# Why were we all so mean to people who wore glasses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 11, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841 "2020-12-11T17:01:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/41 "2020-12-12T18:04:33Z")
It didn’t help that our eyeglasses were really ugly and dorky back then. Nowadays kids’ glasses are cute and hip. ---
**Author:** ![PB\_J](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@PB\_J](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PB_J)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/42 "2020-12-12T20:00:36Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > It didn’t help that our eyeglasses were really ugly and dorky back then. Nowadays kids’ glasses are cute and hip. This. Times have changed, and today glasses are a fashion accessory, not just a necessity to vision. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/43 "2020-12-12T20:39:13Z")
I didn’t get my glasses until I was 16, so no teasing, but related to what you and **needscoffee** are posting. When I was in the Navy, they issued us Military grade glasses. These glasses were nicknamed BC glasses. BC as in the frames were ancient and must of been bought in bulk millennium ago. And BC stood for **B** irth **C** ontrol glasses as in you won’t need any Birth Control while wearing these glasses. [![](https://static.zennioptical.com/production/products/general/44/42/4442821-eyeglasses-front-view.jpg?resize=800px:*&output-quality=80) ](https://static.zennioptical.com/production/products/general/44/42/4442821-eyeglasses-front-view.jpg?resize=800px:*&output-quality=80) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/44 "2020-12-12T20:42:12Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > And BC stood for **B** irth **C** ontrol glasses as in you won’t need any Birth Control while wearing these glasses. Lol!! My daughter and her friends in high school all had fun, oversized frames with no lenses in them. And colorful braces on their teeth. Things have sure changed. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/45 "2020-12-12T21:01:56Z")
I was a pretty awful child who grew up around some other awful children but I got glasses in 1966 while in junior high and don’t remember getting any flack for it. My high school girlfriend wore them too and I thought she was the shiz. Note: not one of the popular kids. ---
**Author:** ![PB\_J](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@PB\_J](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PB_J)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/46 "2020-12-12T21:10:18Z")
You were before your time! [Winston Eyeglasses in Jet Black for Men | Warby Parker](https://www.warbyparker.com/eyeglasses/men/winston/jet-black) These are somewhat popular today…very similar ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/47 "2020-12-12T21:14:40Z")
I know, the BCs are popular with Hipsters and those wanting to be Ironic or something. I’ll say, our official military grade ones were very uncomfortable to wear, hopefully the hipster ones are better in the nose & ear parts. I am also happy to say I got corrective LASIK in 2005 and am still without glasses, though I do find myself grabbing reading glasses for very small print now. But hey, I’m over 50 so that’s reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/48 "2020-12-12T21:16:40Z")
**Poem in the Manner of Dorothy Parker** by David Lehman Dorothy Parker who wrote witty stories, did not foresee that spectacles would be- come fashion accessories. “Men seldom make passes At girls who wear glasses.” And today, in Washington Square Park I thought of her, Miss Parker, and what she might say assessing the spectacles of our day: “Even the nicest lasses Have tattoos on their asses.” ---
**Author:** ![Mortimus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Mortimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mortimus)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/49 "2020-12-12T22:11:40Z")
I had the exact same glasses that @What_Exit posted above. I don’t know why, but I still have them. My mom got them cheap as a bennie from the place she worked for. They were very heavy duty but would still break when bullies punched me in the face. I was a nerd in a jock-centric school district and got punched in the face fairly often. I WAS the guy with the stereotypical white bandage tape on the bridge of my glasses to hold the pieces together. But because the glasses were cheap for mom to replace, I was forced to wear them from about 4th grade until I was a junior in HS. My junior year there was one girl who I had the hots for but figured I’d never get anywhere with her. She constantly teased me about my “dorky” glasses. She wore glasses herself but hers were wire-rims, much more in style at the time. Her teasing prompted me to save up my own money and buy the wire-rims I wanted but my parents wouldn’t buy for me. Her teasing stopped. Face punching stopped. I didn’t suddenly become popular but my self-confidence was greatly improved. I also “filled out” a little bit so I wasn’t such an easy bully target. As an adult I ran into the same girl I had the hots for. She told me that she had the hots for me too back then. She wondered why I never asked her out. She said her teasing about my nerd glasses was her awkward way of flirting with me. I guess I should have saved up my money, bought my own glasses and gained more confidence a bit sooner. Who knows, I might have had the self-confidence to ask her out 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/50 "2020-12-12T23:26:39Z")
