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historyhermann · 1 year

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Beauty, dress codes, and fashion: Examining twenty fictional White female librarians [Part 4]

Continued from part 3

Three screenshots of the unnamed librarian in the Totally Spies! episode. The last one is after she starts to become buff.

There are some exceptions, however. For instance, the librarian in Totally Spies episode ("Totally Switched"), who becomes "way buff," as I wrote about back in March when I rewatched the episode. She wears a blazer, a collared shirt, has on glasses, and has her hair in a bun. This similar to how The images of librarians in cinema 1917-1999 displays librarians, or smocks worn by New Zealand librarians into the 1980s, while some librarians adopted corporate uniforms or t-shirts. [20] This unnamed librarian, likely voiced by Janice Kawaye, has an even more professional outfit. She doesn't wear anything that invokes the problematic and is not a degrading sexy librarian stereotype. In her own way, she is classy and chic, or even cool. If she was an actual librarian, she would be among those which author and photographer Kyle Cassidy profiled in his 2014 photo-essay "This is What A Librarian Looks Like" for Slate magazine. [21]

Reprinted from my Pop Culture Library Review WordPress, where this post was published on Nov. 29, 2022.

Of the librarians I've named in this article, arguably the unnamed librarians in Rugrats, Uncle Grandpa, DC Super Hero Girls, and Kick Buttoswki all could be considered spinster librarians of some type, using the definition Snoek-Brown outlines. The same could be said for Violet Stanhhope, Mrs. Higgins, Rita Book, Miss Dickens, Ms. Hatchet, Mrs. Shusher, and Ms. L. Contrasting this would be Kaisa, Gabrielle, Marion the Librarian, Amity, Mo, Myra, Sabine, Desiree, Sara, Sarah, and even the unnamed librarians in Martin Mystery, Steven Universe, and Totally Spies!, who are all information providers. Most extreme is Francis Clara Censordoll, who is not anti-social, a failure, naughty, comic relief, or liberated. She is the librarian-censor. Some might say she is the anti-librarian since she stands against everything that librarians seem to stand for. However, as Matthew Noe, the ALA GNCRT President, pointed out in March, it is going to be hard "to put a stop to this massive censorship lobby harassing libraries and schools when we can't even convince all library workers to stop doing censorship."

On a stylistic note, some of these librarians have an aristocratic style, along with avant-garde and celtic styles. I haven't seen any librarians with art deco, art nouveau, beach bum, beatnik, biker, black loli, babushka bois, bohemian, equestrian, flapper, heavy metal, hippie, hipster, punk, retro / vintage, surf, to name a few styles. Characters like Malkuth in the Library Of Ruina, a simulation game that followed the 2008 game Lobotomy Corporation would fall into the aristocratic and possibly avant-garde styles. I also haven't seen any military librarians. The closest I've come to that are the characters in Library War. Such librarians would likely be bound, if they were in the U.S., by very specific grooming and personal appearance standards. [22]

Those librarians who work in public spaces, especially, would likely be pushed to accept the idea that you need to "dress for success" either with business casual or casual attire which is "smart." This would be reinforced by the common perception in Western society that conflates appearance and health, affecting women, and leading to potential harm. This is made worse by the fact that unattractiveness leads to negative judgment from people. Such negativity can cause isolation, dieting, and emotional distress. Appearance, for humans, is "one of the most direct sources of information about other people." In workplaces, there are additional stresses, like so-called "common standards of professional appearance," which look down upon those with visible piercing and tattoos. This is obviously interlinked with the "societally sanctioned standards of appearance." [23]

There are many librarian styles. Whether they are depicted in pop culture matters since real-life librarians exist and embody those styles. Furthermore, whether librarian styles in real-life translate over to pop culture, in animation, anime, comics, or elsewhere, is anyone's guess.

Notes

[20] "Library fashion slideshow," New Zealand History, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, accessed Mar. 22, 2022; The Sassy Librarian has a tag on their website with stylish librarian outfits; Roberta, "Rounding Up," The Chic Librarian, Oct. 18, 2013. Wikihow has a whole article entitled "How to Wear the Sexy Librarian Look" in which they describe it as "playing on the idea of a quiet library with a quiet librarian" with clothes like: "partially unbuttoned shirts, dark stockings, sexy heels, and red lipstick." A perfect example of this is a cutaway gag of a librarian in a Family Guy episode where the librarian tries to act sexy but the man looks away.

