Kathryn Bigelow: The Woman Behind the Landmark

Kathryn Bigelow made history on March 7th when she became the first woman to win the award for Best Director. And to be honest, up until that point I knew very little about her. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one, since she hasn't exactly been the most prevalent director of our time.

I haven't seen the Hurt Locker because, frankly, it is my junior year of high school and when I emerge, blinking at the unexpected brightness of the sun after hours of light generated by my computer screen I usually take shelter at a friend's house so that they might remember I still exist.

So, instead, I did what I do best and took to Google. Apparently, Kathryn Bigelow has directed Point Break - a bank robbery type movie - and The Weight of Water, about a journalist researching a historical murder that parallels her own life, along with a few other movies. So...not exactly chick flicks. Which could mean nothing but at the same time is it really a coincidence that a woman who makes movies that are very much male-oriented was the first woman to win an Oscar? Of course that's not to say women don't enjoy/appreciate movies about war, murder and bank robbery - sure they do, let's not generalize - but at the same time, these are traditionally considered "guy flicks" and therefore more important. A chick flick isn't about to get the kind of appreciation that movies about war do.

And honestly I'm sick of the argument that war movies are "more important" than chick flicks. Not that I'm defending chick flicks, necessarily, because honest to god they are some of the worst representations of women out there. But at the same time why have we deemed war, masculine driven slaughter, more important than the lives of women?

But that is a different rant.

Another point about Kathryn Bigelow: like I said before, I basically knew nothing about her. And yet the few things that I did know were 1) she used to be married to James Cameron (you know, the guy that should have won) and 2) she looks fabulous for her age!

Here is a woman who has apparently accomplished Oscar level work - a brilliant filmmaker - and all we can talk about is her love life and how hot she is. All this while at the same time we're congratulating our society for progressing so much that we now, after 81 short years, have admitted that women can direct as well as men. Faaaaantastic.

And what about that? Our self congratulation for allowing a woman to finally win. On some level, it's kind of embarrassing that it has taken us 81 YEARS to get here.

But, all that aside, it's undeniable awesome that Kathryn Bigelow won that Oscar. So here's a look at the woman who accomplished this.