Making little fists in the pocket

A colleague is in a bate: they've seen yet another newspaper article making reference to librarians' being quiet and mousy and they've taken umbrage. You know the sort of thing: "this is a tired old stereotype," "an offence to our professionalism," yadda yadda yadda.

Oh do get a grip. Of course it's a tired old stereotype, our culture depends on tired old stereotypes: milkmen are randy, accountants are boring, politicians are self-serving hypocrites, Errol Flynn beat the Japanese single-handed in Burma and London is made up of the supercilious rich mooching around in thick pea-soupers and the downtrodden poor living in abject poverty (this last one's true). Why on earth bother reacting to it? It's obviously yet another symptom of the congenital insecurity of the "profession" (it they weren't insecure they wouldn't need to keep telling you that they're professionals).

The sensible thing for them to do is to take the bull by the horns and burlesque the stereotype into oblivion. I was quite taken by the librarian doll that appeared on the market last year (ooh the fuss!) CILIP should create its own version for the local market. Perhaps with a transformer element, switching the doll from twin set and pearls to ninja outfit in an instant. I'm not sure which would make your average miscreant soil their underwear the quicker: a lady of uncertain age brandishing a samurai sword or a ninja with a date stamp.