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Why I became a "Guybrarian" Date published: 9/27/2009
WHEN I TELL people what I do for "Librarian, huh?" they'll say, "Hmm, interesting." They'll attempt to sound polite and conversational, even intrigued. But I know what they're thinking. My manhood is suspect. "He probably macrames, too," the smirking expressions suggest. "Or bakes muffins on the weekends? Sniffles with some BFFs over chick flicks and Ben & Jerry's?" In the public imagination, male librarians--guybrarians--rank somewhere in the neighborhood of male hairdressers, nurses, and ballet dancers (except those stereotype-busting Russians) on the Dubious Masculinity Scale. Somehow the idea of a grown man fretting over the Dewey Decimal System or priggishly reminding kids to "keep it down--this is the library" is disquieting, even appalling. (Which is why I do neither.) My childhood provides no Kane-like clues (no effeminate Rosebuds crackling on any childhood-altering fires) as to how I ended up in such a gravely suspicious profession. I played sports--baseball, basketball, football. Had an electric guitar and wanted to be rock star like every other teenage boy. Heck, as a young man I even got into a few fights. (Yes, smarty-pants, the real fist-wielding variety. In bars, no less. The kind you "settle outside.") In other words, I hit all the normal guy milestones in the appropriate order. How then to explain this whole librarian thing? For starters, I've always enjoyed reading. Long ago, I read books about Jim Thorpe, Jackie Robinson, Joe Namath, Wilt Chamberlain, devouring one after another.
Who cares? We're all for you, (I hope.) Let me say that I too, when young, struggled with identity crisis True, I played football, etc., but I really wanted to use the hula hoop with my girl classmates. When I saw the youthful Lindsey Graham and Barney Frank on TV, I got that tingle in my leg that Obama gave Chris Matthews. I too got married, as you did (a "cover"? Who knows? My wife, Bruce, won't say).) I lost my fights; they punched, I slapped. But I'm a man, as you are, and "sticks and stones" etc.
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