Librarians in Fashion
6:41
An assessment of the stereotypes surrounding how librarians dress.
Tags: librarian chic geek chic librarian stereotypes sexy librarian frumpy
Added: 2 years ago
From: shrinetobarkley
Views: 25,494
[scene opens with a black-and-white photo of a female librarian (short hair, glasses, cardigan sweater, polka-dot skirt, sandals) reading while standing next to a pile of books, as "Librarians in Fashion" appears on screen]
["What does a librarian look like?" appears on screen]
["The predominant stereotype is that of a white female with 'nerdy glasses' and hair usually in some form of a bun. The world of fashion caters almost exclusively to this librarian." appears on screen]
[cut to several images of stereotypical librarians (an older female librarian wearing cats-eye glasses with a finger to her lips; a young blonde female librarian wearing glasses who is biting her finger in a seductive manner; a young female librarian standing next to a bookshelf wearing glasses and a green blouse; a young female librarian wearing glasses with a tight white blouse and a short black skirt; a blonde female librarian wearing a cardigan sweater and a grey skirt while carrying a stack of books) as "Google images: librarian" appears on screen]
[cut to another set of images (a black-and-white "manga" style drawing of a female librarian wearing glasses; a cartoon drawing of a female librarian with blonde hair and a tight white blouse; a young female librarian with her hair in a bun while looking over her glasses in a seductive manner; a black-and-white drawing of a young female librarian chewing on a pencil with her eyes closed)]
["How do librarians dress?" appears on screen]
["A widely-held belief is that librarians are an unfashionable bunch. We are described as 'prudish' ... " appears on screen]
[cut to an image of a young woman (blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, glasses, "Amish"-style grey dress) sitting in a chair and reading a book, as "Prude in Glasses Reading a Book (tagged 'librarian')" appears on screen]
[cut to an image of a young female librarian (hair in a bun, glasses, brown cardigan sweater, plaid skirt, long white nylon stockings) holding a pair of books while jumping in the air with a smile on her face, as "Frumpy" appears on screen]
[cut to an image of an older female librarian (red hair, glasses, business suit) sitting between two large piles of books and smiling at the camera, as "Outdated" appears on screen]
["Fortunately, when you put similar styles on young, skinny models and send them down a runway the look becomes 'librarian chic'" appears on screen]
[cut to a Polaroid photo of several female models wearing beige-colored dresses with matching glasses, with "Ok, so seriously ... if librarians were really this gorgeous ... I think the % of male book readers would quadruple! - RD" written on the bottom]
[cut to another image of female models wearing darker-colored long dresses (but no glasses)]
[cut to another image of female models wearing brighter-colored dresses that feature high collars]
[cut to an image of a lone female model (hair done up in a "messy" bun, thick glasses, beige cardigan sweater, beige skirt), as "It's not frumpy or prudish ... it's 'pretty and proper'" appears on screen]
[cut to an image of two female models (long blue dresses with different overcoats for each), as "It's not outdated ... it 'can only be described as 70s librarian chic!'" appears on screen]
[cut to an image of another female model (hair in a bun, white blouse, red cardigan sweater, blue skirt, plaid bow tie), as "'She has the librarian-esque ugly-pretty thing going' (What?)" appears on screen]
["Polyvore dot com is a site where people who are into fashion go to create outfits or 'sets.' Just look at how normal people on polyvore would dress a librarian ... " appears on screen]
[cut to a still image labelled "Librarian" (featuring a shot of Rachel Weisz from "The Mummy") with several drab-looking dresses and a pair of ugly-looking shoes]
[cut to another still image (also labelled "Librarian") with more "plain" dresses alongside an ugly purse and a pair of high-heeled shoes]
[cut to another still image of a young woman (with her hair in a tight bun) sitting outside with a pug, next to a mannequin wearing a cardigan sweater and a pair of high-heeled shoes]
[cut to another still image (labelled "The Librarian") with a long sleeved blouse next to a copy of "Vogue" and a pair of cats-eye glasses]
[cut to another still image (labelled "Sexy Libarian" [sic]) featuring drab-colored sweaters and a pair of cats-eye glasses]
["Sexy librarian?" appears on screen]
["Another stereotype is that of the 'sexy' librarian. This one also contributes to the librarian's image in fashion" appears on screen]
[cut to a young female librarian (long blonde hair, pink blouse with the top button undone to reveal a white bra, short white skirt, high heels) sitting on a bookcart while biting on the temple of her red glasses in a seductive manner, as "It's the same basic look, with a shorter skirt, more cleavage, and higher heels. Glasses-licking is optional" appears on screen]
[cut to a cartoon drawing of a young female librarian (curly brown hair, glasses, white blouse with all of the buttons undone to expose her cleavage, brown skirt, nylon stockings) standing in the middle of a library with books all over the floor while holding a copy of "Moby Dick", as "Sometimes it can't be helped. Sometimes you're just working and your shirt breaks" appears on screen]
[cut to a young female librarian (black hair pulled up in a bun, glasses held down the bridge of her nose in a seductive manner, open purple blouse revealing a white bra underneath, black skirt), as "And sometimes you forget to even wear one" appears on screen]
[cut to a still image of Gil Elvgren's 1962 pin-up drawing "Hold Everything" (featuring a young red-headed librarian sitting on a library stepladder as she's trying to carry a pile of books in each arm, when her white dress gets caught on one of the shelves and rides up to reveal her garter belt), as "Or you're just innocently filing a copy of 'Spirit Lake' and your prudish dress gets caught and you make a sexy face" appears on screen]
["By the way ... if you're planning on being a librarian for Halloween, sexy is your only choice" appears on screen]
[cut to several images of models wearing "librarian" Halloween costumes (a brunette wearing a lowcut dress with glasses and a red scarf; another brunette wearing a cleavage-revealing blue blouse and a short skirt made to resemble a row of library books, while looking over her horn-rimmed glasses at the camera and putting a finger to her lips; a blonde wearing a midriff-bearing black blouse and a short black skirt with nylon stockings; another blonde with her hair up in a bun, looking down her glasses at the camera while wearing a cleavage-revealing tight black dress and red high heels), as "Librarian Costumes" appears on screen]
["Now let's compare ... " appears on screen]
[cut to three of the previously shown images: the librarian jumping in the air (labelled "Frumpy?"), the model in the "messy" bun (labelled "Fashionable?"), and the cartoon librarian holding "Moby Dick" (labelled "Sexy?")]