Lisa Loeb got grief sometimes for being something of a dilettante one hit wonder but I believe she changed society’s view on glasses. ---
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/51 "2020-12-12T23:36:32Z")
That “birth control glasses” trivia was part of some of Drew Carey’s earlier standup. He still often wears glasses not dissimilar. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/52 "2020-12-12T23:46:57Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I didn’t get my glasses until I was 16, so no teasing, but related to what you and **needscoffee** are posting. > > When I was in the Navy, they issued us Military grade glasses. These glasses were nicknamed BC glasses. BC as in the frames were ancient and must of been bought in bulk millennium ago. And BC stood for **B** irth **C** ontrol glasses as in you won’t need any Birth Control while wearing these glasses. Funny, this is almost the kind of model I’ve been preferring for the last 20 years. If you had told my 11 year old self who had to pick his first glasses to wear those, I would’v been shocked, because at that point of time, they were the dorkiest and most old-fashioned model you could imagine. But now, I think they suit me very fine. Instead, at age 11 I wore glasses like this, the typical model of the late 70s/early 80s, and now find THEM to be uberdorky: > **[Brillen kaufen » Top-Modelle im Vergleich](https://www.brillen.org)** > > llll➤ Im Brillen Test 2024 ✓ finden Sie Top-Modelle im Test bzw. Vergleich. ➤ Jetzt Empfehlungen vergleichen & Brillen günstig online bestellen! ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/53 "2020-12-12T23:53:10Z")
Too late to edit: I just remembered that when I got drafted to the Bundeswehr in 1987, I was also issued glasses similar to the model above. But then fashions had already moved on, and I found them terrible. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/54 "2020-12-12T23:57:11Z")
Some of my glasses were very similar to that. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/55 "2020-12-13T00:02:29Z")
Yes, evidence does show that children sitting closer than 8 inches to a screen for long periods OR whose eyes don’t get exposure to natural light may be more likely to develop myopia, but “reading,” particularly back in the day, meant books, and that’s what I was referring to. I’m sorry that you, too, have been so unfortunate as to have to consult world class eye specialists. Those I’ve consulted were naturally talking about adult eyes, as, thank heavens, my kids didn’t inherit my conditions. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/56 "2020-12-13T00:17:19Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > my kids didn’t inherit my conditions. Same here! Since pathological myopia is usually inherited through the mother (my birth mother had terrible eyes, I’m told) it was definitely something we monitored, but my son dodged that bullet completely. In fact, at age 22 he’s just been prescribed glasses for the first time - for farsightedness. Semi-related: I ran my genetic testing from National Geographic through [Promethease](https://www.promethease.com), which - with appropriate caveats - gives you unfiltered info about your genes, based on how they “stand out” in terms of making you more or less likely to have certain health conditions. The FIRST marker that popped up on mine was a gene that protects against pathological myopia. Huh. Later on, there was a marker for having pathological myopia, so I guess we know which gene got expressed in my case. Still, it was pretty hilarious to see that the very first thing that came up was “you have a gene that protects you from this condition … that you actually suffer pretty severely from.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/57 "2020-12-13T00:26:20Z")
I’m reminded of a comic’s joke. “I didn’t think there was a connection between reading and eyesight. But LeVar Burton used to appear in those ads supporting reading. And then he shows up on Star Trek, blind!” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/58 "2020-12-13T00:57:34Z")
