Kathryn Bigelow-Debate About Oscar Win for Best Director Should Not Turn into Debate About Women's Issues

Hurt Locker, the independent movie that was produced for only $15 million dollars, the movie that was never a box office success and hardly broke even, snatched a few Oscars from all-time box office giant Avatar whose global revenue so far amounts to $2.5 billion.

The various commercially and politically motivated speculations on Hurt Locker's success notwithstanding, the pundits have hard time coming up with the reasonable believable theories for this year Oscar night spoiler.

Sadly, among the misses and near misses, way too much importance is given to the fact that Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman director to having won an Oscar than to the importance of her work. Aren't Oscars for Best Film and Best Director proving simply that Hurt Locker was better, at least in the eyes of the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the crowd officially considered being the best and the most creative in the industry?

The fact that the director of Avatar, James Cameron, and the director of Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, were 20 years ago husband and wife does not add anything to the Oscar award itself, neither it adds any relevance to the Oscar news. Why is it then so much attention given to this fact? That it is the attention grabber is not big enough reason for any news, not even for the very often lighter entertainment news.

And the shamelessly concocted stories about the so-called battle of the sexes between the two former spouses, Bigelow and Cameron, is way too cheap a gimmick that should not have been pulled off by any member of the news media. In the absence of any real news that would corroborate these fantasies, shouldn't we abandon these ineffectual attempts to attract more readers and score higher ratings?

Kathryn Bigelow is first and foremost the director in her own right with quite a few movies on her resume, all tough, war, horror movies.

It can not be to anybody's advantage, neither to women nor men, if, after all is said and done, Kathryn Bigelow's fear materializes and she becomes more known for the history-breaking event of being the first woman director having won an Oscar than for the quality she brought to Hurt Locker. Aren't we by emphasizing this historic female victory, which in all fairness should have happened a long time ago, taking away from the artistic accomplishments of Kathryn Bigelow and the original idea and purpose of the Oscar award itself?

Since Hurt Locker won six Oscars, it shouldn't be a surprise that so many wish more was said about how good a war movie Kathryn Bigelow did than that she is the first woman who made history winning an Oscar.

And last but not least, the debate about her Oscar win shouldn't be a debate about women and it shouldn't turn into debate about women's issues. Any discussion about womanhood and place of women in the society and the contemporary culture should not be a part of Oscar talk. After all, Oscar is the award presented for artistic accomplishment and not a platform for any cause, political or otherwise, no matter how important it is.