The Mummy: Deep Thoughts About Colonialism, Historical Fiction, and Bisexual Awakenings

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Podcast

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What is a place like me doing in a girl like this?

The 1999 Brendan Fraser film The Mummy has an extraordinarily beautiful cast, a delightfully bonkers plot, and a whole heap of unexamined colonialism, racism, and othering. Emily shares with Tracie the historical background of the West’s fascination with Egypt–which led to little Emily’s own interest and delight in all things Egyptological. But the Egypt we encounter in movies likeThe Mummy has little to do with the real history of ancient Egypt (check out all the white actors!) and helps promote the fiction that Western scholars make the best Egyptologists.

But not to worry: our Mummy movie review isn't all bad. The drool-worthy cast was the impetus for many a Gen X and Millennial bi awakening, and the characters (sometimes) reject traditional gender roles in delightful ways.

Even if you’re on the wrong side of the river, put in your earbuds and listen!

Content warning: Discussion of sexual harassment

Mentioned in this episode:

https://www.tumblr.com/unic0rnsandmurder/776100576860749824?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/unic0rnsandmurder/776100594905726976?source=share

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Mertz

https://nilescribes.org/2022/01/08/egyptological-review-of-1999-mummy/

This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

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We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.

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1. The Mummy: Deep Thoughts About Colonialism, Historical Fiction, and Bisexual Awakenings (00:00:00)

2. The West's Fascination with Egypt (00:00:28)

3. Plot Breakdown of The Mummy (00:10:28)

4. Imhotep's Curse and Benny's Betrayal (00:30:09)

5. Cultural Appropriation in Egyptology (00:39:58)

6. The Sexual Appeal of The Mummy Cast (00:48:47)

7. Brendan Fraser's Hollywood Journey (00:54:43)