I think there's some truth behind what you said about Bigelow winning possibly because she's a woman and the insanity of this concept in this day and age.  Sure, it will be great when a woman wins, but the win should be deserved and not given (kind of reminds me if Clinton won over Obama even if it may have been the better choice in the end).  What I find more troublesome is some other possible reasons why The Hurt Locker/Bigelow won that goes beyond The Academy members and/or new voting system and taps into America's guilty feelings as it relates to Iraq.  It is my opinion that people in the film industry should feel guilty of the lack of truthful movies coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Sure we have people like Robert Greenwald making quality, revealing documentaries, but the opportunity has been lost to bring awareness and feelings through the amazing power of film.  There has been some decent movies about Iraq, however, they have not received the attention that they deserve because America did  not want to see the dirty, brutal side of war waged in supposedly in our behalf.

Then comes The Hurt Locker and everyone and their grandma rallies behind it.  We get to empathize with the soldiers as we sit at the edges of our seats waiting for the IEDs to blow.  There is the sense of hopelessness, and we feel that the soldiers are just doing the best they can in Iraq.  There is no blame and there is even a sense of patriotism, especially at the end which some say was influenced by the military along with Bigelow jerking off the soldiers during her acceptance speech rather than shedding some light on the situation.  If it comes out to be true that there was military influence, Bigelow should be barred for life from the Academy.  Her producer was already barred for from the ceremony for his shameless email campaign trying to get people to vote for the Hurt Locker. Veterans are pissed saying this movie is completely unbelievable, as well as a soldier suing because he believes the story was ripped off and he wasn't given the due credit.  Don't get me wrong, I love controversial movies, but don't get mislead - this is the WRONG kind of controversial!  In essence this movie is propaganda on a number of fronts and the Academy should be ashamed of themselves for being played like a fool.