasiy and the Scouts released a little bit of music

and then borke up and now everyone's like, fuck Daisy and the Scouts are really good. I would

love that for this band, they're a really solid DIY band I've been following for a long time.

B: Awesome. Well friends that takes out on Bend it like Beckham. As always, save that last

dance for us. Bye!

H: Bye!

[“Title” by the Sonder Bombs theme music plays and fades out]