Women with glasses: secretly beautiful or just plain blind?
Is there an actual reason for making nerds out of women who wear glasses?
We all know the typical rom-com trope: girls with glasses, especially in chick-flick style films, are always considered nerdy school characters. Well, they’re nerdy unless they’re old, which often means that they are strict parents or teachers. They are portrayed as outcasts a lot of the time and just very uncool.
I have spent a good hour coming up with all the films I can think of which have this type of character — the nerdy but secretly beautiful. Most of the time though, those apparently nerdy girls whom all the popular girls shun end up being seen without her glasses for the first time by the popular guy, and *gasp* she’s been beautiful all along! And wow! She also suddenly gained the ability to see perfectly! Who would have ever thought it? You don’t even need to look that far to see millions of examples.
Now, as someone who has had glasses since the age of about 7, you can imagine the effect on my self-esteem. My sister was the same and ended up getting contact lenses (though she switched back to glasses after about a year or so.) I didn’t go that far, but I always felt on the edge of everything throughout my school life. Of course, I’ve now realised that the media is not a good representation of anything! People accept that I have awful eyesight and leave it at that!
As a disclaimer, this is an inexhaustive list that I have put together and is primarily about films and TV that I have seen and/or have heard of; there are tons of other examples that, given enough time, anyone could find.
Now, onto the list!
1. Mia Thermopolis — The Princess Diaries (2001)
· She is considered an outcast — a very nerdy girl
· She has very curly, frizzy hair
· She doesn’t act ladylike
· And she has nerdy rectangular glasses!
· Once she gets a makeover, she is suddenly the most beautiful person in the room when her glasses are removed.
2. Taylor Swift — ‘You Belong With Me’ music video (2008); Katy Perry — ‘Last Friday Night’ music video (2010)
· Both music videos where the singers are nerdy and/or outcasts
· They both have glasses — which are removed when they go to their respective parties
· Bonus point — Katy Perry also has braces, which makes her even more of a nerdy outcast
· Both sets of glasses are massive and round
3. Gracie Hart — Miss Congeniality (2001)
· Seen as not pretty at all
· Made to be the opposite of feminine — eats pizza and drinks beer
· Wears masculine-looking clothes all the time
· She has a punching bag in her house, and she is terrific at self-defence
· Thinks make-up and everything ‘pretty’ is pointless
· She has a makeover where the glasses come off! She magically doesn’t need them at all
This whole process can be described as ‘the Superman effect’ — when the character becomes completely different when the glasses come off. The name comes from Superman, who is just plain old Clark Kent when he has glasses; once they come off, he is this fantastic superhero, noticed by anyone and everyone, especially the ladies *wink wink*.
Now, these are just three of the many examples I came across. And of course, I can admit that other characters have glasses for different reasons. There are a lot of female characters who wear glasses because they are smart; Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz and Amy Farrah Fowler from The Big Bang Theory are both doctors and seemingly must have glasses because of that. Of course, we all know that a prerequisite for being smart is having glasses *the biggest eye roll in the world*. Another example is the character Sheila Sazs in Suits. She is a therapist and, of course, must have glasses.
Sometimes this can go slightly wrong, and if a character is intelligent and has glasses, but no fashion sense, then she is delegated to be a lesbian; see Velma Dinkley from Scooby-Doo, with her short hair and turtleneck jumper, and also Enid Hoops from the musical version of Legally Blonde, who is canonically a lesbian. She is also intelligent, has no fashion sense, and of course, has glasses.
I also noticed a few instances where it goes the other way around, and pretty women decide to wear glasses to look smart, such as Kelly Kapoor in the US version of The Office or Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. Both characters are portrayed as ditzy and care more about their looks than how smart they are.
Another use of glasses is to signify the character portrayal of older women. Often, it’s to show strict parents (Penny Pingleton’s mother in Hairspray, and Leonard Hofstadter’s mother in The Big Bang Theory), or strict teachers (Professor Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter, and Rosalie Mullins in School of Rock). All those characters are portrayed as uptight — although I would argue that McGonagall isn’t strict all the time and has a soft spot for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, among many other characters.
I guess you can tell by now how much this annoys me; there is no need to portray characters as nerdy if they just can’t see 2 feet in front of them! Another thing that does not make sense is the tropes of ‘sexy librarian’ or ‘sexy teacher,’ who usually wear glasses. They are often only used as a sexy ‘come hither’ prop by putting one of the arms of the glasses in her mouth. This act would not work for someone like me, as the second my glasses are off, I would not be able to see whom I’m trying to beckon over!
As mentioned above, the Superman effect is used time and time again, not only for female characters. Although I am primarily focusing on female characters for this article, there are many male characters. Male characters with glasses are often viewed as nerds and extremely weird and creepy; examples include Dean Pelton and Garrett Lambert from Community, Moss from The IT Crowd, and Dwight from the US version of The Office. All of those examples are seen as just absolute weirdos. Another way male characters with glasses are portrayed is by making them old; Captain Raymond Holt and Terry Jeffords in Brooklyn 99 have reading glasses simply because they are considered older characters.
Now, I understand that it’s not all bad, and there are exceptions. For example, the new Disney movie Encanto has the main character, Mirabel Madrigal, wearing glasses just because she can’t see. They are only properly referenced once in the entire film, and I think that is progress! They are not made into personality traits. Another example is Edna Mode from The Incredibles.
First and foremost, I think everybody knows that she is an icon. I know she is slightly older, which is a reason to have glasses, but it isn’t made into a personality trait. She is just Edna.
Unfortunately, it is tough to find any other characters, female or otherwise, who wear glasses for no other reason except lousy eyesight. Even if it’s not commented on, based on the type of character wearing them, you can tell they are being used as a personality trait to highlight nerdiness, geekiness, or weirdness. If you think about it, this makes even less sense, seeing as 75% of adults worldwide have to have some sort of vision correction. That’s a lot of people!
I would say my rant is over, but there will never be a time where this trope does not annoy me. Oops. Now, I’ve got to go out and get a makeover which fixes my eyesight completely. Toodle-oo!
