StereotypesSTEREOTYPES OF LIBRARIANSMedia ImagesSelf-ImageGender IssuesEnduringImagesNew Images! Do you know this woman? Let's call her the "bun lady," with thestereotypical hair in a bun, spectacles on a chain, long covered up dress,and worried expression. The only thing she's missing is a finger acrossher lips to signify "Shush!" And there are some people who say that"shushing" has contributed to the image problem of librarians.We said no way to shh!...Why havelibrarians worn a groove in their lips fingering out thatsound to the multitudes? We don't know the origins, but wedo know that today it's the shame of the profession... Totoday's generation, silence is not golden...How canany lover of freedom and the human spirit find tolerable that ..insulting, repressive hiss directed at them? - ArtPlotnick, The Liberation of Sweet Library Lips in TheRevolting Librarian, 1972 Although this seems to be an enduring stereotype of women'soccupations (teachers and nurses as well at one time), many peopleremember the film image of "Marian the Librarian," a rigid woman in arigid town, in the movie "The Music Man." And the image of malelibrarians(post-Cassanova, of course; yes, Cassanova was a librarian for 13years) has not been more flattering. In books, films, TV, cartoons, comic strips,the unmistakeable impression emerges of a very dull, earnestbody, usually female, with glasses (probably those littlehalf glasses), her hair in - yes here it comes - a BUN,wearing sensible shoes, support hose, tweed skirt, droopysweater...need I continue? You name somethinguncomplimentary, and it's probably been said about alibrarian somewhere! (Hall, 1992) Are Stereotypes a Problem?"The importance of an image lies not so much in its truth asin its consequences." (Naegele and Stolar, 1960) If this statement is true, then whetheror not librarians are shy and unassertive, rigid and no fun at all, or anyof the other negative stereotypes foisted upon the profession, astereotypic image may impact on the status and treatment of those in thefield. And it appears to be an image that lasts.Enduring ImagesWhen we discuss the public, collective image oflibrarians and librarianship, we meet the Crone: an older,single woman who is crotchety, withdrawn, and fearsomelyprotective of her domain. She is also known as Baba-Yaga,Kali, Witch, and Hag. She has lived in story and verse forthousands of years as the devourer and the deliver, themother of death and birth, the grandmother of the devil... we don't want to be associated with the Crone. But ourconnection to her is well-established. She has become soinextricably linked with librarians the she cannot be castout, only pushed further into the shadows.(Engle, 1991)Although the power of the crone may indeed be somethinglibrarians can hold onto, most women do not want to be associatedwith an image of a woman who is unattractive. Nor do malelibrarians like their own stereotypes (Morrisey and Case, 1988;Carmichael, 1992). In general, the librarian the stereotype has been based on is the mostvisible information servant: public librarians. In many ways, theyare the Image Keepers for the profession. The stereotype was probablynot based on school librarians nor academic librarians, who are mostlyknown by students. For the most part, the public doesn't knowmuch about special librarians or archivists, who bothserve a specialized clientele. The stereotype has become pervasive, as ashort-hand for a certain kind of woman, and librarians began to blamethemselves.Librarians Speak About ImageAre we responsible for our own image? Isthere anything we can do about it? Remember, although it may notseem altogether fair, we are, ultimately, responsible for our own image, our own reputation. Only we, as individuals, canalter this rather dismal portrayal. We have to move beyondthe bun, and show the world there is more to us than ourperceived stereotype. (Hall, 1992) This section could be called "How we blame ourselves and decide all wehave to do to change our image is change ourselves."Many books we found in our literature search contain advice forlibrarians to change their behavior if the image is to change. In Pauland Evans (1988), the authors remark, "If we, as a profession, workcollectively to improve the quality of our service and out attitude to ourusers, the public's perception of us will change to one which more nearlymatches our own." (p. 28) They follow that belief with the words ofanother source: "A single rude or socially inept librarian can make amockery of the most carefully conceived marketing strategy," withoutadding the obvious: No profession with a stable status needs to fear thebehavior of one member. The stereotype goes beyond individual behavior.So is the librarian really to blame for the image? Our stereotypicimage may have nothing to do with the contemporary information scienceprofession. It endures for other reasons. Let's do some reality checking: Some stereotypes may be true about