I’m amazed that almost two months after initiating discussion about the now infamous librarian action figure, the debate goes on.

I felt the need to respond to one of the comments, so excuse my use of this forum to do so.

Here is what was said by someone named Tiare:

“While I respect your offense, I object to you complaining how stereotypical the action figure looks. The action figure was modeled after a 100% real and authentic librarian. If you have any problems with how she looks, please go ahead and talk to Nancy Pearl about her style choices. She really wears spectacles and that is one of her real outfits she chose to wear when molded.”

Now I clearly state in the original post, “I’m certainly not offended, just disappointed.” I just hate it when people don’t read what you’ve written before they comment on it. That offends me far more than disagreeing with my perspective possibly could.

As far as objecting to my complaining, well, this is my house. I’ll complain if I want. Objection overruled.

So what was I “complaining” about anyway? It’s not so much that they chose a stereotypically-fashioned librarian to be the model, since that decision makes some degree of sense. [I'm not sure why Tiare felt the need to inform me that Nancy was a "real and authentic" librarian; I made that pretty clear in my post, even mentioning her position. I also really don't care about her personal stylistic choices. That's not the point.] My complaint was that they could have done so much more with the action figure, simply by coupling that archetypal image with a cooler action: the ejectable hair bun rather than the shushing motion.

Nancy is an dynamic, innovative librarian and it would have been funnier (and more action-packed) to let that show (although she doesn’t actually have a hair bun as far as I can tell, but what the hell, it’s an action figure, not a statue). I just felt that it would have done more for fun AND more for recasting stereotypes. That’s it.

Anyway, Nancy will be in the area soon and I’ll be sure not to ask her about fashion, contact lenses or action figures.