Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Awesome Female Role Models- Evelyn The Librarian

With Halloween next week - I'm continuing my theme of Halloween type of female role models.

Today, we have Evelyn (Evy) from  the movie, The Mummy.

Growing up, this was one of my sister's favorite movies. At first it terrified me because I was a wimp, but it grew on me. (Although I didn't want to admit it.) Now, I don't know why I resisted loving this movie. It's fantastic and I love Evy.

Evelyn is clumsy and relate-able. She didn't get into the Bembridge Scholars but she's still brilliant, even if others don't see it right away. Granted - who would when she knocks over some very large bookshelves in the first five minutes of meeting her?


She has big dreams. When she finds the map and does her research, she wants to go for it. Not just a "someday that would be awesome" but she wants to go for it now. Let's find a way and go. She's willing to meet and work with awful people and put herself in danger for the sake of history and adventure. She will pay a lot of money to save Mr. O'Connell's life (even though at the moment she hates him) in order to go on this adventure and deal with the terrible jail keeper guy in order to do so.


Evelyn is a complete nerd. It comes along with the whole librarian thing. But she loves Egyptian history with a passion. She doesn't care about the treasure or the adventure. She wants to preserve history and honor the people of the past. Even through all of the danger she encounters through the movie, this is still important to her. I love all of the times she geeks out about some historical artifact. Evy is proud of who she is. Even if she is drunk when she admits it.


Evelyn recognizes where her strengths lie... but also where they don't. She knows she's not a fighter or an adventurer or anything along those lines. What's great about her is that she doesn't have to be in order to be awesome. Many times we see "strong women" as those who can pick up a gun and shoot (or use archery if your Katniss) or she can tell people off and be crude. Evy isn't any of those things. She puts people in their place, but she does it with intelligence and tact. She doesn't have to resort to violence to be strong. All Evy needs is her intellect and charm.



Eveyln is willing to go out of her comfort zone. She's not one for the outdoors, and toughing it out, and being surrounded by crude men. Yet, she does it anyways. She deals with all of the Americans and the other men she's surrounded by, and holds her own. She doesn't treat them disrespectfully or look down on them because she has a more formal education. Except for perhaps her brother... but what are siblings for?

She never wanted to raise a cursed mummy back from the dead, but she deals with it. She puts herself in danger even though she's terrified out of her mind and helps to save the day. The men protect her, but she protects herself and them too. While she may have been the one to read from the book and bring the mummy to life and is always getting herself into trouble (even if she's just locked in her room), she is also the one who saves everyone because of her bravery and knowledge of Egyptian history.

When Imhotep takes Evy away, she doesn't argue. She goes in order to save the others. The others (particularly Rick) want her to stay with them and protect her, but she goes anyways. They go to help her, but it is not because she's a helpless person who can't do anything. It's because she chose to go and help them. They do things for each other. 




Who are some of your favorite Halloween type women? Is there anything about our favorite librarian that I missed?

Awesome Quotes:
- Evy: "I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gun-fighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am."
Rick: "And what is that?" 
Evy: "I . . . am a librarian."
- You know, nasty little fellows like you always get their comeuppance.
- You better think of something fast, because if I become a mummy you're the first one I'm coming after.
- You're wondering what is a place like me, doing in a girl like this?
- According to you and my brother it's called "borrowing."
- The only thing that scares me Mr. O'Connell is your manners.
- They take a red hot poker, stick it up your nose, scramble things about a bit, and rip it all out through your nostrils!
- It's just a book. No harm ever came from reading a book.
- Personally, I think he's filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel. I don't like him one bit.
- Well, I wish you would do it sooner rather than later before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours.
- Oh for heavens sake girl, it wasn't that good of a kiss!
- Mister O'Connell, can you look me in the eye and and guarantee me this isn't all some kind of flimflam?
- Oh my God. It's a sarcophagus. Buried at the feet of Anubis. He must have been a man of great importance. Or he had done something very naughty.
- Take that Bembridge Scholars!
- Oops.


6 comments:

  1. Um, can we talk about how I ACTUALLY wanted to be a librarian because of Evy?! I LOVED HERRRRR and still do to this day. Theres just something about her quirky-ness that makes me want to watch "The Mummy" over and over again no matter how often they play it on cable television lol

    Kristen @ Your Beauty Fix

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  2. I love this character! I was also scared of the mummy at first (we were both wimps, lol). But with the lights on I really enjoyed this movie, haha.

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    1. Haha. Yeah... we were wimps. We always let Natalie and Jen go see the scary movies!

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  3. This post made my day. I adore Evy! I love how competitive she gets when racing the Americans to the best find, and how she's in charge most of the time but let's the boys think they are (well, until they locked her in her bedroom but we know how that worked out don't we).

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    1. I'm so glad it made your day! And yes! She's so competitive with the Americans (which... the Americans crack me up by the way) and her relationship with the other men - it's awesome!

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