Oh, Dewey, Where Would You Put Me?
The New York Times
A librarian who identifies as queer wrestles with our tendency to classify both books and people.
As a librarian who has dated both men and women, I couldn’t help but think of how my various loves would be categorized by the Dewey Decimal Classification. Stefan, for example, was an architect (720.23), as well as a Californian (979.4) with eyes like the ocean (551). Our love felt like a fairy tale (398.2); I knew I was marrying this guy. At the same time, I felt a pang of loss, because I was “choosing a side” (much as I hate that expression), and being a queer feminist was a big part of my identity. What would it mean to make a life with a man? How would I categorize myself — and us? I didn’t have much time to contemplate this back in 2008. I was busy starting a new library from scratch for a public school in Queens, New York. Wondering if Stefan would support my career, I joked to him that my weekends were “booked.”More Related News