#LibrarianStereotypes

To shush or not to shush is no longer the question...

Today is the 50th day of school. All around me I see the wonderful 50's costumes. So, being the crazy lady that I am, I busted out the 50's librarian badoo and shushed the day away. This got me thinking about the stereotypes that surround librarians. According to Google definitions online, a stereotype is 

1. "1.

   a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing (2015)."
2. Interestingly enough synonyms include: standard image, preconceived idea, cliche, hackneyed idea...

If you look at stereotypes of librarians through the ages, you will see us most often portrayed in two ways...frumpy old woman with cat-eye glasses who shush and scowl or the opposite over sexualized bomb shells.  

(Librarians, 2015)

     Strangely, most scholars, historians, and librarians were originally men and were given the portrayal of mysterious "intelligent gentlemen." Romance novel heroes are often given large libraries as the setting for the dark and brooding lair, the bigger the library the better and smarter the hero. 

                                                        (Disney, 1991)

     So, this begs the question, why are men portrayed as intelligent and woman as frumps or sex kittens who only shush and shelve books? Has this stereotype really changed in today's world? I had a someone innocently say to me, "they pay you THAT much just to be a librarian?" This thought process is as much my fault as hers. As a modern librarian what have I done to change the stereotypes about my profession? Have I educated my family, friends, and community about what we really do? Have I abolished shushing and cat-eye glasses woman with my whit, savvy, and intellectual integrity? It is a dilemma, as 21st century teacher librarians, we should be fighting to change with every book we will always have to shelve...

For further reading:

http://belleofthelibrary.com/2013/09/16/shelving-the-stereotypes-when-i-say-im-a-librarian/

http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/booksanddigitalresources/booksmonographs/stereotype_Prelim.pdf

https://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=11057

References:

 Librarians (2015) Retrieved (November 3, 2015) from http://belleofthelibrary.com/2013/09/16/shelving-the-stereotypes-when-i-say-im-a-librarian/

Disney (1991) Beauty and the Beast Retrieved (November 3, 2015) from http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/beauty-and-the-beast/images/30575011/title/library-photo