[21] Kyle Cassidy, "About," This is What a Librarian Looks Like, accessed Mar. 22, 2022; Jordan G. Teicher, "This Is What a Librarian Looks Like," Slate, Feb. 11, 2014. There is also a Tumblr which ran from 2010 to 2020 which smashed stereotypes about what librarians wear, called "Librarian Wardrobe."

[22] "Personal Appearance: Beards and mustaches in the US Navy," Naval History and Heritage Command, May 7, 1963; Devon Suits, "Army announces new grooming, appearance standards," Army News Service, Jan. 28, 2021.

[23] "Dress for Success," Harvard University Facility of Arts and Sciences, Office of Career Services, accessed Mar. 22, 2022; Helen Monks, Leesa Costello, Julie Dare, and Elizabeth Reid Boyd (2021), "'We’re Continually Comparing Ourselves to Something': Navigating Body Image, Media, and Social Media Ideals at the Nexus of Appearance, Health, and Wellness" [Abstract], Sex Roles, 84, 221-237; Atefeh Yazdanparast Ardestani, "The Quest for Perfect Appearance: an Examination of the Role of Objective Self-awareness Theory and Emotions" [Summary], Aug. 2012, UNT Digital Library; D.J. Williams., Jeremy Thomas, and Candace Christensen, "'You Need to Cover Your Tattoos!': Reconsidering Standards of Professional Appearance in Social Work" [Abstract], Social Work, Volume 59, Issue 4, October 2014, Pages 373–375; Leslie J. Heinberg, J. Kevin Thompson, and Susan Stormer, "Development and validation of the sociocultural attitudes towards appearance questionnaire" [Abstract], International Journal of Eating Disorders, Jan. 1995; Oleg O. Bilukha and Virginia Utermohlen, "Internalization of Western standards of appearance, body dissatisfaction and dieting in urban educated Ukrainian females" [Abstract], European Eating Disorders Review, Dec. 21, 2001.

#totally spies #white women #white librarians #white people #librarians #librarianship #whiteness #buff librarians #pumping iron #pop culture #reviews #library war #rugrats #uncle grandpa #dc super hero girls #kick buttowski #janice kawaye #jennifer snoek-brown'#reel librarians

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liyazaki · 1 year

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youtube

read the full article here

help fight book censorship

#i’m sorry (not sorry)- i swear this is the last one #i’m in near tears at work & i had to #grace linn #book banning #banned books #book censorship #libraries #public libraries #school libraries #censorship #florida #martin county #us politics #world war two #auschwitz

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lovedecember · 7 months

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Every elder in Palestine have their old homes keys because they believe that one day they'll be back again ..

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fanfictiondramione · 6 months

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In this cold winter, I can see its beautiful flowers blooming in you, darling… You'd never be alone, I'll always be by your side For the scars have become beautiful features.

Scars leave Beautiful Trace – Car the Garden (Alchemy Of Souls | OST)

#reylo #fandom reylo #ben solo #rey #ben and rey #kylo ren #ben solo/kylo ren #books and libraries #books and literature #love #i love him #life #cruel #star wars #hu xia #will you love me #the last jedi #the rise of skywalker

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padawansuggest · 4 months

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JediTok

Obi-Wan: *filmed walking but on 2x speed with a destination in mind and fairly quiet*

Caption: ‘I told master I was bored and he gave me some great suggestions for what I can do’

Obi-Wan: *walks past training salles with padawans working on saber forms*

Obi-Wan: *walks past a large cafeteria with doors open to show lots of different species eating together*

Obi-Wan: *walks past a room with a sign in ten different languages saying ‘aquatic rooms ahead, if you didn’t know that, you are lost, please find someone to guide you if you cannot guide yourself’*

Obi-Wan: *passes a training room with obstacle courses and rock climbing walls and mats for learning force jumps with a few kiddos tumbling and others safely learning to slow their falls with indulgent masters helping them, pauses, stays a good 15 seconds on 2x speed to watch them before leaving again*

Caption: ‘that was always the funnest training type when I was little, I remember falling on my friend and we both had bruises for a week’

Obi-Wan: *walks past what looks like the entrance to a library, noting a stern looking master flirting/arguing with a black and red Mandalorian, who keeps trying to get past her into the room*

