Dorothy Parker didn’t know everything.
ISTM that there is some inherent genetic based trait in humans to shun perceived weakness, that manifests in being mean to or taunting people with some handicap. It seems a very “lizard brain” thing. Perhaps it is an unwarranted fear of contagion? Anywho, children especially are poor at governing their impulses, hence their freedom with being mean to others.
Taking this a bit further, IMHO this same impulse could be what drives a lot of the anti-mask fervor. People wearing masks are somehow perceived subconsciously as weaker, so people don’t want to appear as weak themselves, for fear or being shunned/taunted, etc.
You mean all people do that?
According to my recollection only 80-90% of my class mates called me cuatro ojos.
Like Voyager, I wore glasses from the time I was in kindergarten to my late 50s, when cataracts forced me to get lens implants. Like Voyager, I don’t remember any kids teasing me about my glasses. They teased me about every other slag-baggin’ thing, but not my glasses.
I started wearing glasses in 7th grade. I was having trouble reading sheet music in school orchestra.
I never got taunted for glasses. I’m glad that I didn’t have them in 1st grade. I’m sure the other kids would have said stuff.
The same reason(s) that many people today will choose contacts over glasses.
I’ve seen this in movies/TV, but I can’t remember people ever being teased for wearing glasses when I was a kid. Is this something that was more common in the mid-20th Century?
I wore glasses from age 9 (mid 1950s) until several years after high school when soft contacts became available. I was only taunted in school until I picked up dog poop (on a paper torn from my notebook) and wiped it on the shirt of the boy ringleader. I was then left alone. I really think it was a grammar school thing that would not be tolerated today. I don’t recall me or anyone else being treated that way after 6th grade.
My eye doctor told me emphatically that this is not true. Reading for extended periods of time may tire your eyes, but it does not damage your vision in any way.
In related news, when our moms told us to move back from the TV because “you’ll ruin your eyes,” they were wrong, according to my neuro-ophthalmologist.
Insecure males’ wieners droop in the presence of intelligent, or competent, or skilled, or powerful women. This is known.
Mr. Rilch and I recently watched a documentary about Harvey Weinstein. Afterwards, he asked me if I’d ever been propositioned, groped, or otherwise been subjected to unprofessional behavior, either in the film biz or any other line of work. No. Really? Yes. “Because I wear glasses. Yes, I’m serious. To guys like that, that makes me invisible.” Well, I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.
Growing up, I got teased a lot for my glasses. “Felix the cat” was one of the sobriquets used, as I had the cat-eye glasses that were popular in the 1960s.
In my particular case, the answer to “why were [people] so mean” probably related to several characteristics:
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I was insufferable. The kind of kid who would talk about a “sobriquet” instead of a “nickname.”
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I was lousy at sports, being klutzy and all.
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My glasses were really really REALLY thick - I was way out on the tail end of the distribution in terms of myopia.
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We moved a lot while I was growing up, so I was always “the new kid.”
All the teasing didn’t kill me, so I guess it made me stronger.
Well, what does HE know. I have the internet!
Maybe my memory is faulty, but I don’t recall kids being bullied because of glasses. I’d heard the term “four-eyes” and the “men don’t make passes…” comments on TV (?) but not among my classmates. My brother wore glasses from a very young age, as did a number of my classmates. Maybe I lived in a kinder, gentler area, or maybe I never noticed the nastiness.
I didn’t make character judgements based on eyewear. And when I needed reading glasses in middle school, I thought they were kinda cool. Not that I consider myself to have been a typical kid…
I wore glasses for many years. Some, in retrospect, were not very trendy or attractive. Yet I can’t really recall people making fun of them or being mean about glasses. They picked on a few other things.
Made my day. Thanks!
Obligatory scene at 2:37. Dorothy Malone and pince-nez, no less.
I think your doctor may be out of date. For a long time the medical profession believed that it was only an old wives’ tale to think that lots of reading/close-up work promoted near-sightedness, but evidence since the advent of extended personal computing has actually born this out. At various times I was under the care of highly respected ophthalmologists in Boston and Singapore - two places known for their world-class medical care - and both firmly believed, after reading the scientific literature, that there was a connection.
What do you mean “we”, kemosabe?
Not all kids behaved this way. Maybe I had too much empathy back then, but even in grade school I found it cruel and painful to see other kids picked on. And would try to befriend the picked on kid.
So of course I was also a target as a result. Even without glasses.
I was the fat, ugly kid, taller than most of my classmates. My hair is just THERE, stick-straight, won’t curl. I had the acne and braces, and oh, yeah, I wore glasses.
If kids were insulting because of the glasses, I ignored them. Because I couldn’t hear them. (Long story: specialists told my parents hearing aids would be no help)
I was a complete failure when it came to PE. I wasn’t even coordinated enough to jump rope. And my body wasn’t built for running.
There was one snotty, mean kid who used to run up to me, get in my face and sneer, “Can’t run!” It finally started hurting my feelings, so I told the teacher. She observed his little recess activity, and pulled him aside for a little talk. His taunting stopped.
I like to think she told him something along the lines of, “Knock it off. Maybe VOW can’t run as fast as you can, but she can read much faster than you can.” Or something to that effect. Wonder where that little snot is today?
I have two great kids. The Daughter inherited her mother’s body type, so I tried to cushion some of the negative crap she got from other students. The Son had ADD, and he practically had “TEASE ME” tattooed on his forehead. Mr VOW and I spent practically all of his schoolyears comforting, counseling, even educating him about why he was such a target.
I told him many, many times, “Kids tease other kids. They actively look for reasons to tease. Even if you were completely perfect, they’d find something. Anf if they can’t find anything, they INVENT something.”
It’s hard to teach a fourth-grader to walk away. And a parent’s heart breaks for the suffering of his or her child, suffering caused by the little shits on the playground.
Glasses? No biggie.
~VOW
Sorry, I shouldn’t have said we.
I remember being the person who defended the picked upon too actually. But I might have participated in teasing my cousin as well. I honestly can’t remember, but she still likes me so I don’t think I bullied her.