Melissa Silverstein has remarked, both on Twitter, and now in this article, that much is made of Kathryn Bigelow’s looks, as if much of the driving force behind her success is that she is gorgeous. And we all know she is gorgeous. We just don’t expect, I guess, a successful female director to be THAT gorgeous? And at 58? Here is Silverstein:
I long personally for the day when nobody cares that Kathryn Bigelow was married to James Cameron or how she looks. Because I have read articles that literally have said that James Cameron directed The Hurt Locker or that she only has a career because of him. But we lived in a world where Kathryn Bigelow is being held up to an absurd standard. She’s a boy and a girl. She’s the hot one and the kick ass one. She’s everything to everybody. That’s a lot of pressure on one person.
Silverstein makes several good points, and has asked questions where others haven’t. I have had to do battle with many commenters who continually say, “she’s only winning because she’s a woman.” I always counter it with, “she’s winning despite being a woman.” This is the first time I can remember that a “womans film” is being regarded with the same awe and respect that a film directed by a man would. The conversation around Bigelow was condescending at first, “this cute little lady and her cute little war movie.” But every time Bigelow accepts another award (the Golden Globes notwithstanding) it is breathtaking in its disruptiveness.