Why are glasses sexy?

In My Humble Opinion
1

How glasses affect your image.

I’m not really sure if this should go in IMHO, GQ or MPSIMS, but I’ll try chucking it in here for now.

Anyway, I had my eyes checked a while back. It turns out that I’m longsighted. Not being able to see diddly at close range for a while should have been a hint, I guess. To rectify this, I recently got my first pair of spectacles. Far from impeding me in my daily life, this has led to several advantages. Firstly, I can once again see pretty great, which is brilliant. Because of that, I now feel pretty great. Also, I can now finally feel like a real librarian. Also, somewhat unexpectedly, (and if I may say so myself) I *look pretty great, at least a lot better than before.

More to the point, I’ve also become aware that I frequently find bespectacled members of the opposite sex frankly smoking hot. There’s nothing like a tad of myopia or a hint of hyperopia to get me going. Astigmatism? Bring it on! This is nothing new to me, but I hadn’t really though about it before. A quick look around in contemporary culture reveals that I’m far from the only one who feels this way.

However, darwinistically speaking, how does this make sense? Surely, poor eyesight is a disability and a potential sight of bad genes? When faced with a lovely young lady sporting that irresistible librarian look, shouldn’t my monkey brain be thinking, “She don’t see no good. Probably shouldn’t reproduce with her. Will make lousy blind offspring.” Instead, what’s going on is more akin to: “Yes! Girls in glasses have magnificent asses! Let’s get it on and have a bunch of kiddies who can’t navigate inside buildings without the aid of modern optometric technology! Great idea!”

I mean, come on? As disabilities go, this is surely pretty unique. If someone is missing an arm or a leg, that doesn’t usually add to that person’s sex appeal (unless that’s your kink - if so, you’ll forgive me).

Is it a purely cultural thing? Is the cultural association of being blind as a bat with intellectual activity and intelligence so powerful that it overrides the monkey programming? Or there something else going on? Is it simply the fact that, well, glasses make people’s faces look good, and we’re not genetically designed to know what the heck glasses are anyway, and so it doesn’t figure in the hump-or-flee analysis?

Finally - are there any counter-examples? Are glasses actually a turn-*off *for some of you guys and girls?

*Yes, ladies, it’s official: I’m balding and I wear glasses. However, I try to look more like this guy than this guy , so yes, I think I’m somehow managing to make it work for me.

2

I’m nearsighted (read: blind as a bat) and very selfconscious about wearing glasses, so your ode to bespectacled girls made me very happy. Thank you! :slight_smile:

As for glasses being hot or not, I think it’s a cultural thing where the glasses are part of a certain package. Like you’ve illustrated yourself - George Costanza wears glasses. Do they alone make him hot to me? Not really. Glasses are to me part of the “hot intellectual archetype” where things like posture, hair and clothes also play in. In a Darwinist perspective, that means it’s the image of a male with brains, education and good economy = Maslow stair covered. The result may be myopic kids, but the economic bit would balance that out.

ETA: “Darwinist perspective” is badly worded, since a myopic male would mean bad genes. I guess I mean “breeding perspective”, where glasses signal bad vision but is used to depict intellectual powers.

3

Me, wearing glasses. You be the judge.

IMHO, I think girls in glasses are sexy, don’t really know why though. Maybe it’s just the excitement of getting to take *one more * thing off before you, y’know.

4

I’m just going to add that glasses have taken on a second role as a fashion accessory for the face, and that a lot of models have been designed to compliment the lines of the cheekbones, accentuate the eye area, and so on. They’ve been refined to the point where you’re SUPPOSED to look more attractive in them. :smiley: Sometimes it doesn’t help, or doesn’t help much, but I’m sure that’s a factor.

5

Duh. Glasses are sexy because I wear glasses and I’m sexy. :wink: I also have a giant weakness for guys in glasses, especially the hipster-style thick frames (which is why I’m secretly rejoicing over the fact that The Boy’s doctor recently told him he’ll need glasses within the next couple of years).