Except that she was right. The comment wasn’t instruction-- it was lamentation. It’s shorter, but similar in sentiment to this: **Song Of One Of The Girls** also by Dorothy Parker (each verse is a Limerick, in case you didn’t get the burlesque nature of it) Here in my heart I am Helen; I’m Aspasia and Hero, at least. I’m Judith, Jael, and Madame de Stael; I’m Salome, moon of the East. Here in my soul I am Sappho; Lady Hamilton am I, as well. In me Recamier vies with Kitty O’Shea, With Dido, and Eve, and poor Nell. I’m of the glamorous ladies At whose beckoning history shook. But you are a man, and see only my pan, So I stay at home with a book. PS: it was written at a time when many businesses, particularly restaurants and nigh clubs, would not serve women patrons after 4pm, unless they were accompanied by a man, so literally, she stayed at home if she did not have a date. The practice became illegal as states passed equal protection laws. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/59 "2020-12-13T01:27:59Z")
Several observations, plus an anecdote: Screening was not a good, nor as thorough once upon a time, in addition to the fact that fine-tuning a prescription was not what it is now, so FEWER kids wore glasses. If you just had three kids in a class of 25 with glasses, they were more likely to get targeted than kids with glasses will when 11 kids in a class of 25 have them. Also, because it is possible to prescribe for non-verbal, or unreliably verbal kids now, kids are getting glasses in preschool, instead of in the first - third grades. This leads to kids being desensitized by seeing classmates in glasses before they even really know what they are. The variety of frames available for children has exploded since the 1970s, and even then, it was much greater than it was 20 years earlier than _that_. So it’s much easier to find frames that flatter a child. Lens technology is such now that very few kids wear lenses that distort their eyes; this was not always the case. In the 1970s, glasses usually distorted the wearers eyes to an extent, so if you wore glasses, you did look a little odd. Not that that is a justification for teasing, but it’s a reason. Lastly, kids’ behavior can contribute-- again, not a justification, but a reason. In my first grade, there was a kid named Rob. Viewed himself as the tough kid in class. One day he needed glasses. His father called my parents, and apparently several parents-- maybe the whole class, maybe just kids who lived nearby, or went to the same shul, I don’t know. But Rob’s father told my parents that Rob had just gotten glasses, and was really upset about them. Could they please have a talk with me, and make sure that I wouldn’t make fun of Rob. I assured them I would never make fun of someone with glasses. The fact was that Devi, the most popular girl in the class, had gotten glasses a couple of weeks earlier, and a lot of the other kids were _wishing_ for glasses. Anyway, the next day, Rob isn’t wearing his glasses. Four or so other kids in class are, and no one is making fun of them at all. We don’t see Rob’s glasses for about three days, when we are reading silently, and we all hear something, and look up to see Rob getting his glasses out of a case, and starting to put them on, with his head bent way over his book. His secrecy and sheepishness are funny, and we are six, and start to giggle. We’re really not laughing at his glasses, per se, we’re laughing at his manner. But he gets mad, and hurt, and puts the glasses away. I don’t think he wore them again until he came back from winter break. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841/60 "2020-12-13T02:16:39Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > It didn’t help that our eyeglasses were really ugly and dorky back then. Nowadays kids’ glasses are cute and hip. I didn’t get my first pair of glasses until I was in high school. By that time, I was old enough to assert my tastes and avoid the glasses better suited for a middle aged accountant that were my parent’s preference. When I was 9-10 (in the early 60’s), I went to summer camp and my mom gave me a pair of sunglasses – horn rimmed, tortoiseshell glasses suited, in my young mind, to a 40ish business man at the beach. I wanted cool aviator shades. So when I got to camp, I traded them for a canteen. It turns out the sunglasses had been fairly expensive, so my mom had a bit of a conniption when I returned home without them (and she found out why). > [@VOW](#): > > There was one snotty, mean kid who used to run up to me, get in my face and sneer, “Can’t run!” When I was in elementary school (7th grade, maybe?) our teacher gave us an assignment in “descriptive writing”. Each kid in the class was given the name of a classmate and told to write a paragraph describing this classmate without using names or other personal information. Then the paragraphs would be read and the class would try to guess who was being described. Most of the class, including me, wrote long detailed, almost list-like descriptions. But one classmate wrote a single sentence: “Quick as a fox, slow as a turtle”. As soon as it was read, the class, with one voice it seemed, shouted out my name. No one, including me, thought this was bullying, or even denigrating. We were mostly amazed at how succinctly he had managed to describe me. (and it was a _very_ accurate description) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-were-we-all-so-mean-to-people-who-wore-glasses/927841.md?page=4)