Kathryn Bigelow And The Man-Off Conundrum

A couple days ago, I was asked to write a piece for a pretty major website on Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar win.

I was flattered to be asked, and although I didn't have time to do it AT ALL... I did it anyway. 

Which involved recruiting one of the assistants here at Lie to Me to do off-the-books research, writing two sentences at a time between meetings and phone calls, and then a plowing through a rushed re-write at midnight when I finally got home.

Sadly, but not shockingly, when I turned it in, they didn't love it.  They wanted something more fact-based and less anecdote-y.  It was, they said correctly, too "bloggy."  

Fortunately, in a crazy, strange, twist of fate, I HAVE A BLOG!!!  So, I'm posting it here. Because I like it.  And I can.  So here goes:

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Frankly, I’m a little annoyed by Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win.

I’ll tell you why in a minute, but first I have to tell you a story.  It goes like this:

Ten years ago, my writing partner, Elizabeth Craft, and I wrote an Oz spec script.  We were just beginning our career as television writers, and we knew we needed a writing sample that would show prospective employers (men) that we weren’t too soft.  Too female. 

Soft and female, we understood intuitively, would not serve us well. 

And we were right.  That Oz spec, with its copious amounts of anal rape and random acts of violence, got us our first primetime job.  Eventually, it got us our dream job, on The Shield, where we stayed for three seasons.  (And where, on our first day of work, we made sure to use the F-word in the writers’ room, so all the male writers would know we nice, Midwestern girls could hang.) 

Strategically, writing an Oz spec was the right thing to do.  (And it wasn’t just strategy— we really loved Oz.)  That script kick-started what has, so far, been a pretty great career. 

But here’s the problem:  we also had a terrific Once & Again spec.  Probably better than the Oz.  Did that spec get the same kind of heat? 

Nope.  Not remotely. 

Sadly, when it came to getting hired, our Once & Again script was, in the words of our agent, “sprayed with man-off.”  It was useless in this town.

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.   

A Beautiful Mind won that year.  A lovely movie, sure. 

But Whale Rider was better. 

And don’t even get me started on how Barbra Streisand wasn’t nominated for Yentl in 1983.  Seriously.  I can’t talk about it.   (But it has to be said—was there ever a movie more sprayed with man-off?)

For my money, the closest a woman’s come to winning a Best Director Oscar is Jane Campion in 1993— but her film, The Piano, was up against Schindler’s List, and no one in the universe was going to win against that juggernaut.

In the last eighty-two years, in fact, only four women have even been nominated in the Best Director category:  Bigelow, Jane Campion, Sophia Coppola, and Lina Wertmuller.  That’s four in eighty-two years.   Lemme just say that again. 

Four in eighty-two years.

Eighty-two years is a long time.  And four is a really small number.

So forgive me for not dancing on the glass ceiling.

Because as much as I want to believe that Barbra Streisand was referring to some grand, universal shift when she opened that crisp, ivory envelope and intoned, “Well… the time has come,” really she just meant that on this one night, the time has come for this one woman.  And that’s great.  Truly, madly, deeply great. 

But it doesn’t mean that sexism in Hollywood is dead. 

It’s not even resting.

Not when what it took for a female director to finally be taken Academy-Award-Winning-Seriously was a film about men engaged in the most manly of pursuits—by which, of course, I mean war.  The Hurt Locker is all testosterone, all the time, and while it’s a stunning movie, I’m not convinced it would have been nominated if it hadn’t been directed by a woman.  The novelty alone gave it a level of attention that other women directors simply don’t get.

(Quick aside: When it comes to attention, it’s not just in the movie industry that women writers and directors get the short end.  As recent articles in The New York Times and Women & Hollywood have noted, female playwrights and novelists don’t fare much better.) 

What, after all, is the source of this attention deficit?  Why is man-off spray so powerful?  Most importantly, does the fact that my agent even thought of such a concept mean that I should fire him?  (Just kidding, Matt.  Relax.)

It’s actually quite simple.  And by simple, I mean extraordinarily complex and probably impossible to solve.  But it comes down to something in this arena: as a culture we don’t value stories about women as much as we value stories about men.  We don’t value women’s voices as much as we value men’s voices.  And until we do, it won’t really matter who’s directing, or who’s writing, or whether the person taking home the award is wearing pants or a dress.

And if saying that makes me sexist… well, I live in Hollywood. 

I fit right in.

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Thanks to Melissa Silverstein at Women & Hollywood for reminding me of the wonder that is Whale Rider, and to Heather Thomason for the fast, well-honed research.

Comments

[Dolly]

You go girl! Nice bit of writing. Although I'm not sure I really wanted to know that only 4 women have ever been nominated for an Oscar in the Directing category. Makes me a little blue...

[Julie]

Sarah,

Thank you for this post. Your thoughts are right on the money. The worst thing about it is that sexism and "man-off" is something women, particularly younger women, are afraid to talk about, not wanting to seem like we can't make it on our own merits ... and yet, when we don't talk about it, we don't inform and help each other, which keeps us in the dark and discourages change.

[Maggie]

Hear Hear! Finally someone talking sense!

