Librarians Should Look Professional, etc. & Librarians Should Wear Suits.

I think this assumption arises from the fact, that anytime I have ever gone into a library they always look very professional. My elementary librarian always wore a jacket and a long shirt, so I assumed that all librarians would dress that way. Another reason I think librarian's dress a certain way is because of the media. Every time I watch a movie and a library scene comes up, the librarian has her hair tied up and is wearing a suit of some type.

In the North American culture one dresses according to his or her profession i.e. if you were a construction worker you wouldn't wear a suit and tie to work. Wearing clothes such as these are supposed to give a person class. A lot of emphasis is given to appearance in the dominant culture, the way one looks and presents themselves. By dressing a certain way people can generalize one's status. For example, by looking at how a person dresses, a girl can be referred to as a "slut" if she wears very revealing clothes, or referred to as rich if she wears designer clothing. This is because the Chinese culture imposes the idea that girls are "supposed" to be shy, weak and be afraid of men. By dressing in a fashion revealing her, she ruins that supposed "image".

Figure 7:  If you were being chase down the street by a gang of teenagers, would you turn to a guy wearing a suit for help?  Or this guy wearing his yellow jacket?  Why?  

I think the dominant culture is one that judges based on looks. It also seems that they categorize people by the way they look/dress. The same way blue is for boys and pink is for girls. Our culture has a set code regarding what the sexes should wear. This is because our society has a set of beliefs regarding what a boy or girl should behave like. Therefore our culture tries to dress them up a certain way to withhold that image. People that wear suits are important people while people wearing jeans and T-shirts are not as important. By "important" I mean that the dominant culture looks at them and says they have a more prominent role in society . . . this isn't true or conflicts with the ideology that everyone is equal (or should be) and that everyone should have an equal role in society.

Figure 8: If you didn't know who these ladies were, what would you think immediately after seeing these pictures?  Would you assume that the woman on the left was a business type and the one to your right was less career orientated?

In mainstream Canada we associate the way someone dresses with their profession or their class. Dressing up (i.e. meaning a suit) is paralleled with intelligence and sure libraries are associated with learning we assume they should dress well. This ideology is compounded with what we see on television. In television, librarians are always dressed well and seem pretty intelligent. They are usually dressed in a suit or wearing a dress. Since television is such a large part of our lives, it plays a large role in our assumptions.

Every time I go to the library, I expect the librarian to be able to help me find information. This is because of past experiences, when I needed information about certain subjects I couldn't locate myself, I would turn to the librarian for help. Other reasons why I expected librarians to be able to help me is because of the "information" booth. To me this sign has a great indication of the librarian's job. As part of their job, it is their responsibility to know their material. For example, a salesman must know the capabilities of their products in order to sell it.

Our culture tends to classify people according to what they do; doctors are supposed to be smart, dentists are rich, and engineers don't sleep. Personally, doctors in my mind are smart because my professors and friends constantly tell me stories about how hard it is to get into medical school. I have the ideology that if you can do something hard you must be smart or gifted in that area. This ideology came from religion; Christians believe you cannot get something out of nothing, that's why gambling is wrong. Although I am not Christian, I do respect this religion and this particular belief is supported by the teachers I have had and my parents. Why is it that the Christian religion instills its beliefs upon those that don't even believe it. It's not really true that Christianity is the only religion that says gambling is bad, don't steal, etc. There are other religions that have the same values...yet aren't considered. When talking about how gambling is bad, people automatically think Christianity...not say Buddism, Hindu, etc. Because I listen to my parents thoughts about the belief that gambling is bad, I must question why do I listen to my parents and my teachers? There is the ideology in our society is that the older the person is, the wiser he/she is.

Another reason I think that I would go to the librarian to get help is because they are older than I am. For most of my life I have received information or help from my mother, father, in general my elders. In the dominant culture, those who are older are considered to be wiser. This is because they have been around for a longer time, and so have gained knowledge through their experiences.

What defines old in our culture? I think in general it's a "comparison thing". I would compare how old someone is compared to me. When I was ten, for example, anyone eleven seemed a lot older. Now that I'm nineteen I think anyone in their 30's is old. I also think that the media portrays old people as a "grey haired folk". Since these are the people who sit around and give advice to the younger generation.

In the dominant culture, we see a lot of emphasis on age. I have always been told not to ask someone their age because it is rude. I think it is only because it is such a sensitive subject. This is because old age is related with helplessness, and people like to be strong and senile.

Librarians Are Supposed To Be Women

Although the first librarian I had was a man the name of Mr. Eshpeter, I continued to have the image of women in the position of but once again have to do with the media's representation of librarians. In movies where you would see a librarian, a female character would play them. Even now when I go to libraries for every ten women working there is only one, if that, man will work there. Of course there are show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which a man, Niles is a librarian, however, he is also the also the soul protector and teacher of Vampire Slayer.

The dominant culture still sees women as weak and frail beings, which should only do jobs that are not physically demanding. Although there has been some progress in women's rights and equality movements, women still tend to stick to secretarial positions. Those women who do try out for executive positions or even physical work, like construction working they are rejected for these positions.