Oscar gives a nod to International Women's Day

Music to my feminist ears: Kathryn Bigelow has smashed her way through the glass ceiling to take the best director Oscar for The Hurt Locker. Not only did this low-budget picture reign supreme over the highest grossing film of all time – Avatar’s box-office takings exceed US$2.6 billion compared with The Hurt Locker’s at just over US$21 million – but it was also the first time that a woman snared the statuette for best director. Being producer, Bigelow also picked up the gong for best picture. In all, The Hurt Locker claimed six Oscars to Avatar’s three. A good day for Bigelow.

This is particularly welcome news. According to Sarah Seltzer’s blog A feminist guide to the 2010 Oscars “only 7 percent of the top 250 films [in the period leading up to the Academy Awards] were directed by women” making this achievement, on the one hand, all the more impressive but, on the other, highlighting the startling absence of female talent in the industry. Sara Freeman, who has written a piece in the feministreview, says only “three other women have been nominated previously: Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for The Piano, and Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation.” Perhaps Bigelow's Oscar success could be the spur to bring about change in a male-dominated industry.

Interestingly, the win coincides with International Women’s Day – 8 March 2010. However, I am extremely disappointed to see that Google - which often celebrates an important occasion by tailoring its masthead - was either completely oblivious to this event this time around or did not deem it “special” enough to create a doodle to raise its profile. In 2005, Google marked the event by altering the second “o” to “♀”, the symbol for female organism. Would it be asking too much for this change to be a regular feature? Google knows the power of its brand, to have transformed its logo for the event would have helped to raise the profile of this day.

So, thank you Bigelow for being a very gracious role-model for women. Thank you too Oscar, for acknowledging her talent. As for Google? Thanks for nothing.