I’m kind of fascinated by how iconic mine have become. I play it up a bit, obviously: I picked a blog banner that conspicuously incorporated them as a graphic element. But they were iconic even before that. I don’t think the designer would have put them into the blog banner if they hadn’t already been iconic. And I’m fascinated — and a little baffled — at the strong reactions they seem to evoke. When it comes to cat-eye glasses, people seem to love them or hate them. I get effusive compliments on mine on a regular basis; I’ve actually been stopped on the street by total strangers telling me they adore my glasses. But I’ve also had total strangers tell me that my glasses are horrible and seriously detract from my appearance. (One guy even emailed me out of the blue to tell me that my glasses made me look like a character in a Gary Larson cartoon. He apparently thought I’d see that as a negative thing.)
They seem to provoke oddly strong feelings. I’m sure there are exceptions — I’m sure there are many people who are entirely neutral on the subject of cat-eye glasses — but a disproportionate number of people seem to either love them or hate them. Some people think they’re the pinnacle of snarky glamour, and even find them totally hot. Others think they’re the total antithesis of glamour and hotness. A fashion item that sucks glamour and hotness right off your face.
What’s that about?
But I have this whole other cockamamie theory about cat-eye glasses. I freely admit that I’m pulling this out of my ass — but I think I might be on to something.
Think about the kinds of women we commonly associate with cat-eye glasses. Librarians. Teachers. Governesses.
My harebrained speculation is this: If you think cat-eye glasses are hot, you’re eroticizing female intelligence and authority.
As fucked-up as it was, the “uglyass librarian” thing was kind of hilarious. For a whole lot of obvious reasons… but also because of the absurdity of the notion that the word “librarian” is an insult. And in particular, because of the absurdity of the notion that the word “librarian” is a self-evident put-down of beauty and sexiness. I’ve known a lot of librarians in my life, and IMNSFHO, they’re disproportionately hotties. Nerdy hotties, to be sure. The best kind.
Smart people fuck better. Intelligence is hot.
And female intelligence is hot in a special way. Female intelligence means defying gender expectations and social norms — and defiance is hot. Female intelligence means being confident in the face of a culture that insists women can’t be smart — and confidence is hot. And female authority is hot for… well, for obvious reasons. Or what I hope are obvious reasons. Female authority is hot when it wears stiletto heels and wields a riding crop… and it’s hot when it wears cat-eye glasses and wields a degree in library science.
But I don’t know. I could be totally talking out of my ass here. Thoughts? What are your associations with cat-eye glasses — and why do you think so many people feel so strongly about them?
I dunno but your theory is as good any any. I think whether they look good or silly depends on the person who is wearing them. They look good on you but they’d look silly on me. You have to have a certain style or attitude which I lack. I don’t care that I lack those things; I’m just not into fashion.
The last time I bought glasses, I wanted something different than the old wire rims but I honestly couldn’t tell what would look better. I asked the clerk for suggestions and ended up with glasses slightly snazzier than my usual but not so snazzy they’d clash with the rest of me.
To be honest I’ve always found glasses to be attractive and I’ve pondered the reason for this a couple of times. My current hypothesis is that it’s down to my upbringing, I grew up in a family of initially four other people my mother and my sister that I got on with both wore glasses for most of my youth, whereas the sister I fought with and my distant dad didn’t. Although we (that or the genes that control poor eyesight) finally won them over and now 100% of my family wears glasses.
Compounded on top of this was the fact I also needed glasses from a very young age (I once had a pair with lenses so thick they wouldn’t close properly), I was naturally excluded from activities that required good eyesight and the only sport played is called hurling, which is considered one of the fastest moving sports in the world and involves a small white ball, and so associated more with people who were similarly constrained and was bullied by kids who were in the groups I couldn’t be a part of.
For me, I think, all this adds up to having an innately more trusting disposition to people who wear glasses than to those that don’t. And this, of course, extends naturally to women. Just my two cents on the matter.
For what it’s worth (nothing), I don’t like that style of glasses at all. And I’m a reasonably intelligent middle-aged woman.
I remember my mother (and photos of my mother-in-law from that time), wearing them in the 50’s. I thought they were ugly then, and I still think they’re ugly. I don’t associate them with intelligence, or stupidity, or any certain job classification. I look at them like I look at the 50’s cars with out-sized fins that threatened to slash anyone walking too close to them – silly, and way out of proportion.
However, to each her own. I’m sure my daughter thinks my trapezoidal wire-rims are ugly, too.
