Female Director Takes Hollywood by Storm: Is She a Beauty or a Visionary?

Item

Title
Female Director Takes Hollywood by Storm: Is She a Beauty or a Visionary?
Author
Courtney Richardson
Faculty Sponsor
Shaun Huston
Gavin Keulks
Date
6/1/2016
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to understand how gender affects perceptions of film director Kathryn Bigelow and her work. It is no secret that there are not many female directors in Hollywood and more often than not female directors are associated with romantic comedies and other “women’s” films. What makes Kathryn Bigelow unique among her demographic is that she makes action movies and war films which are typically considered to be men’s genres. As a female lover of film it is interesting to me to look at how Ms. Bigelow and her work are received and how that may differ from how male directors who operate within the same genre are viewed. Award-winning film-director Kathryn Bigelow is unique as a focus for a study on gender affected perceptions because she is a very prominent figurehead in the directorial industry, an industry that is almost entirely male. I have chosen Kathryn Bigelow as the focus for this among the few other successful female directors because she is arguably the most successful female director (being the only won to win both best director and best picture) and because she makes action films unlike the majority of her counterparts. By looking at a few of her films in addition to articles, interviews, reviews, and other media, I hope to find the various ways in which how she is viewed by society is gendered. In my research I will be looking for things such as: industries not accepting her ideas because she is a woman and questions and comments about her appearance rather than her films or ideas.
Type
Text
Honors Thesis
Department
Honors Program
Language
eng
Rights
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Identifier
honors_theses/107