“Bend It Like Beckham got here out after I was 10 years outdated, however I don’t assume I noticed it til I used to be 11. I DEFINITELY didn’t know I used to be queer and largely metabolized it on the time as an unbelievably robust craving to be excellent mates with Keira Knightley. She was like if Jonathan Taylor Thomas was tall and smelled good and had a British accent, and she was good at sports activities and had a mood?! Come on!” —Sophie, 32
“I used to be a sporty 10-year-old with brief hair when Bend It Like Beckham got here out, and I had by no means seen a personality like Jules earlier than. She seemed like me besides she was cool and assured. It was a basic younger queer confusion—did I wish to develop up and turn out to be her, or did I wish to develop up and have a girlfriend identical to her? Both means, it gave me choices I couldn’t visualize earlier than.” —Emily, 33
“As a clumsy, chubby homosexual child in 2003 suburban Boston, I had no concept enby lesbian illustration was doable till Keira in Bend It Like Beckham opened up that horizon for me.” —Jack, 32
“Why was Keira Knightley so homosexual in that film? And but, not truly homosexual…I requested my accomplice lately how she had probably by no means seen Bend It Like Beckham when it’s a homosexual film. She stated, ‘In order that they’re lesbians?’ I used to be like, ‘Nicely, no…’ however there’s a lot scorching we’re doing one thing fallacious pressure between Jules and Jess.” —Libby, 34
“Watching the Bend It Like Beckham VHS as a soccer child at round 10 or 11, I used to be so fascinated with Jules’s aesthetic and didn’t know why. The child tees, the leather-based jacket and bandana, her jersey loosely draped over her boyish body, the best way her hair was too brief to place in a ponytail; she was so hot-coded, however otherwise than I had actually thought-about earlier than. It felt like she was speculated to be scorching for me.” —Dove, 29
“That is the haircut I gave myself in seventh grade due to Keira in Bend It Like Beckham, carried out with kitchen scissors and an unknowable sense of urgency.” —Pheli, 29
“I’m fairly positive I noticed Bend It Like Beckham proper when it got here out, so I used to be 10 or 11. I used to be a tomboy weirdo with a really historically girly (straight) older sister and a historical past of intense, obsessive feminine friendships, so I believe I simply actually associated to Jess. The German nightclub scene (and each Jules and Jess’s outfits in it) has lived in my head rent-free ever since then.” —Thea, 32
