There are a wealth of images portraying librarians (at least female librarians) as inherently sexually attractive. This is usually not the first characteristic the public thinks of when conjuring up a mental picture of a librarian. The common stereotype is an older, stern, matronly woman with a bun and glasses who does nothing but work in the library and keep to herself otherwise. This is not a typical sexual image but take several of the key features: glasses, introverted but capable when motivated, focused on a narrow subject, and given a certain level of power in a specific environment, and place them in the body of a young attractive woman, and you’ve got the making of a rather common male fantasy.

I am certainly not qualified to discuss the reasons why such a fantasy exists although it is an interesting juxtaposition of stereotypes. On the one hand the profession of librarianship is seen as an anachronism or useful in only very practical and rare occasions. And on the other hand you have a very real visceral reaction to the interpretation of these characteristics: the introverted person becomes mysterious, the almost foolish rule-keeper becomes a dominant figure, the nerdy book-worm becomes an intelligent and creative charmer.

Although I’m not sure whether we could or would even want to, it would be valuable to consider how stereotypes like these could be used to convey messages that we want to communicate. Let’s face it, sex sells. And we have a service that we want, for the greater good, to stick in the public’s mind, at least for when they are in information-related situations; a service that is sometimes not thought of as ’sexy’ enough to compete with the likes of Google or even for-fee look-up services. Perhaps we can use our (again, not MY) perceived ’sexiness’ to our advantage. Just a thought. What’s yours?

Here are some related works on this topic:

• “Librarians are SEXY” by Holly Black.
• “Librarian fantasy promotes librarian bar” by Steve Hall at AdRants.com.
• “Loveless Frump as Hip and Sexy Party Girl: A Reevaluation of the Old-Maid Stereotype” by Katherine C. Adams at The Library Quarterly, July 2000, 70(3):287-301 (via JStor)