Caption: ‘that’s master Nu, she’s very protective over her archives, and that’s her not-boyfriend that keeps trying to get in to see them even though the senate says he’s really not supposed to be in the temple’

Obi-Wan: *walks past what looks to be a temple summer garden with masters and littles all meditating and playing*

Obi-Wan: *spends a whole minute of the video walking around the room of a thousand fountains*

Caption: ‘my friends and I ‘camp’ here sometimes, and sometimes master Yoda catches frogs in here but we aren’t allowed to encourage him to eat them in front of the younglings 😂’

Obi-Wan: *walks past an amused adult at the creche entrance, waves, walks past multiple classrooms and playrooms, occasionally sidestepping a little while they giggle at him because he’s filming himself*

Obi-Wan: *eagerly bouncing on his toes as he gets further into the creche, till a laughing master lets him into a nursery*

Obi-Wan: *sets the camera down in a way that he can film himself settling back into a rocking chair, letting the master carefully hand him one of the babies swaddled up*

Caption: ‘yeah. The temple has a lot of things to do if one is bored. This one is my fave’

#star wars #obi wan kenobi #incorrect star wars quotes #subtle Jaster mention okay they’re just playin she lets him in the library all the time #JediTok #spacetok #Obi just wants to cuddle a baby is that so wrong????#he didn’t even show you all the fun different gardens and animal rooms and initiate Grogu starting a rebellion in them #he didn’t even show you all the craft rooms!!!

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thequeerlibrarian · 5 months

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Why I love being a librarian:

There is this autistic boy (11) who comes to my library and he is obsessed with Star Wars. He has read all our Star Wars books over and over again, so I asked him if he would want to read some SW books I have at home. He was soooo excited! I brought them with me the next week and he took them home.

Today he brought them back and was so thankful he bought me a gift card for books, wrote me a cute little card and talked happily about the books for ages 🥺

I love making kids happy with books 😭

The card says : Thanks so much for lending me the Star Wars books, they were amazing!

#bookblr #books #booklr #library #libraries #public libraries #my post #star wars books #star wars #books & libraries

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sleepyminty · 7 months

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Why is it that fandoms with their games made by the same company hate each other so much whereas this is the opposite?

#project moon #limbus company #library of ruina #honkai impact #lobotomy corp #arknights #im in honkai 3rd fandom and limbus fandom and i tell you there should be atleast more than one drama of hyv fandom starting a war #whereas theres atleast on twt thread of unclefucker discussion between limbus and arknights #hoyoverse #mihoyo #genshin impact #honkai star rail #atleast ggz is seperate from this shitshow #i should try arknights while waiting for the pm drama to end #the friendship between limbus fandom and arknights fandom is the most random thing yet wholesome shit i’ve ever seen #is this what fame did to game company #i know pm and hypergryph are famous to but lets be real here hyv literally dominate the gacha game #apart from type moon obviously #prove thst found family is healthier than actual family #hi3rd is like the underdog despite its also famous but we just got drag into this fight

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bbtris · 2 months

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War and Peace (1956)

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sebbyisland · 9 months

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This is a weird question but you have good vibes so do you know any good shoujos for beginners? If you dont then just delete this lol

OH this is the best question i have ever received! Thank you! I hope this can be a helpful resource for you or anyone else interested in getting into shojo!!!

I’m gonna define “Good Beginner Shojo” as stories with an interesting premise, strong narrative(? this is VERY subjective sorry?), and also lacks some of the more squicky/uncomfortable tropes: predatory romantic relationships, borderline sexual assault as flirting, or incest**. This list is split between short and long series. I’ll also try to keep the genres diverse! These are all stories I’ve personally read/watched and are popular enough that they’ve been officially translated in different languages.

Good Shojo for Beginners, Short Term Investment

Princess Tutu: A dark fairy-tale-esque anime about a young girl who studies ballet in the day and fights demons at night using ballet + emotional intelligence. The deeper plot is that the entire cast are treated like puppets by a grand and elusive storymaster, and they all must struggle to escape being doomed by the narrative. There’s a lot of references to Swan Lake, the girl keeps getting turned into a duck, many emotions are felt. Complete, one anime season.

