"Look...I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am."
To everyone who's had to listen to me talk about her incessantly for the past month, I'm sorry, but we're doing this again. We're also going to pretend that the third movie doesn't exist because a) I have not seen it; b) I refuse to see it; c) I simply cannot accept that my girl gave up Egyptology to write romance novels and suddenly became a terrible parent. There's absolutely no evidence to support any of that in the first two movies, and if Rachel Weisz herself disliked the script, specifically how Evie was written, enough to not want to come back, then I don't want to do her or her character a disservice and watch a movie that isn't true to her.
Sue me.
I'm also going to make this as spoiler-free as possible, so expect a part two where I can talk about how she services the plot (or how the plot services her) rather than just my personal attachment to her. I wish I could say I'm sorry, but I'm definitely not.
Anyway, Evelyn is a relatively new addition to my roster of favorite characters, but that doesn't mean I love her any less than those I've clung to for years. In fact, she's actually become one of my favorite characters of all time in just a little more than a month.
I know what you're thinking. "Isn't it a little soon for you to elevate her to such a high status?"
My answer? Definitely not.
Evelyn is simply so different than female characters in more modern media. Currently, there's a trend toward what I like to call Strong Female Charactersâ„¢, which feel like little more than attempts to be progressive by handing a woman a gun, sword, or whatever weapon she chooses, sending her into battle, and calling her strong. This is just a personal opinion, but with some of these characters, it feels like their strength comes in spite of being a woman, which is almost as disheartening as writing a female character who feels like little more than an object to be kidnapped by the villain and rescued by the hero. Don't get me wrong--watching these Strong Female Charactersâ„¢ in action fills me with a sense of pride I don't think anything else will ever bring me. And for the most part, I really like them. They were really crucial in my formative years of reading nothing but teen dystopian novels, and I owe a lot of who I am now to them.
However, it was so refreshing when I sat down to watch The Mummy for the first time and saw mousy, nerdy Evelyn, complete with gigantic round glasses, working in the library at the Cairo Museum of Antiquities--no sword or weapon to be seen. She promptly knocks down the entire library while trying to put a book back in its rightful place, which, as someone who's spilled a cart of books onto the library floor before while trying to move it, made me feel incredibly seen. And when she's challenged by her employer about it, she responds with a list of her qualifications, saying "Well, you put up with me because I can read and write ancient Egyptian, decipher hieroglyphics and hieratics, and well, I am the only person within five thousand miles who can properly code and catalog this library, that's why!" She's aware of her intelligence, and she's not afraid to own it, even though we quickly find out she's nowhere near as qualified as she wants to believe she is (having been rejected from the prestigious Bembridge Scholars due to a 'lack of experience in the field').
And I think this is why I love her so much. As an intelligent young woman with niche interests, I often feel like I need to dumb myself down and pretend I don't know as much as I do about specific topics in order for people to like me more. I've always heard that nobody likes a know-it-all, and so I've stifled my personality, pretending I lack confidence in my ability to remember obscure historical facts when in reality it's one of the few things I'm certain I'm good at.
Evelyn showed me I didn't have to do that. She's obviously the smartest person out of the three main characters in the film, with Rick and Jonathan falling into the roles of the archetypical action movie hero and the comic relief sidekick, respectively. It would have been so easy for the movie to relegate her to little more than a love interest--as unfortunately occurred with many other action movie heroines of the time (please see all Indiana Jones female characters for examples)--but it didn't. Instead, it's Evie who everyone looks to when faced with something they don't understand, and it's Evie's opinion that's seen as the final say in things. Nobody looks down on her because she's smart, but rather they respect her more. She also corrects people, which, as someone who's been told that it's easier to just let people be wrong rather than correct them, made me happy. And nobody looks down on her for that or makes a joke about how he was corrected by a girl. He acknowledges that he was wrong and moves on. In fact, the only hint of sexism is when the opposing group of treasure-seekers, who we're obviously supposed to dislike, mentions that "they are led by a girl" and makes a derogatory comment about how little Evelyn must know.
I will admit, in The Mummy Returns, she does become more of a traditional action movie character in that she learns how to fight and gets a few (really cool) moments of combat to herself. However, the heart of her character is the same: a brilliant, incredibly nerdy scholar who prioritizes the pursuit of knowledge over anything else.
I have so much more I could say, but I'm not sure that I have the words to say it, so I leave you with this: Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell succeeds where many other female heroines have failed. She proves that being a strong woman doesn't always mean grabbing a sword and running off to fight baddies. Sometimes, it's being the smartest one in the room, and not letting anybody look down on you because of it. And it's just as important for girls to know that as it is for them to know that their gender doesn't stop them from being a hero.