some librarians. (For a humorous look at this viewpoint, turnto Overheard atthe Kitchen Table, a clever article about the author's ownimage.) For example, it is not surprising thatmany librarians (especially after years of close work!) do wearglasses! Those in publicservice positions are not always polite (yet store clerks do not have asbad an image as public librarians!). Or it may have something to do withthe way a library isnot a flashy place and it is a setting that does call for quiet. (People may be connecting the setting with the profession.)Still, that may not be the reason the image persists.Somehow, whatever we think about the stereotype, itserves a function in society: to characterize those women (or men) we donot want to emulate, to offer a convenient representation of the"rejected, unattractive, meek" character in a book, movie, or casualconversation. At times, it may seem that we ourselves don't have a favorableimpression of the profession. One librarian from Australia discussesnegative self-image in an article entitled Self Love and Joy and Satisfaction in Librarianship. In a fascinating and wide-ranging book, Wilson (1982) presentsa social psychological theory to account forthe way many librarians themselves don't seem to like librarians. Usingresearch by Kurt Lewin (with conclusions mirrored in recent years byTajfel in Bristol, England and Taylor in Montreal, Quebec), she notes thatlibrarians as a groupreact to their occupational identity, as attributed to it by thestereotype, as if they were part of a minority group. (Discussion of thistopic begins on p. 31). Different people in the field may react in wayscharacteristic of "internalized oppression," such as believing others inthe field possess these negative attributes and holding them in contempt. "How does this condition of self-contempt andself-doubt come about? It results from seeing one's group and oneselfthrough the eyes of the majority, through the eyes of the "other," in thiscase through the eyes of the nonlibrarians who stereotype librarians. Onebecomes ashamed of one's group and ashamed to share its characteristics.Whether the alleged characteristics actually are true does notmatter..." (p. 36)What's Gender Got to Do With It?Could it be that some of the negativity surrounding the field isconnected to the predominance of women in it? Well, yes. Secretaries,nurses, and teachers (and stewardesses before they became "flightattendants") have all been badly stereotyped. America'santi-intellectualism has also been blamed for stereotyping, especially ofmen who choose the field. (Carmichael, 1992, p. 416) Media ImagesSome of the best examples of negative images werecollected in an American Library media watch column: Our Image:How They're Seeing Us." As column editor Edith McCormack explained in aphone conversation, the Image Column was developed by AL editorArthur Plotnick during the 1970's, and was published as often as peoplesent in examples of negative or positive media images. Readers wereencouraged to send in protests to the offending parties. There were many,many negative examples, including an eyeglass ad where three photos of adrab looking woman were accompanied by three insulting captions: EdnaBlue Rinse - Suburban!, Betty Bland - the washed out woman, while thethird reads, "Yes, I'm the Chief Librarian." However, after a while, ad campaigns began to run more positive imagesof librarians, sometimes by corporations. In 1987, an ad agency ran acorporate image ad focusing on its special librarians. "Sandra's gotconnections," ran the caption accompanying a photo of an sophisticatedwoman wearing a smart suit (no glasses! nice haircut!). She is describedas a "charming, efficient, and very smart librarian."Why has the column become such a rarity in 1990's? The image may haveimproved, but another factor has been at work according to McCormack:"We've screamed pretty loudly. Now there are not as many violations. Theworst one happened last year in a computer ad which showed librarians in arow looking like they were goosestepping and saying Shhh." She added,"There are allkinds of librarians, from preservationists to pop culture habituees.There's an evolution in the image of the librarian. I think the image ischanging a great deal."Librarians in LiteratureThe Image of the Library: Studies and Views from Several Countries(Stelmakh, 1994) contains views of the library world by authors fromRussia, France, England, Australia and Hungary. Image is an issue and aproblem everywhere, it seems, though the social conditions underlying thisdiffer from place to place. (In the former Soviet Union, for example,those who lost academic jobs due to political problems often becamelibrarians.) Included in this collection are several papers on librariansin literature and film. An essay from France by Chaintreau and Lemaitre uncovers a group of"sexy librarians" in a 1918 novel by Edith Wharton, and in films like"Cal" (Ireland, 1984). There