By Evi Tsakali,
This time, in order for you to explore alongside me the point I want to make, I invite you to bring to your mind a random typical rom-com. A rom-com where a person (regardless of their gender and sexual orientation) is an introvert, very shy and nerdy, and has a crush on a person supposedly completely out of their league (such as the popularity of the school or the “office hottie”); you get the picture. Now, do you notice a pattern regarding how their life (basically, appearance) changes? They take off their glasses. They just remove an accessory (essential to their eyesight) and, somehow, this makes them a lot more attractive. They finally get the person they wanted; an ugly duckling turned into a beautiful swan.
It is in this way that the media, alongside intelligence and nerdiness, associates wearing glasses with a lack of attractiveness. As a person who grew up wearing glasses (I wore glasses for the first time before turning six), I find this kind of representation in the audiovisual media rather annoying (one could say even offensive). However, since the greatest lies ever told are the ones closest to the truth, this stereotype about people wearing glasses exists in real life as well, and it is expressed in various ways. In my opinion, the link made by our society between eyesight glasses and unattractiveness is a beauty standard that is — unfortunately — very rarely discussed in comparison to others (acknowledging, of course, the pivotal importance of bringing all of the stereotypes to discussion; because stereotypes are meant to be broken). Thus, I decided to write this article, gathering my personal experiences, as well as those of some of my friends who wear or have worn glasses in the past, in order to demonstrate those stereotypes via a list of comments we have heard, or situations we have been in:
1) The stereotype that “wearing glasses is not permanent and — eventually — I will undergo laser treatment”.
It is a common impression that wearing glasses is something temporary, perceived as a “necessary evil” that should be get done with, sooner or later, presumably by getting a laser treatment. In any case, what is for certain is that you are not supposed to wear glasses for long, and you will be soon freed by this kind of “burden”.
2) “Why do you not wear eye contacts?”
This one is slightly connected to the previous one and constitutes one of the questions I am really tired of getting; in the same logic as the laser treatment, wearing glasses does not necessarily have to be a temporary arrangement, until the solution is found. It can also be a choice.
3) “It does not matter”.
A weird response I get when telling people that I have been wearing glasses for years (and/or that it is not something temporary). This assumption that we should be ashamed (?) of wearing glasses is an immediate product of the perception that it has a negative effect on our looks.
4) Ditching our glasses on special occasions.
There is the impression that it is socially ideal to take off our glasses on special occasions: for some reason, we are supposed to wear contacts on dates, parties, and formal occasions. In elementary school, on the day of the school photo-shooting, I had experienced (unfortunately not only once) the awkward situation when the photographer asked me to take off my glasses (even though I did not want to), adding “but do you not want to look pretty for the picture?”.
The years have gone by, and I continued to wear my glasses, not just when we had our school pictures done, but also when I graduated from high school…
