Here's A Tissue

I’m sorry if this sounds a wee bit ignorant but I honestly had no idea that “library misconceptions” were the new hot trend. I mean I guess people were just tired of talking about how cops are douchebags, teenage boys are horny little troublemakers, and gingers don’t have souls. So what else is there to talk about? Oh yeah the “stereotypical library”. Sounds UBER interesting!

Listen here Ms. West, you don’t mind if I call you Ms. West do you? Everyone has stereotypes for everyone, quite frankly it’s just a part of life. Liberians will always be mean old hags, redheads will always be pale and soulless, and supermodels will always be sexy superhumans that have the perfect life. Shoot even Disney Pixar exaggerates stereotypes. Quite frankly, I think it’s time we stop fighting the system and embrace it.

When I was in sixth grade I got the bright idea to dye my hair color blonde because all the kids would give me a hard time about my red hair. Do you know what happens when you dye red hair blonde? It becomes as orange as a mandarin, on fire, sitting in the middle of a sunset. I learned my lesson that day. Don’t mess with stereotypes, embrace them, soon enough everyone will notice they’re not true. Funny how that common sense thing works out.

11 responses on “Here’s A Tissue”

Hi Chad, I don’t mind what you call me. And I know that stereotypes exist and I understand why people use them. What we wind up having here is a bunch of people who are trying to write accurately and factually about a subject and who seem to fail in the wrong way each time and then wonder why librarians aren’t grateful for the PR.

I think it’s worth clearing up some of the misconceptions and pointing people towards good places to go for good information. It’s sort of what I do for a job. Totally fine if people then go and write what they’re going to write anyhow, but I think there is some value in pointing out problematic stereotypes and why they might be problematic. Since most librarians work for the public, image and public perception is an important, if small, part of the many thigns we are concerned about.