From Me to You: shy young girl is a social outcast due to misunderstandings that blew out of proportion. She receives an olive branch from a boy in her class and this gives her the confidence to start making friends and support herself!! The aforementioned boy is also her love interest and is endearingly too flustered to make a move. high school drama ensues. Two anime seasons, manga complete ~120 chapters.

Magic Knight Rayearth: three girls get transported to a fantasy world and have to learn to work together in giant magic mecha suits order to rescue a trapped princess + save the world. They make friends along the way as they try to fight monsters. One anime season, manga complete ~30 chapters.

Kase-san: sapphic high school romance with a jock girl and gardener girl who plants flowers near her practice field… they are both kinda shy and build up confidence as their bond gets deeper. it’s just 100% fluff. anime OVA and complete manga, ~15 chapters, there's also a sequel-series though

Library Wars: what it says on the tin. militant librarians fight the government to stop book censorship. the story follows a soldier in training: a reckless young woman who dreams of meeting the "prince" who inspired her to take up arms to protect books. this is more of an action-comedy than a political drama, so don't expect too much from the plot, but it's fun to watch our failgirl get put into situations. one anime season, 73 chapter manga, live action movie. you'll be okay just watching the anime but obvi the manga expands more on the characters + world building.

Orange: high school girl receives letters from her future self that tell her that a boy from her friend group is planning on committing suicide. She works with her friends to prevent this from happening, but things are definitely more complicated than they seem. An emotional drama, discussion of mental health including depression and suicidal thoughts. It’s a really heartfelt series. One anime season, ~38 chapter manga. (originally published in a shoujo magazine, then switched to seinen probably for marketing reasons.*)

In the Clear Moonlit Dusk: Masculine studious girl feels distant from her classmates who idolize her as a “prince,” but then she catches the attention of the local sparkly bad boy “prince.” An innocent, fluffy high school romance about a prince and her prince. SO many sparkly anime eyes, if that's you're thing. It’s a simple plot, but I enjoy the execution a lot. Ongoing, currently ~27 chapters

Tokyo Mew Mew: Captain Planet but magical girl. group of teen girls get accidentally infused with the DNA of endangered animal species + magic and transform into a hero squad to fight aliens trying to destroy earth's resources! Their cover for their secret headquarters is a maid café, where they all work part time. Manga complete ~30 chapters, anime adaption complete + one season of anime reboot.

Good Shojo for Beginners, Long Term Investment

Yona of the Dawn: historic fantasy setting, coming of age for a naive young princess who grows into a capable leader by abandoning her sheltered life within palace walls for…plot reasons (major spoiler in 1st chapter LOL). there’s a slow but thorough exploration of the political issues in her kingdom, i would say the world-building is an unexpected strength of the story. She’s supported by her hot magical anime boy harem, but the story emphasizes found family dynamics over the romcom. there’s still a primary love interest established early on, it’s just VERY slow burn. one anime season, manga ongoing 300+ chapters

Kageki Shojo!!: Follow the adventures of an all-girls vocational school to train to become members of the historic Kouka all-girls musical theater troupe, where women play roles for all genders. The protagonist is a girl who grew up watching Kouka performances and never lost her sense of childlike wonder. Theater doesn’t come naturally for her, but she’s also very talented. Fun cast, lightly discusses social issues as they come up with sincerity and care. Very reminiscent of 80s shojo. One anime season, Ongoing manga 90+ chapters

My Love Mix-Up! what if there was an ACTUAL high school love triangle. boy likes girl who likes a different boy, but that boy is interested in the aforementioned boy. what if this was all a misunderstanding and actually boy and girl like the same boy. what if that was also a misunderstanding. have you ever been a dumbass high school student trying your best. protagonist is bi king. 120~ chapters, no anime, but a live action show.

Ouran High School Host Club: ah yes a classic romcom. girl gets a scholarship to an elite high school and accidentally falls into debt on her first day to the school host club (boys who professionally flirt with girls during lunch). To pay off her debt, she pretends to be a guy at school so she can work as a host. The comedy is a blend of making fun of shojo tropes and the disaster personalities that make up the supporting cast. it's funnier the more shojo you have read/watched before this one. one anime season, 200+ chapters, complete

BL Metamorphosis: elderly widow accidentally reads a BL manga and gets invested, she bonds with a high school girl who works at the bookstore about it. Very cute parallels between her late husband and the fictional love story. Depicts fandom culture without normalizing the creepy and invasive BL fan behavior. Reminds me a lot of spending time with my grandma, which makes me want to cry.~90 chapters.

