Librarians unhappy with action figure's likeness
September 8, 2003 at 4:40 PM ET
Cheeser
HPANA (via AP via CNN)
A new Library Action Figure
, which features a frumpy librarian with "amazing push-button shusing action!" has real librarians hissing with anger. They've taken to the cyber-streets to voice their opinions on the stereotyped doll, lighting up blogs around the world:
"The shushing thing just put me right over the edge," said Diane DuBois, library director of Caribou Public Library in Caribou, Maine. "We're so not like that anymore. It's so stereotypical I could scream."
It is produced by Seattle kitsch retailer Archie McPhee and Co., whose lineup of action figures includes Sigmund Freud, Nico the espresso stand barista, and the McPhee action figure that started it all, Jesus Christ.
As librarian Linda Dyndiuk says:
Is anyone else offended by this? Nothing like perpetuating stereotypes....
And as someone who has never "shushed" anyone, I can think of much more realistic actions for her... like chasing down some inattentive parent's 2-year-old... or running back and forth to the computer area refilling paper trays and fixing paper jams... or running from one end of the library to the other to retrieve a book for someone on the phone... but I guess shushing is easier, and more amusing, for the dollmakers, right?