are also some "career women" characters,though the categories of "old spinsters" and "lonely young librarians"abound. They also found that the male librarian was often portrayed asshabby, bald, and shy, fussy old bachelors, and even suicidal. Male movielibrarians (like Peter Sellars in "Only two can play," the roller skatinglibrary assistant in "You're a big boy now," or Jean Gabin as alibrary-gangster in "Leur derniere nuit") may be more glamorous.Gerard, writing of "The Fictional Librarian," presents a Britishperspective and discovers that "myopic, spinsterish, effaced are assuccint a formula to describe the stereotype as you could find anywhere inthe labyrinth of literature in which librarians figure. And they figuresurprisingly often." The Australian author, Frylinck, found an abundanceof literary descriptions of librarians as positively repulsive, especiallyin mystery books, though some portrayals are better. In all theseportrayals, the profession of librarian serves the purpose of creating acertain kind of character who evokes a certain set of images in the mindof the public. Let's Go To The Movies!!! Spinsterish. Bespectacled. Shy. What imagedo these terms bring to mind? What about "attractive,""capable," or "courageous"? If you answered "they all describe librarians!" you may fastforward past these opening credits. In fact all these words, plus others such as "mysterious,""surly," "sensible," and "ruthless," have been used todescribe librarians portrayed in the movies... (O'Brien andRaish, 1993)Martin Raish's webpage Librarians in the Moviesis a wonderful guide to a surprisingly large number of librarian citings.Hebegins by asking: "Is the meek spinster with her hair in a bun (such asDonna Reedin "It's A Wonderful Life" or Hilda Plowright in "PhiladelphiaStory") more or less common than the young, innocent blonde (suchas Carole Lombard in "No Man of Her Own" or Goldie Hawn in "FoulPlay")? Are male librarians more often like the surly JohnRothman in "Sophie's Choice," the reclusive Jason Robards in"Something Wicked This Way Comes," or the lecherous Peter Sellersin "Only Two Can Play"? Questions such as these cannot be answered withconfidence until we have a better grasp of the overall picture (so tospeak...)." (See our Resources page for other websites on movielibrarians.)The ImageHomepage authors went to the videostore to catch up onsome of these classic and not so classic movie portrayals.In Desk Set, Katharine Hepburn does wear a bun (and on her itlooksgood), but she doesn't otherwise fit the stereotype. All four of theresearch and reference librarians are attractive, well dressed,intelligent, and vivacious (no buns and no glasses!). Matching a"female stereotype," they areportrayed as "man crazy," bringing such preoccupations into theirworkday, but that is hardly the librarian's stereotype. Referencework is presented as work that requires intelligence, imagination,organization, and worldliness. (One has to be ready for anyquestion, from baseball batting averages to the total weight of the earth.) By the end of the film, the librarians were even gettingused to the idea of a computer.PartyGirl stars Parker Posey as a wild young thing who runsillegal house parties for a living. When forced by an arrest tostop, she takes a job at a public library branch run by hergodmother (who is sort of the stereotypical type). At first, theparty girl describes her work as "Cell Block 8 meets the 4H Club,"but when she decides to get serious about it, she falls in lovewith the work. The librarians and library assistants are allportrayed as smart and funky types who also do a good job. By theend of the film, Posey's on her way to library school (but we knowshe’ll also still be a party girl). There's one other interesting thing about this film, a monologue by the chief librarian (Posey'sgodmother) about the undervaluing of the profession: "MelvilleDewey hired women as librarians because he believed the job didn'trequire any intelligence. That means it's underpaid andundervalued!" Unfortunately, this same woman told the party girlearlier in the film that "a trained monkey learned the (DeweyDecimal) system in three hours on PBS." Internalized oppression?Still, it's a fun movie (with definitely a new image oflibrarians).There's a positive image of a male librarian in Only Two CanPlay, a 1962 film starring Peter Sellers. In his role as alibrarian in a small Welsh town, Sellers manages to retain both his efficiency and sex appeal. In the end, he refuses to play the librarymanagementladder-climbing game and stays faithful to his wife. Then they both takejobs on a traveling library van!Of course, there are even more negative portrayals. (NOTE: We didn't seeall of these! Some were suggested by friends or described in theliterature!) There is a nasty male librarian in "Philadelphia" (hetells the main character to leave the library when he suspects him ofhaving AIDS) and "Sophie's Choice" (he ridicules