Sailor Moon: I know i know everyone is going to tell you this but it's actually a classic for a reason. (Sapphic!!!) magical girls traveling across space and time? Fighting evil with the power of friendship and love? Cute character designs? It's a good time. Protagonist is a total brat (normal 14yr old!!!!) AND a good hero. I'm putting this last because I wanted the other stories to have a chance, but it's honestly so good like please. There technically an inappropriate age gap relationship but it's like the disney movie Tangled where you don't realize it until you literally look up their ages. 150+ chapters, complete.

**When I first read shojo, I was a very young child, basically the target audience, but there are things I read as a child that would make me feel a bit disgusted to read now. Knowing this, I want people who are new to shojo to make informed decisions. There are problematic tropes present in MANY well loved stories--and they are well-loved for a reason!!! These complexities are part of reading and enjoying fiction. I've excluded some of my all-time favorite stories from my childhood thanks to the criteria I set as good "beginner" shojo--but I also don't want to contribute to a world that divides stories as "problematic" and "unproblematic" as if such a binary exists. Ultimately, this list is just based on my PERSONAL taste, what I deem more comfortable to read than other stories, so I can't guarantee that you'll have the same experience. I can't even promise I would have the same experience re-reading some of these, since the stuff that made me comfortable/uncomfortable in the past has changed in the present. It's all very subjective. That's why I'm intentionally specific about the tropes I've excluded. Note that this doesn't mean the stories listed are not littered with their own flaws. I hope this disclaimer didn't seem too excessive, haha.

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historyhermann · 2 years

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"Shh!": Examining the skeleton librarian Eztli in "Victor and Valentino"

Eztli shushes Victor with her extended skeleton arm

This post is a scary and spooky one for sure! I wrote this post specifically to appear right before Halloween on October 31st, and the beginning of the Mexican holiday, Day of the Dead (Dia de Los Muertos), which is celebrated between November 1st and 2nd. Today's post examines Eztli, the skeleton librarian in the Victor and Valentino episode "An Evening with Mic and Hun", and is likely voiced by accomplished actress of Cuban descent, Jenny Lorenzo.

This post is reprinted from Pop Culture Library Review and Wayback Machine.

Let's start with what she is wearing: she has a black dress with a white collar, a medallion around her neck, and horn-rimmed glasses. This seriously invokes the spinster librarian stereotype, as she has her hair tied up in a bun, even though that seems somewhat unnecessary. Her first contact with Victor and Valentino, the two protagonists, is to shush them with her extended skeleton arm. Val, often the rule follower, accepts this, saying "she's a librarian, she wants us to be quiet." Victor rejects this and she then scares them away by doing something that is the equivalent to yelling.

After they run away, she starts putting books on a cart with the extra skeleton arm, and is sitting at the information desk, with a stack of card catalogs behind her. I loved the part when she stamped on the book "Past Due Fee: One Soul." That made me laugh a little. Val comes up with a plan, distracting the librarian by ringing a bell, annoying her. That is until a huge orb, looking a planet, falls down on the librarian and scatters her bones. Val is annoyed at Vic, as that wasn't the plan, as he was supposed to swing down and grab the arm. Funny enough, Vic shushes Vic with the arm, they subdue one of the other people trying to get the arm of Hun, and flee the library.

While the scene in the library is only a little more than a minute long, there is a lot going on here. More than anything, the library and librarian can be portrayed with vintage looks because there is "something nostalgic about reading books" and possibly even gives the implication that the librarian career is outdated. [1] The latter seems to be somewhat true in this episode, as there are card catalogs behind Eztli at the information desk and a bell to ring sitting on the same desk. What Eztli is wearing seems more sinister, evil, and mysterious than classy, distinguished, slimming, elegant, sexy, or chic like the outfits that Amity Blight in The Owl House or Kaisa in Hilda, which are either partly or fully black in their color. I'll focus on that topic in my post next month, "Beauty, dress codes, and fashion: Examining twenty fictional White female librarians," so look forward to that!

