Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Girls, They're Getting A Bum Rap Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        
                                               The Librarian As Cultural Stereotype.  I am telling you, when will it stop???
From the repressed bun head in "Citizen Kane," to the frightened Mary Hatch portrayed by Donna Reed in the alternate sequence of "It's A Wonderful Life," to the desperately needy one seen on "SVU', who was rooming with a guy who turned out to be a rapist, the media, it seems, refuses to see librarians as just people.

                                                   And now comes this Pearle Vision commercial that tries to have it both ways.  The woman pictured has her hair up and glasses, suggesting spinsterhood, but look closely. You can see behind those glasses that she is just a bit too attractive to carry that image off, and her snarky look suggests seething sexuality.  In other words, the commercial is perpetrating another stereotype--the Librarian As Desperate Nymphomaniac, the type who goes Looking For Mr. Goodbar, and ends up like poor Theresa Dunn in the Judith Rossner novel of that name.

                                                      Enough already.  What is it with pigeon holing librarians???? Is it because of their association with books?????   Is it because they read????? Or seem (I say seem, because it is not necessarily true) more knowledgeable than the rest of the general population???????????

                                                         I wish librarians would start being accepted as part of the general population, rather than outsiders removed from it.  And until commercials like this cease, that acceptance will never be attained.

                                                          Now, I have never used Pearle Vision, darlings, but maybe those of you who do shouldn't, either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                          Time for a boycott, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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