I’ve never seen you with anything other than cat-eye glasses so it would be hard to say, but whether or not one likes or dislikes cat-eye glasses in general may not be as relevant as asking, “how well does this style of eye wear compliment your features?” I have a friend who always wore wire-rimless glasses and looked smashing and then they switched to dark, thick frames and came off looking rather frumpy. The singer Nana Mouskouri might be a good example. Trademark frames that complimented her face and made her visually memorable. I think that these frames suite you nicely and compliment your style, although it would be interesting though to see you with different rims. To further the research, a possibly fun idea: You could have a “Put the frames on Greta” competition for those versed in Photoshop or if you’re willing to do some modeling the next time you visit “Frames Are Us”.
My grade school chum’s mom who was a piano teacher wore that type of frame and I thought it looked pretty cool on her. But I don’t recall being influenced on her intelligence or authority. Perhaps, if she had worn round, dark-rimmed frames it might have left a different impression.
You are exactly right, in my case. Library fantasies with cat’s eyeglasses wearing older librarians dominated my thoughts while maturing (and still are important) and young adulthood. It IS the appeal of books, authority, and a type of nerdiness I find wildly attractive!
“you’re eroticizing female intelligence and authority”.
Yes, I am, but the glasses are as nothing next to believing based on experience that the female actually is intelligent, or incredibly intelligent. You have biased me.
I was thinking during your original post, “why is there a negative association with being a librarian?” And “how come the librarian stereotype is always a woman?” Sexism, of course, on both counts.
I like the cat’s eye look, but they’re not flattering on me. Of course, I have a hard time with fashion. I need the spousal unit as a sounding board when I get new frames. Otherwise I wind up with something generic and unflattering. But I absolutely know to avoid cat’s eye frames.
Though I’m pretty indifferent to cat-eye glasses specifically, I’ve always loved glasses on women in general, and I think it is exactly as you say; the cultural association (silly as it is) between glasses and intelligence.
My wife wears glasses. My girlfriend. Virtually all of my major crushes over the years. All incredibly smart. Now that I think about it, it’s been very consistent.
I’d come at it a slightly different way, actually; I think most other forms of eyewear are intended to be relatively utilitarian or unobtrusive, with a shape people think matches their looks. Cats Eye glasses are one of the few forms of eyewear which intentionally call attention to themselves; they have a distinct shape which stands out, regardless of who wears them.
The stigma of wearing glasses is less these days, but I still know a lot of folks who don’t wear any when they really should be, because it makes them feel “old” or “nerdy”, depending on the needs.
So while I think you’re absolutely correct in that people are polarized by the “Old Fashioned” and “Intellectual”, I think Cats Eye glasses spark this more than other forms of eyewear because they are bold and expressive, so there’s the added societal discomfort about women standing out and drawing attention to themselves that they provoke.
IMHO, YMMV and various other abbreviated disclaimers of course.
When I was a young guy in the military I broke my glasses in Boot Camp and was issued a pair of the thick black frames called BC (for Birth Control). One I got out, I found that the Buddy Holly look was amazingly successful for me; to my surprise many women found the unabashedly nerdy look sexy. I think that played off a similar vibe.
It doesn’t really work with an older male face though, or not mine anyway. I’m now going for a more Giles the librarian look – hey, there have to be some Buffy fans out there, right?
These glasses evoke in me strong emotions which I do not understand! I shall express them to you!
I definitely associate them with librarians/governesses/other historically badass, nerdy ladies, but I don’t really have a strong opinion on them either way. In general, though, features or items of clothing that stand out as unique are more often a good thing than not, and your iconic glasses are pretty awesome, Greta.
I suspect that I would automatically tend to think them an affectation on another woman my own age (I’m 24), which kinda bothers me. I guess it’s due to the cultural association with older women that they have?
Now I want to know some young women who wear them so I can re-wire that association.
Hey Christina,
For me, the cat eye glasses evoke images of my paternal grandmother, who I dearly loved, but (fortunately for me) not in an erotic way. So, no hotness implied. On the other hand, my wife has started to wear her nerdy glasses more, instead of her contacts, and that gets my attention.
As far a librarians, my first thoughts ran to 19 year old Shirley Jones, as (Madam Librarian) Marian Paroo, in The Music Man.
The cat’s-eye glasses are at least better than the enormous lenses women (including my wife) were wearing 20 years ago, and even better yet than the little slit glasses the fashion folks were pushing around five years ago. You know the ones — lenses only 1/2 inch high.