["What makes them all 'librarianesque'??" appears on screen]
["For whatever reason, certain styles and trends are just associated with the librarian look" appears on screen]
[cut to another set of black-and-white images (a female model wearing glasses and a long white skirt; a female librarian wearing a sweater vest and a short black skirt; a female librarian sitting on a step stool in a seductive fashion, holding a book while wearing a white blouse and short black skirt with nylon stockings and high heels; a closeup of a female librarian's long black skirt) as "Pencil skirts" appears on screen]
[cut to another set of black-and-white images (a female librarian biting down on her glasses in a seductive fashion, as the top button on her white blouse is undone; a female librarian in a white blouse reaching for a book on the top shelf; a blonde librarian - wearing a tight short sleeved white blouse that reveals a prominent sleeve tattoo on her left arm - looks over her shoulder towards the camera as she pulls a book from the shelf) as "White, button down shirts" appears on screen]
[cut to another set of images (a female librarian wearing a black cardigan sweater is reading a book; a female librarian wearing a grey cardigan sweater and a short grey skirt; a female librarian wearing a light-blue cardigan sweater and a short red skirt; a blonde female librarian, looking sternly at the camera, wearing a black cardigan sweater over a white blouse and a grey skirt while carrying a stack of books; a female librarian with a pixie haircut and a blue cardigan sweater is staring directly at the camera and putting a finger to her lips) as "Cardigans" appears on screen]
[cut to another set of images (a plain-looking female librarian with a blue cardigan sweater and a large white bow around her neck; a young female librarian with a white cardigan sweater tied in a bow around the neck and a short black skirt; a cartoon drawing of a blonde librarian in glasses wearing a red blouse with a bow around the neck and a short black skirt; a cartoon drawing of a female librarian wearing a green blouse with a white bow around her neck; a beige blouse with a bow laid out next to a grey skirt; a young female librarian wearing red hoop earrings and a dark-blue blouse with a bow around the neck) as "Ascot bows and bows in general" appears on screen]
[cut to another set of images (a female model wearing a violet dress, with "Shaped Waist Belt" written next to the red belt she's wearing; a female model wearing a white blouse and striped skirt with a black waist belt; a female model wearing a frilly white dress with a black waist belt; a black-and-white drawing of a "furry" librarian - denoted by the cat ears - with an ample bustline and wearing a tight waist belt) as "Waist belts" appears on screen]
[cut to another set of images (a female librarian reading a book while wearing a black cardigan sweater and a black-and-white polka dot skirt; a female librarian a red-and-white polka dot blouse and a slit skirt that reveals her garter belt; a young female librarian wearing a black-and-white polka dot blouse while carrying a large stack of books) as "And polka dots" appears on screen]
["Of course, this is just how the fashion world dictates we should dress ... according to the stereotype, librarians are walking fashion disasters, sporting:" appears on screen]
[cut to three images: a female librarian wearing a garish Christmas sweater (labelled "Tacky sweaters"), a closeup of a female librarian wearing sandals with socks (labelled "Socks with sandals"), and a single plain-looking shoe (labelled "Sensible shoes")]
[cut to a woman wearing a black dress with several rows of "books" printed on it, as "And stuff like this" appears on screen]
["How seriously are the stereotypes taken? Can they hurt the profession?" appears on screen]
["At a 2007 conference for librarians, a fashion designer named Paula Ryan gave a workshop to teach us how to dress professionally" appears on screen]
["A promotion for the workshop read - 'Librarians as a profession have a very conservative and dated image. If we want to transform our profession than surely we must start by transforming ourselves'" appears on screen]
["Librarians at one library responded with this ... " appears on screen]
[cut to a photo of four female librarians (wearing hideously-colored floral blouses and holding books entitled "Get Back in the Box" and "Making Strategy Happen") putting a finger to their lips and "shushing" the camera]
["The Reality" appears on screen]
["As shocking as it is, librarians don't look or dress like any of these stereotypical images. Librarians dress like ... (gasp) normal people! Also, we know about pants!" appears on screen]
[cut to several librarians posing for a group photo, as "Here's a giant group of actual librarians ... " appears on screen]
["There are 17 men in this picture" appears on screen]
["15 people are not white" appears on screen]
["Nobody was kicked out for dressing too badly ... the overall look is 'business casual'" appears on screen]
["Just like any profession!" appears on screen]
["Thanks for watching! 'Directed' by Leanne Jernigan" appears on screen]
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