Eztli behind the information desk with a wall of card catalogs behind her, while Val comes up to the desk

Eztli is not the only skeleton librarian out there. Mumm-Ra in the Fudêncio e Seus Amigos episode "Biblioteca Maldita" is a librarian/priest and an evil figure. He considered the librarian his own private domain, claiming that time means nothing to him. But, he can be tricked, as the characters fool him into thinking that he has the real eye of Thundera after they destroy the actual one. Then there's the librarian in an issue of the 1992 Detective Comics who is the enemy of Batman as he has a library of souls or the soul records in the webcomic 180 Angel. Beyond this, in the webcomic, Guillotine Public Library, a librarian named Skeezix a.k.a. Jonathan von Abendroth finds out that a patron, Lavii, is a skeleton/reaper, causing him to freak out. It turns out that this librarian is Lavii's mentor, causing her some shock, and he tells her that if she tells anyone about him then she will lose her powers! They later catch-up and he gets her a library card. [2]

In Mexican culture, skulls represent death and rebirth, as a skull represents life and afterlife, while skeletons, in Mesoamerican cultures were considered a symbol of fertility, good luck, and the "dicotomy of life." On top of this, there are decorative skulls known as calaveras which are often created with cane sugar put on altars (known as ofrendas) for Día de Muertos, with José Guadalupe Posada creating skeleton imagery like La Catrina beginning in 1910, with its influence still felt today. Skulls and skeletons in Mexican folk art also reflect a dualism of balancing forces, like life and death, and without that duality in all parts of life, then 'the universe loses its equilibrium." At the same time, Indigenous Mexican art is said to celebrate the skeleton, using it as a "regular motif," with the festival of the Day of the Dead along with its iconography of skeletons and skulls becoming part of works by those like Diego Rivera and becoming a "celebration of uniquely Mexican identity." Such art of skeletons and skulls is also meant mock death in a powerful way. This is relevant to Eztli as Victor and Valentino puts a spotlight on mythologies and folklore from Mesoamerican cultures like the Maya, Olmec, Aztec, and other indigenous peoples. [3]

In Victor and Valentino more broadly, some of the episodes completely or partially are from the underworld (also called The Realm of the Dead or The Land of the Dead), as a Latin American folk-themed show, and various characters like Mic, Hun, El Toro, Elefante, Moreno, and Alfonso all live there. There's even a sarcastic dog named Achi who occasionally joins or pushes Victor and Valentino in their adventures on the surface or in the underworld. The show itself premiered two days before a local Day of the Dead ceremony. Victor is voiced by the show's creator, Diego Molano, a former writer for The Powerpuff Girls and background designer for OK K.O.!: Let's Be Heroes, among many other series, while he hoped that the show would be a "good lesson for kids," making Victor a bit of a self-insert. The show itself was even described as a "richly designed homage to the folk art and traditional storytelling of Mesoamerica" and said to creating "digestible content" which is rated for kids. [4]

Keeping this in mind, Molono, through Vic, is saying he won't be stopped or silenced on his path forward. Eztli may represent those forces which are trying to hold people back and need to be resisted. Perhaps this is reading too much into it, but it would not be too far-fetched considering that Molono voices Vic. The episode writer David Teas, storyboarder Kayla Carlisle, and story writer, Julie Whitesell, may be able to shed more light on the themes in this episode. Teas previously has worked on shows like The Casagrandes and The Loud House, while Carlisle previously storyboarded for The Adventures of Puss in Boots and Whitesell for many comedy and drama sketch shows since 2010, almost exclusively live-action.

Eztli puts a book that Vic dropped on the ground onto the book with the help of the extra skeleton arm

There's another aspect which I noticed when re-watching this episode for the purpose of this post: the religious imagery and intellectualism exuded by this library. You can't say that Eztli is a priest, but the library itself, which is hidden away in the underworld house of Mic and Hun, is a bit of a sacred space. Librarian Fobazi Ettarh has argued that the physical spaces of libraries have often been seen as sacred spaces, treated as sanctuaries by keeping people and sacred things, serving as a refuge or shelter. This idea, she argues, is based in the fact that original libraries were monasteries, with buildings meant to "inspire awe or grandeur." This still holds true today as libraries continue to "operate as sanctuaries in the extended definition as a place of safety," centering themselves as "safe spaces." [5] This isn't the case for this library, however, as it isn't really a place safe for anyone, but more of somewhere that is hidden away, almost the private domain of Eztli which needs to be quiet (and orderly) no matter what.