But why are they called “cat’s eye” glasses? My cats’ eyes don’t look like that. Not that I can see them right now as both are sleeping. Your cats’ eyes don’t look like that either — see previous post.
I’ve always hated cat-eye glasses, which really makes no sense, as I love quite a broad selection of vintage plastic frames (have never quite dared to order any, though…I can’t get the knack of measuring my face!) I don’t know what it is, exactly, if it’s the style, or if it’s just that they tend to be glammed up and over-blinged to often. But I hate them. Nothing to do with sexy or non-sexy, confident or not-confident, nerdy or not-nerdy or what have you.
My most memorable teacher in glasses wore those horrifically ugly half-frame things that she could glare at her students over. If you were paying attention though, you could usually catch a twinkle in her eye through the glare. That was what…second grade, I think.
“Smart people fuck better.”
Best. Sentence. EVAR!
For me it’s more glasses in general, but yes it’s the same thing. It’s thinking that intelligence is sexy. Because it is.
I’m in the camp that hates the glasses. They look terrible on most face shapes. Just awful. They’re so gaudy that they detract from eyes.
Other than that, I think what I hate about them the most is the no-options 50s conformity they represent. That was just about all anyone had to choose from then for their frames, so everybody who wore glasses wore that style. It was like forcing one group of people to be a bunch of clones.
Creeps me out. When I see people wearing them, I wonder if they think that mindless conformity is cool. Because that’s what the cat’s eye glasses scream to me.
They always make me think of the Pink Ladies from Grease. I’ve never associated them with particularly smart or powerful women.
Kinda a derail but, um,
I don’t find intelligence sexy. A warm personality, a willingness to be open and intimate, a love of excitement and the world, a desire and passion to know and understand more, a quirky sense of style and humor, those things are sexy to me.
The ability to solve math problems, recite Shakespeare or rattle off the names of every Senator… yeah not so much.
You had a choice?!
We had to wear those gawdawful things with the fucking brainstrap that made it cut into your ears. The worst injury I got at Parris Island wasn’t from almost falling off the rappel tower or from body hardening. It was the centimeter deep gash those fucking things made in my left ear.
Fuck BCG’s.
My wife wore light pink cat-eye glasses when we first met, and they were an essential part of her drop-dead, sexy look, which included dark hair, bangs, and a euro wardrobe. They don’t work on everyone, or with every look, but if you already rock a bit of a funky look, they can be an awesome complement. Not sure I can answer the why generally, but for me, they signaled a confidence to do something just a little out-of-the-box, which spoke of a confidence and lack of self-consciousness that I found hot.
I’ve never dressed for anyone but myself. I think cat-eye glasses are super hot. I’ve been looking for the right pair for myself for some time.
I think the reason you get an extreme reaction is that they’re an extreme statement. They’re an obvious anachronism, and often considered a little over the top, but I think for people who want to be over the top (and I mean this in the best possible way, I envy the HELL out of people who can pull that off), they are a wonderful statement. I also think that the women in power thing has been distorted a little to the delusion that women are either A: having sex and being submissive wives or B: refusing to have sex and therefore having no interest in sex. So the vision of powerful women in glasses who refuse to submit to sexual relations are considered to not have any sexual ambition at all (women wanting sexual power?! BLASPHEMY!) So there’s another good reason you should keep wearing those horn rims, because you are sexually powerful 🙂 (the word dynamo may come to mind…)
Personally, I’m more of a horn-rims girl, but I think they work for you.
I am with judykomorita @3 and Aquaria @18. I just don’t like those glasses on anyone.
I also detest tattoos on ether sex and piercings, other than for one set of earrings.
To sum it up, for me the human body has its own attractions and ‘enhancing’ it with ‘fashion’ is a turn off.
Just my opinion, it is worth what you paid for it 😉
I really haven’t thought of eye glasses that much. It seems more to do the person that wears a style of glasses that makes it sexy. Didn’t M. Monroe wear cat eye glasses in “How To Marry A Millionaire”? Wearing cat eye glasses would be anti-conformist in the present day when fashion glasses change yearly.
At some point during my childhood and my dear departed mother’s many years as a myopia sufferer, she had a pair of cat-eye glasses. I can picture them in my mind’s eye. Maybe a lot of baby boomers’ moms had a pair of cat-eye glasses at one time or another and for those that find them unattractive or in some other way unappealing, it’s due to some unresolved mommy issues said glasses bring up for them. :-p
Well, since we’re musing over our ideas on the fashion of cat eye glasses I may as well share mine…
I suppose I generally dislike them. It’s not that strong. But most any glasses with thick frames I think I tend to associate with the ’50s or otherwise obsolete and clunky. So it’s rare that I find glasses of that sort looking good on someone, by my personal tastes.
