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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
How Cute! Race, Gender, And Neutrality In Libraries, Gina Schlesselman-Tarango
How Cute! Race, Gender, And Neutrality In Libraries, Gina Schlesselman-Tarango
Library Faculty Publications & Presentations
This essay explores how feminization and a particular aestheticization thereof is called upon to attempt to mitigate, veil, and neutralize whiteness in libraries and librarianship. It looks specifically at cuteness, an aesthetic category historically shaped by, and deeply invested in, hegemonic formulations of gender, race, and consumption. This paper explores the types of projects cuteness might abet in librarianship—particularly aspirations of political neutrality—by positioning itself as for all and against none. Indeed, by calling forth its purported timeless appeal and assuming an aesthetic that no one can resist, cuteness positions the whiteness central to it as both harmless and universal. …
Presentation: The Legacy Of Lady Bountiful: White Women In The Library, Gina Schlesselman-Tarango
Presentation: The Legacy Of Lady Bountiful: White Women In The Library, Gina Schlesselman-Tarango
Library Faculty Publications & Presentations
Important to understanding the complex workings of race in LIS is an investigation of the ways in which it has been shaped by gender. A field dominated by white women, tracing the role that the white female body played in early librarianship can illuminate today’s demographic makeup. Calling on the Lady Bountiful archetype, this presentation interrogates the ways in which patriarchy, racism, and notions of femininity have and continue to work in LIS education and practice.