[Lindsey]

Too bloggy? Pshaw. Their loss. This is marvelous. And I find your points both salient and deeply depressing. It is true: the female voice and story, fundamentally different from the man's, are just not as accepted or honored in this culture. Why? I do not know. All I know is we have to keep talking and telling our stories, even if it doesn't feel that it matters ... somehow the tiny waves each of us is creating will join into a groundswell. Right? I have to believe that.

[Delia Lloyd]

I love this post. Precisely b/c it *was* bloggy. Lord knows there's been tons of ink spilled on the whole Kathryn Bigelow thing. It was nice to read something with a more personal, more universal spin. Thank you.

Delia Lloyd
www.realdelia.com

[Chris]

Wow, only 4....I'm shocked. I'm going to try to do my best to support women in your industry as much as possible.

I've been wanting to start watching (and catch up with) Sons of Anarchy. Wasn't on the top of my list until Julie Bush announced her new writing job on that show. So, I'll be watching it now. :-)

I wonder how many great things we miss seeing on film or tv because it's too soft or too female. What a shame.

Blessings, C

[Kim]

I love this post even though it makes me sad but it needed to be said.

[Violeta Villacorta]

Well said! Avatar's message came from a higher place...special effects aside!

[Violeta Villacorta]

Though the effects created a Shamanic vision!

[Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist !]

good post. I came here from Melissa Silverstein's twitter..

I am so happy Bigelow won, but I was also disappointed that it was for THE HURT LOCKER (great movie, but still...)

but I like to think that this is just the start. Her Oscar win shall pave the road for more female filmmakers and prodcuers to come out on top.

we shall overcome!

[twitter.com/devt]

Love your story-- Meanwhile, over in New Zealand, home of Whale Rider, the struggle goes on: http://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2010/03/equal-rights-equal-opportunity-progress.html

[Bethany]

Love your points. Not being involved in the industry (and have never even watched the Oscars, gasp) I wondered if she won becasue she was a woman. A "See we are open-minded" move. Granted I am VERY jaded when it comes to this subject!! Anyway your comment about men's stories getting more attantion made me think of the book "The Red Tent". Fictional but the whole idea was writing some of the stories of the bible from a female perspective.

[Joan]

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I've read that the black community will show up opening weekend and support a movie directed by or starring a black artist even if the movie is subpar. They show up and support it. It would be interseting if women could do the same thing. We have a lot of buying power. If we start showing up, then more movies about women will be made, more female voices will be heard. I'll support some crappy female centered movies so that better movies can be made which will encourage more females artists.

And what's the deal with male chefs? I adore Top Chef, but the males are often chauvinistic. We can't even dominate in the kitchen??

Bethany -- thanks for the reminder about The Red Tent...it's been on my list to read for a looooong time!

[Karin de la Penha]

Sigh...yes, this is all too true. And one of the reasons it persists is the tendency we women have to ingratiate ourselves to men. We're conditioned to not rock the boat. To let 'em have their way...I know: Old news. But, it persists...as exemplified by Bigelow, by you, Sarah, by me (mea culpa)...we keep succumbing to the prevailing powers-that-be (where cold hard cash is concerned...we don't have much option, we gotta eat!). All I can say in my defense is that I've reached the point where I rarely go to plays or movies in which the combination of cast and creator is preponderantly male. It's not even a protest vote. It's a cellular reaction: I've literally reached the point where watching an overly male cast simply doesn't appeal to me. (Yes, I saw The Hurt Locker. And I'm impressed by Bigelow's film-making prowess. But I resented the fact that the only woman in the film was, if memory serves, Renner's long-suffereing wife. I dunno--maybe there were a few more saintly females in the mix, too. Woohoo! Surely Bigelow could've included some female warriors. Jeesh--they're out there dying in these wars, too.) Listen--I don't have the answer. I know vehement feminism isn't very successful. And I certainly compromise, where that's the pragmatic choice. I've finally persuaded my fella that calling women over the age of 20 'girls' isn't OK--at least in my presence. And I certainly spoke up when the director of the show I'm currently in ('The Fly in the Fridge,' if you want to google it...and I'd love to see you there!) made a comment that, because our first sound/lighting designers were abysmally unprofessional, it was because they were female! But I'm an actor. We're constantly in the supplicant position (until we're producers, too). I'll roll over for anyone to get a job I want. It's all a very complex situation. But my first move to change it is to stop spending my hard-earned $$$s on male dominated productions...and to more consciously support female-heavy--or at least female-balanced works. I agree w/Joan...let's follow the example of the black community. After all--we've got us a black president, now. (Yes I know he's also white...but the fact is, the black community showed up as never before to launch him. It works.) Phew! Glad I got that off my chest. Thanks, Sarah.

[Nina Yankowitz]

This article was painfully on target--to use a "man-on" phrase. I am not a great fan of the Hurt Locker, whether man-off or man-on. I thought it flat, painfully stretching in the search for meaning, and drawn along a singular continuum with little reaching into the tangential. And are we now supposed to believe that Women should be honored for becoming cyphers that display monocular visions?

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[famous people]

Well...Kathryn Bigelow is just perfect!
I don't mention her looks, that is just great for a woman her age, but in any mean of cinematic capabilities she is quite amazing..getting so much honors and pride with not a lot of directing experience, in comparison to other directors winning the Oscars, really, I'm amazed..great job!

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