On the other hand, there are other kinds of glasses I most definitely associate with intelligence, even if I know better intellectually, and generally find quite hot. There’s always some degree of whether they fit with the rest of the outfit/look, though.
This is of noted interest at the moment because I really need to get an appointment to get my first pair of glasses soon. Eyesight is starting to noticeably go.
julian: the BC glasses were obligatory in my boot camp too. I kept wearing them afterward at first because I’d broken my civilian pair (this was before the advent of one-hour opticians), and then because, well, they were getting me laid.
I used to have a girlfriend who wore plain black cats-eye glasses (http://www.fun-shop.com/show_image.php?im=/img/09/51370.jpg&size=300), with Bettie Page-style hair, pouty red lips and a dominatrix-style fashion sense. It worked on her, very well.
My co-worker also wears a much more toned-down pair of glasses with a mild cats-eye shape. She’s a young woman, and one would probably describe her style as ‘hipster.’ They work on her – they suit her face, but aren’t very attention-grabbing.
The don’t work on me. I’ve been attracted to them on the shelves because they sorta seem like they ought to give you the same kind of look as wearing gothic/egyptian-style black eyeliner – but somehow, they don’t. They just don’t flatter my face shape.
I don’t really associate them with intelligence, nerdiness, or anything else.
As far as Greta’s glases – I’m not a big fan, but I’m not horribly offended by them either, and would never have felt the need to comment if this blog post had not occurred!
Glasses do not do anything for me. They do not signal “intelligence” or “authority” to me. Perhaps because I know more people than I want with glasses who are exasperatingly dumb and whose claims to authority I am not impressed with either.
I am wearing rimless glasses myself only because I do not like thick edges in my field of view. My glasses are not cheap which I find odd, since after all there is less material involved in making them. When photographing I sometimes wear disposable contact lenses, which allow me to press my eye to the viewfinder a lot better. I can only wear those contacts for a few hours before they start to annoy me.
Others with contact lenses, I see them fiddling with eye drops and all sorts of stuff. “No I can’t take them out, I would have to wear my GLASSES.” The horror.
The “cateye glasses”, sorry, I think are also just silly. Of course everyone has the right to be as silly as they want. When I say it is silly, I don’t mean it is either good or bad. I do not have an opinion.
I am with Bob, above, on piercings and tattoos and I would also add all sorts of make-up to that list and ridiculous “hair styling”, as well as high heeled shoes and other impractical items of fashion.
I do find these posts on fashion fascinating. It is like an insight into the minds of aliens from another planet to me. All the ideas and emotions that people seem to attach to fashion, it astounds me.
I’d like to be the first on the thread to pound the table and holler at the top of my lungs that I have no strong feelings on this question. I find “cat-eye” glasses to be neither particularly sexy nor ugly, bad nor good, “intelligent”-looking nor stupid-looking. I get the retro angle, and maybe even the librarian one, but I don’t associate either of those qualities with sexiness or anti-sexiness. I am adamantly neither enticed nor put off by such glasses. So there!
I’m pretty much in the “Neutral” camp in general. All depends on how they fit one’s face. Yours work on you (but I seem to recall that rimless worked pretty well for you, too).
Well, oddly, the cat-eye glasses don’t actually invoke a positive or negative reaction from me. They do, however–and I wasn’t going to say this, but since you ask–remind me of my great-grandmother, who wore them.
She was a tough old lady, btw, and didn’t take sh** from people.
I think Laura-Ray hit the nail on the head: they’re an extremely stylized, bold design, and those don’t tend to leave people lukewarm. It’s the same reason why most people either love or hate metal music, I expect, or Chuck Palahniuk novels. Cat-eyes fall way outside what I like in glasses, personally. But so does dubstep. *shrugs*
My first pair of eyeglasses, acquired at age 5 in 1964, were cat’s-eye glasses. I hated them. They were bottlecaps (I’ve always been extremely nearsighted), they were heavy, and they were embarrassing in the schoolyard.
Just the sight of the glasses on someone else brings up the bad memories — and that was a long time ago.
For most of my adult life, I’ve worn some variation of rounded square, plastic frames; my prescription is too strong to be set in wire-rim frames. The squared-off-round works well with my face. Getting the damn things to fit right, not slide enthusiastically off my nose, and not catch my eyelashes is a challenge. Getting three pairs of glasses in the same frame style in at least two different colors is a real challenge, but I need them (progressives optimized for distance and reading in both clear and sunglasses, and progressives optimized for computer work and reading).
