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Librarians and Party Girls: Cultural Studies and the Meaning of the Librarian
by Marie L. Radford and Gary P. Radford
It occurred to me that the tenets of cultural studies align nicely with the assertions in the "Traces" article. For example the idea that "[t]here is no world 'out there' that is free from its representation" demonstrates how the "traces" of our culture are our culture. According to the Radford article, such "traces" do not have inherent meaning, but instead meaning relies upon the context in which "representations" are placed and are ever-shifting and malleable. I expect that McKemmish would agree. I like how the example of the word "tree" points out that language is arbitrary and that meaning does not reside in either the object nor the word, but in the associations with the code of language that we have constructed (57).
Stereotyping tends to be my issue with movies and television in general. Writers water down each character into one central characteristic from which that character can never depart. It sounds like "Party Girl" suffers from the same issue. Whereas I prefer a movie or show in which characters can play both the "good guy" and the "bad guy" at the same time, Parker Posey's character, Mary, in "Party Girl" seems be only able to play one or the other. Mary is considered "bad" when she is a fun-loving party girl and "good" when she is a rigid, uptight librarian. What does that tell us about the public's idea of a librarian? A successful librarian must abandon all personality traits other than "an obsession with order, sexual repression, matronly appearance, dowdy dress, fussiness, dour facial expressions, and monosyllabic speech" (60). If that list were a requirement for librarianship, I certainly would not be entering the field! Since most of these librarian stereotypes are also women, the characterization may also shed light on widespread perceptions of female kind as a whole. It was useful to consider how stereotypes of librarians and others are used. Stereotypes rarely exist without a purpose: a justification for mistreatment or rationalization for privilege. It still bothers me that librarians feel they have to work against the stereotypes by using "scandalous" blog titles that include words like "renegade", "lipstick", or "leather". Not that librarians should not express themselves in such a way, but I wonder: why would one not expect that in any profession a broad spectrum of personality types and interests would exist?
Stereotyping tends to be my issue with movies and television in general. Writers water down each character into one central characteristic from which that character can never depart. It sounds like "Party Girl" suffers from the same issue. Whereas I prefer a movie or show in which characters can play both the "good guy" and the "bad guy" at the same time, Parker Posey's character, Mary, in "Party Girl" seems be only able to play one or the other. Mary is considered "bad" when she is a fun-loving party girl and "good" when she is a rigid, uptight librarian. What does that tell us about the public's idea of a librarian? A successful librarian must abandon all personality traits other than "an obsession with order, sexual repression, matronly appearance, dowdy dress, fussiness, dour facial expressions, and monosyllabic speech" (60). If that list were a requirement for librarianship, I certainly would not be entering the field! Since most of these librarian stereotypes are also women, the characterization may also shed light on widespread perceptions of female kind as a whole. It was useful to consider how stereotypes of librarians and others are used. Stereotypes rarely exist without a purpose: a justification for mistreatment or rationalization for privilege. It still bothers me that librarians feel they have to work against the stereotypes by using "scandalous" blog titles that include words like "renegade", "lipstick", or "leather". Not that librarians should not express themselves in such a way, but I wonder: why would one not expect that in any profession a broad spectrum of personality types and interests would exist?
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