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The Post Oscar Debate on Kathyn Bigelow and Gender

posted by Women & Hollywood
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 9:01pm CDT

This past week there have been a lot of stories looking at Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win from a variety of perspectives. The fact that we are even having these conversations at all is in itself a huge and gigantic (and every other adjective I can throw in) leap forward as Manohla Dargis wrote in her excellent piece How Oscar Found Ms. Right which ran on the cover of this Sunday’s NY Times Arts & Leisure section. (Sidenote: I think we all owe Manohla a big wet kiss for her incisive writing and candor in talking about gender during this awards season. Her visibility on the topic has made a big difference and I know it can’t be easy at the NY Times especially when you are a critic.) Here’s what she wrote:

Uncharacteristically, the issue of female directors working — though all too often not working — was being discussed in print and online, and without the usual accusations of political correctness, a phrase that’s routinely deployed to silence those with legitimate complaints. I don’t think I’ve read the words women and film and feminism in the same sentence as much in the last few months since Thelma and Louise rocked the culture nearly two decades ago.

But of course, a visible win like an Oscar has unleashed criticism especially because Kathryn Bigelow did not embrace her fellow directing sisters in a big bold, feminist rant.

For example a piece from NOW in Toronto said:

You got the sense she was embarrassed that Barbra Streisand acknowledged the achievement and then Bigelow made no reference to the significance. How she could get up there and not mention the likes of Ida Lupino is baffling.

You know that if she would have gotten up there and talked about women directors and how this was historic for women the next day all anyone would have talked about was how she shouldn’t define herself as a woman director cause that marginalizes women. Either way she couldn’t please everyone.

The Times of London criticizes her win not as a step forward for women, but confirmation of her selling out and joining the boys club. Can West News Service reporter Jamie Postman talks about his angry encounter with Bigelow 15 years ago when she was promoting Strange Days and how she has a short fuse and berated and yelled at a female reporter at a press conference because stood up and confronted Bigelow on the fact that her film perpetuated violence against women.

I’m not really down with bringing up stories form 15 years ago to illuminate anything about anyone today, but the comment does bring up one one of the questions that will continue to plague her and this win. Do women have more of an obligation to women not to perpetuate female stereotypes? And do women directors have a moral imperative not to make films that put women in situations where they are assaulted, murdered and victimized? Is that part of the responsibility of having a vagina when you are a director?

That is an interesting conversation. I don’t believe that a woman director should be handcuffed on any topic precisely because a woman could handle those topics differently. Finally it feels like people have finally awakened to the fact that women directors have been getting the short end of the stick for decades. Welcome to the party. I implore you not to just talk and rant but do your part. Go and see films by women directors.

Another issue that has been illuminated in this conversation — one that I find just as vital and important — is the discussion that movies about women don’t generate the same interest, passion and gravitas that movies about men do especially if they are directed and written by women. TV writer Sarah Fain wrote on her blog:

My annoyance at Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win is rooted in the man-off conundrum, which is basically this: to garner attention and respect, women in Hollywood have to act like/write like/direct like men.

Is this an absolute rule? No. (And by no, I mean pretty much yes, unless you’re Nancy Meyers, and even that’s debatable.)

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that Bigelow didn’t deserve her Oscar— she certainly did. So did Randa Haines, who wasn’t even nominated for Children of a Lesser God in 1986, despite the movie’s nomination for Best Picture. And so did Niki Caro, whose 2002 film Whale Rider is still one of the most stunning pieces of artistic achievement I’ve ever seen.

This is where we need to focus energy on in the future and I’m afraid that it might even be just as hard — if not harder — to get respect in this area as it is for women directors. But again, people can do their parts in this fight. When there is a film about women that gets dismissed by your friends and partners as just a plain old stupid chick flick and it is one that you know deserves better than that — because lord knows some are really crappy — stand up for them. Have some ammunition in your conversation. Talk about why films about women don’t get taken seriously. This is where we can all make a difference. This is why awards matter. Because it causes people to talk and consider and question.

Kathryn Bigelow, the absentee feminist (NOW Toronto)

Kathryn Bigelow’s great leap forward — or was it? (The Times of London)

Kathryn Bigelow And The Man-Off Conundrum (Sarah Fain Has Starfish Envy)

Kathryn Bigelow is no ‘bad boy’ (The Guardian)

How Oscar Found Ms. Right (NY Times)

The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow: Don’t mess with her (Vancouver Sun)