From an evolutionary standpoint, I suppose myopia was a problem when we needed to be able to distinguish between a sharp-toother predator and a helpful buddy waving in the distance, not to mention a serious handicap in the hunting and gathering departments. Not so much of a concern these days, since we’re no longer running from predators on a regular basis and have the technology to correct the problem quite easily (though sadly, not all that cheaply). I figure even my reptilian hindbrain has figured out that concept after 20 years of wearing corrective lenses.

6

I love those images you linked to. :smiley: I like to think I look sexy in my glasses. Otherwise I’d be really depressed, since I don’t like wearing my contacts all the time. Of course, my husband also tells me I look sexy in my glasses, but he’s kind of prejudiced. :wink:

7

Glasses tend to make people look smarter or more intellectual. So basically, like the cartoon the OP linked to, when you take someone who is already attractive and hip and stick some glasses on them, it makes them look more intelligent and thus deeper and more interesting.

8

It works for certain females, especially women who have a more narrow skull structure, IMHO.

For example I think Tina Fey looks way sexier when she is wearing glasses.

9

Lord yes, and I doubt you’re the only one. There’s something about seeing someone for the first time when they have their glasses on, then seeing them later without. The sense of something blank, something missing. Glasses face.

This is my total bullshit theory about why smart kids have glasses (I came up with it in when I was maybe 10). Kids who have glasses are ostracized early on, so they have fewer friends (if any) and no play dates (also, rough sports or activities might break their spectacles), and more time to spend on schoolwork! I was a little social scientist, I was.

10

The wife assures me I look sexy with or without glasses.

However, many bargirls, as I saunter through the bar areas, assure me I am “handsome man,” and I am wearing my glasses then, so I leave you to your own conclusions.

11

Yes, I tend to wear my glasses these days instead of my contact lenses, because I like them. :slight_smile: I’m thinking of creating a logo based on them.

12

I think this is it. If I walk around wearing my grandmother’s thick, round, white plastic frames, it’s a completely different reaction than when I wear these.

I am actually picking up my new glasses tomorrow…they are MUCH foxier! I can’t wait!

13

Kooky character on kids TV show or evil dictator?

14

I know what you mean. My DH has had to start wearing reading glasses on occasion, and I think he looks HAWT in them.

He thinks I’m nuts, but it’s the truth!

15

When I saw Anything Goes in Lincoln Center some time ago, one of the chorus girls wore glasses. Pretty unusual, but they made her stand out and look much cuter than the others. It isn’t just me - the review in the Times or the New Yorker mentioned her also. I think she had a glasses face also.

16

Interesting. I was just asking my guy why anyone would wear glasses in today’s age of contacts and lasek surgery if they had a choice. I don’t see them as sexy whatsoever(not saying that they’re nonsexy, just not a factor).

17

I have a legit glasses fetish; every girl I’ve ever dated has looked like Tina Fey or Lisa Loeb. I think that on some gut level, it makes the person appear more intelligent and less superficial.

18

Glasses don’t matter to me. I wear them, but I don’t think they have anything to do with a person’s sexiness.

What I find attractive in a person is their personality.

19

In the hollywood world I get annoyed at the attempts by celebs to change their images with them.
Eminem the rapper. With glasses: Eminem the artist.
LL Cool J the rapper. With glasses: LL Cool J the serious actor/artist.
Eric Clapton the rocker. With glasses: Eric Clapton the musical artist.
Tina Fey the SNL comediene. With galsses: Tina Fey the intellectual satirist.

20

Tina Fey or Lisa Loeb…ooh, what’s your secret? Tina Fey was quoted as saying something to the effect that she wasn’t going to make it on looks so she better be smart. I still have no idea what she means. And Lisa Loeb, don’t get me started (where’s the drooling emoticon when you need it?)!

Amen to the intelligent/superficial comment, by and large. But I think what looks good one one face doesn’t on another. I knew a girl in high school who had kind of a wide face but she picked some oversized glasses that somehow balanced it out. With glasses, I’d rate her about a 9.5. Without, a 7.

Remember the “aviator style” trend in the 70s? Mmm, good times!