I’m not trying to defend the Academy, but I don’t know what they can do without offending one way or another, short of women stop directing films altogether, in which case the issue goes away on its own entirely.  Should women like Bigelow stop making films so that the Academy won’t get to be PC? If you are an Academy member and you honestly believe she made the best film and want to vote her to win, how should you vote so that you support her but at the same time not be “PC”? Pray tell.

In one shot in The Abyss, a helicopter lands on an oil drilling platform.  Cameron frames the shot so you only see the combat boots of three Navy SEALs getting of the copter–and then a woman’s high heel shoes.  It turns out the woman was the engineer who built the oil rig.

In Aliens, a male commando teases a woman commando, ‘have you ever been mistaken for a man?’  The woman snaps back, “No.  Have you?”  I can’t tell you how that works on the male psyche.  And Cameron knew exactly what he’s doing.  I saw Aliens with my 12-year-old nephew and neither of us could get over that ‘lady marine.’

I remember how, when I was a child, the depiction of women as weak and fearful, always screaming and weak in movies affected my attitudes.  They may just be dumb action movies, but Cameron was doing really radical, transformational things with gender imagery.

Incidentally, IMHO, District 9 is one of the worst critically praised movies ever made, and only works if you think of it as a comedy.