Sophie because of herpoor English). There's a small town "repressed librarian" in Forbidden(1932) with Barbara Stanwyck, directed by Frank Capra. There's also Bertha, "the world's meanest archivist," in "CitizenKane" (1941), the shushing spinsterish librarian in "Breakfast atTiffany" (1961), and the prim, drab librarian who becomes aravishing beauty when she meets a man in "Navy Blues" (1937). In "The Attic" (1979) a woman librarian devotes her life to caring forher wheelchair-bound father. A small town librarian improves her image in"The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag" (1992) when she finds a murder weapon. "Transylvania Twist" (1990) is about alibrarianfrom Transylvania who must collect the fines on a 200 year overduebook. (We didn't get details on this one, but it sounds gruesome.)Let's not forget the negative image of a librarian in the old movie,"It'sa Wonderful Life," starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. The Jimmy Stewart character contemplates suicidewhen he thinks his business is going under, so God sends an angeldown to help dissuade him. When Jimmy says to the angel that he wisheshe'd neverbeen born, the angel shows him what might have happened to hisloved ones if he'd never been on this earth. Guess what was the fate ofhis wife, Donna Reed? She was the "old maid" librarian at the publiclibrary in town. Jimmy gets to see her coming out of the library in a verysevere, unflattering outfit, wearing glasses, and no makeup. He calls outto her, she starts screaming hysterically. Not a pretty picture...New Images!So, if we don't like the old images of male and female librarians, whatwould we like to see? How about the full range of types of libraryprofessionals in all types of libraries, from public to school to academicto special? Obviously, librarians come in many shapes and sizes.And there are some moremoderate images, some developed by the media machine, as cited in theAmerican Library columns discussed above, such asthis attractiveblonde librarian in a suit - with no bun or glasses!There are, however, some more RADICAL images we could imagine... This image, of a spiked hair, nose-ringed library worker, was taken froman Library Journal article"Should a Library Have a Dress Code?" (Anderson, 1992).   There are some other suggestions for reforming our image, accordingto the website author of The Lipstick Librarian, a website that promotes a glamorousimage and gives adviceon how to achieve it. Absher said the idea came to her whenwhile she was in library school: "When I told people what I was studying,I got the inevitable comment "You don't *look* like a librarian... Whatcompounded myfrustration was the 1992 ALA Conference in SF (my first libraryconference). I was astounded how many people actually lived up (or down) to the stereotype: big, ethnic earrings, glasses,sensible shoes, etc... Thus the idea was born." Let's not miss anew site called TheBellyDancing Librarian! And go to Erica Olsen's new wild webpage and find out "why you shouldfall to your knees and worship a librarian." Would a name change improve the image of the profession? In 1905RobertLouis Stevenson called a librarian a "virgin priest of knowledge"(in his book PrinceOtto: A Romance), so you know we've made progress. In the film"Salmonberries" (starring kd lang, not as the librarian), an Inuitfather greets his librarian daughter as "my beautiful educated princess ofthe world of books." (Wow!) The Guest Book of the "Lipstick Librarian"had some great suggestions:"Cybrarian, Info-seeker,Information Manager" from one writer, and my favorites from yet anotherguest book respondent, "Information Goddess or Reference Diva." And here's some advice for changing our behavior in order to change ourimage from an essay in the book Revolting Librarians, a 1970'scritique of the profession. The Sensuous Librarian: I don'tthink I ever met one, have you? When I was a kid, I was brainwashedinto believing that all librarians had silver hair, wore halfglasses, tailored suits, sensible shoes, and had their index fingers permanently frozen into a pointingposition. . .Librarians of the world, UNITE! It's time to break away from the old maid-Marian-Librarian image,or if the case may be, the fairy-Harry-Librarian image. Practice a few sensuous exercises to make the library full with the joyof life, and to help make you feel like a real person, andnot just a role: Pull up the shades. Open the windows . . .Greet the patron (your friend and taxpayer) with asmile . . .Dress like Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall, but don'tever dress like a librarian . . .Let the joy of living spread happiness toyour work, to the people you work with, and to those you meet everyday. - Katherine Glab (West, 1972) Resources of Books and Websites that Examine ImageStereotypes. View ourResources webpage for a selectedlist bibliography of related materials. There's a large literature on this issue!   |
|