This is in contrast to libraries that are safe spaces, like the public library shown in the independent film by Emilio Estevez, The Public. It is one of the first films I reviewed on this blog back in 2020, and which I am thinking of revisiting sometime in the future, even though that library does not inspire "awe or grandeur."At the same time, libraries in shown in the series Ascendance of a Bookworm, What If...?, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, are all sacred in their own ways. Specifically, the library in the latter animated series is a refuge (and home) for the two dads of one of the show's protagonists. This is also the case for the magical secret library known as Stanza in Welcome to the Wayne and the huge library at the center of Yamibou, which allows people to access worlds. I have further explained on this blog how libraries are shown as a "place of refuge" in the animated series RWBY, with one character hiding in the library to escape her controlling father.

Many libraries which I have mentioned on this blog in the past are grand, like those in Classroom of the Elite, Macross Frontier, Adventure Time, Revolutionary Girl Utena, RWBY, El-Hazard, Steven Universe, Equestria Girls, Sofia the First, Elena of Avalor, and Simoun, to name a few. One series which somewhat counters this is Hilda, which has a relatively ordinary library on the outside but has a grand inner chamber called "Witches Tower" which is under the library itself. This means that most ordinary patrons would never be in "awe" of the library.

Getting back to Ettarh, she says that if libraries are sacred spaces, then the workers would be priests, noting that the earliest librarians were priests, noting that the service orientation of the profession motivates many to become librarians. This means that librarians are seen as "nobly impoverished," working selflessly for the community and "God’s sake," having a calling, with "spiritual absolution through doing good works for communities and society." She continues the librarians-as-priests comparison to argue that the primary job duty of librarians is then to "to educate and to save," with the idea of creating an "educated, enlightened populace, which in turn brings about a better society," meaning that librarians who do this "good work" are the ones who "provide culture and enlightenment to their communities." This carries with it the expectation that "fulfillment of job duties requires sacrifice...and only through such dramatic sacrifice can librarians accomplish something 'bigger than themselves.'" [6]

Eztli happily stamps a book with an overdue stamp, using the skeleton arm, saying that the person who gave her the book (Vic in a sense, as he dropped the book) has to hand over his soul!

In the case of Eztli, she is less of a priest than characters like Iku Kasahara, Asako Shibasaki, and many others on the Library Protection Force in Library War. They are a manifestation of librarians as those who sacrifice, fighting those who try and censor books, although this is always with the idea that the library is neutral and that the books will enlighten society. The same can be said about Aruto, Iina, and Kokoro in Kokoro Toshokan a.k.a. Kokoro Library who live in a rural library and get very few visitors, or Isomura in Let's Make a Mug Too episode ("The Garden of Sky and Wind"), to give two examples. Perhaps the same could be said about Hisami Hishishii in R.O.D. the TV, Himeko Agari in Komi Can't Communicate, Fumio Murakumi in Girl Friend Beta, and many other librarians out there in fiction. [7]

The library that Eztli presides over may have a tenor of sacredness, but she is no priest. She is more akin to the spinster librarians of other series, in that she shushes the two protagonists and wants the library to remain quiet. This library is no temple either. It may be dated in what it has, but perhaps this isn't a surprise as I don't even think that the series itself is set in the present-day, although I can't be totally sure about that. She has to deal with disruptive, problem patrons, who don't follow the library's rules, and crush her body into many pieces. How is she supposed to do her library work if her information desk is smashed and her body is in pieces? We never get the answer to that, because Victor and Valentino go to the next room, leaving as quickly as they came in, on their quest to find the rest of Hun's body before is too late, and beat any of the other skeletons trying to get the body first.

Although I could be hoping too much, I think it would be interesting if she returns in a later episode, maybe even as a ghost who haunts them. Who knows. There's a lot of interesting storylines with her that could be done. In any case, she is unlike any librarian I have seen since, and I hope to see more skeleton librarians, whether her or someone else, in animated series in the future. Criticisms and commentary on this post are welcome in the comments below this post, which I vet to make sure that I can make sure comments from spammers aren't published and to publish those comments which are genuine instead.

Notes

[1] Brytani, "A Study of Librarian Fashion," The Intrepid Nerd, Oct. 6, 2011.

