Over at reappropriate, I was half responsible for hijacking one of Jenn’s threads, The Sexism of Father’s Day, with a lively debate on gender roles and choice. I highly recommend reading through the post itself, as well as all the comments, because there is a lot of interesting discussion on all sides.

phillyjay drew me into the debate when he said:

I just don’t think it so bad if men and women live up to their gender roles.

I responded with:

I would just like to say this outright: there is nothing wrong with people choosing what is best for them, whether it fits in the accepted gender roles or not, what the problem is that society in many ways forces it on us.

And, really, that sums up what I think is one of feminism’s biggest points: people should have the right, and opportunity, to choose to do what’s right for them. Now, there are obvious limits; my ability to choose ends when it impedes someone else’s life. Debates within and outside of the feminist community arise because that division is not a simple line to draw, but, at the root of it all, the feminist ideal is that of choice.

Read the rest…

June’s article, The Mummy, is a review of the 1999 movie with an Egyptology bent.

While The Mummy is an enjoyable two hours, Egyptology 101 it is not. Okay, yes, there are a few other oversights that are not related to Ancient Egypt, but most of the glaring problems were based there.

The first thing that I noticed was the setting itself. The virtual reconstruction was beautiful, but two major issues jumped out at me- the Sphinx and the Pyramids. Both of these objects, while certainly personifying Ancient Egypt, are located at Giza. The scene was supposedly taking place at Thebes. This is nowhere near Giza and could not, therefore, have either of these objects in the skyline.