[2] See episodes 1, 2, and 3, named "Skeleton in the Library", "Chance Reunion", and "Catching up" respectfully. There's also skeletons in the world of Hilda as an elderly patron, Matilda "Tildy" Pilqvist, checks out a book entitled "The Skeleton Whisperer"

[3] "what do skeletons represent in mexican culture," lisbdnet, Dec. 20, 2021; Tom Swanson & Marianne Menditto, "So What's With the Skeletons in Mexican Folk Art?," PVAngels, Apr. 15, 2013; Gayle Trim, "Day of the Dead Sweets and Treats," History.com, Nov. 2, 2012; "What’s Up with All of Skeletons in Mexican Art?," Galeria de Ida Victoria, Oct. 26, 2017; "Why Are There So Many Skulls In Mexico ?," Inspired Nomad Adventures, Oct. 8, 2017; Mary Jane Gagnier Mendoza, "Dia de los Muertos: the dead come to life in Mexican folk art," MexConnect, 2003; "“La Catrina:” Mexican representation of Death," The Yucatan Times, Dec. 8, 2017; Jonathan Jones, "Skull art is not a new idea," The Guardian, May 2, 2008; David Agren, "Mexico's Day of the Dead festival rises from the graveyard and into pop culture," The Guardian, Oct. 27, 2019; Tracy Novinger, ""Catrinas" and Skeletons: Mocking Death in Mexican Culture," Patzcuareando: Peripatetic in Patzcuaro, Oct. 28, 2007; Tracy Brown, "Spooky new cartoon ‘Victor and Valentino’ channels Mesoamerican folklore," Los Angeles Times, Mar. 30, 2019; "Animated People: Diego Molano, Creator of Cartoon Network’s ‘Victor and Valentino’," Animation Magazine, Apr. 25, 2019.

[4] Carolina del Busto, "Jenny Lorenzo, AKA Abuela, Lends Her Voice to Latino Series Victor & Valentino," Miami New Times, Mar. 29, 2019; "Cómica y sobrenatural: habla el director de la nueva serie de Cartoon Network" [translated title: Comic and supernatural: the director of the new Cartoon Network series speaks], Culto, Apr. 20, 2019; Dylan Hysen, "“Victor and Valentino” is off to a Fun, Adventurous Start," Overly Animated, Oct. 29, 2016; Brown, "Spooky new cartoon ‘Victor and Valentino’ channels Mesoamerican folklore," Mar. 30, 2019; Michael Betancourt, "Diego Molano Aims to Teach Mesoamerican Mythology to Latino Kids With Animated Adventure Series ‘Victor and Valentino’," Remezcla, Mar. 30, 2019; Carlos Aguilar, "‘Victor & Valentino’ Art Directors On Designing Cartoon Network’s Mesoamerica-Set Show," Cartoon Brew, Apr. 25, 2019; "Animated People," Apr. 25, 2019.

[5] Fobazi Ettarh, "Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves," In the Library with the Lead Pipe, Jan. 20, 2018.

[6] She also says that considering the conjoined history of librarianship and faith, it is "not surprising that a lot of the discourse surrounding librarians and their job duties carries a lot of religious undertones. Through the language of vocational awe, libraries have been placed as a higher authority and the work in service of libraries as a sacred duty. Vocational awe has developed along with librarianship from Saint Lawrence to Chera Kowalski," and says this idea has become so "saturated within librarianship" that Nancy Kalikow Maxwell can write Sacred Stacks: The Higher Purpose of Libraries and Librarianship which details the connections between faith and librarianship while advising libraries to nurture the "religious image conferred upon them."

[7] This includes Hamyuts Meseta, Mirepoc Finedel, Noloty Malche, and Ireia Kitty in Tatakau Shisho: The Book of Bantorra, along with unnamed librarians in Cardcaptor Sakura episode ("Sakura and Her Summer Holiday Homework"), librarian in Little Witch Academia episode ("Night Fall"), Yamada in B Gata H Kei, Azusa Aoi in Whispered Words, Fumi Manjōme in Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers, Chiyo Tsukudate in Strawberry Panic!, Anne in Manaria Friends, Grea in Manaria Friends, Hasegawa Sumika in Bernard-jou Iwaku a.k.a. Miss Bernard said, Sophie Twilight in Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood.

#victor and valentino #skeletons #fobazi ettarh #black librarians #libraries #librarians #pop culture #librarian stereotypes #stereotypes #librarians as priests #library war

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