Accursed eyes! At least they still sort of work.
Straight dude here…
“If you think cat-eye glasses are hot, you’re eroticizing female intelligence and authority.”
Yup
“Intelligence is hot.”
Proof: Tina Fey or Sarah Palin? Who is hotter?
My feelings on cat-eye glasses are really, really mixed. I own a pair (they were on sale) and I feel absurd when I wear them, but sometimes it’s a kind of absurd that’s fun. “Over the top” is precisely it. I feel like I should also be smoking a cigarette from a long holder, having a british accent, and calling people dahling. Oddly enough, when I see photos of myself in the glasses, I just look… kindof hot. But I still can’t bring myself to wear them unless I’m having a Diva day.
Also a question, Greta: I finally got around to watching the Skepticon videos, and OMG I LOVE YOUR DRESS!!! What an interesting design. What does it look like in back? I just desperately need to know whether that pleating on the skirt is carried around to the back, and if so, how.
A few pairs of glasses I currently wear and one backup pair are modern cat-eye styles. They just fit my face shape better than very round or very square ones. It wasn’t a conscious choice to get cat-eyes. However, in a junk drawer at my parents’ house is an old pair of my mom’s cat-eyes from the 50’s that I covet. They have the little rhinestones in the corners and everything. Some day I’ll talk her into letting me take them and put my lenses in them. My dad also has his Buddy Holly/birth control glasses from his old Army days in the same junk drawer. As kids we used to laugh at them because they are so ugly.
I don’t think the cat-eyes are necessarily “smart” or “sexy.” I like them because they’re cute and retro.
I personally love cat’s-eye glasses. My sister used to wear ’em when she was little. What I can’t get over is someone thinking it’s okay to tell you, opinion unsolicited, that they’re ugly. I shakes my head…
I find them a bit intimidating and threatening, probably due to some adverse childhood experiences involving cruel women authority figures who wore them. They trigger my hypervigilance. The effect is worse if I see them hanging around a woman’s neck from one of those chains attached to the legs. Some things are hard to get over.
BTW Greta, I really enjoyed the video of your angry atheists talk.
I admit I have a visceral hatred of them, I think because my mum had a pair when I was very young. She didn’t wear glasses very often and I thought she looked terrible in them, but also I think they changed her face so much that she didn’t even look familiar in them, which as a kid of 3 or 4 I found quite scary.
Also, when I see them now I can’t help thinking of Dame Edna Everage.
I think the first time I ever saw them was on Dame Edna Everage. And I’ve never seen anyone I know in ‘real life’ (hate that phrase, but ‘meatspace’ is even worse) so that, and Farside cartoons, are the only associations I have for them – so for me, they’re definitely not attractive.
I mostly like the glasses. Although I am old enough to remember when my older aunts wore them in the 1970s, which made these aunts majorly unfashionable, I currently associate these types of glasses with young hipster women.
Cats-eye glasses also featured heavily in the works of Gary Larson. I’m a huge fan of The Far Side, but I never absorbed anything negative about them.
Besides, they’re not my glasses. I never really think that much about other people’s glasses. I have invested some effort in making sure mine are fashionable, though.
Not attractive. Rachel Maddow’s narrow rectangular horn rims are much better.
I love cat eye glasses. They are really good for people with square faces, in my opinion. They also go well with strong features.
In the 50’s opticals didn’t have quite the variety they do now. There was a particular cat-eye called “Marcia” that many many people wore, sometimes due to lack of choices. Consider pictures of men wearing glasses from that era. There was a lot of repetition there too.
Cat-eye glasses can be an acquired taste, they grow on you until they look good, I must say that in the beginning your specs threw me off but now I think they add a certain amount of quirkiness and (visual) quirk is important.
This from a male who is scolded each time he tries to shave off his sideburns…
Also, one time I saw Celia Cruz in the airport. She was sorta doing that celebrity incognito thing where she didn’t want attention.
But she wasn’t pulling it off very well. In addition to being tall and wearing a turban, she had on huge cat eye sunglasses indoors with rhinestones. I see you, Celia!
Being compared to a Gary Larson cartoon? How awesome is that!
I think the glasses transport one back in time a little. We associate the glasses with the people we saw wearing them during that time period. For example, I was born in the late 60’s, so my first experience with cat eye glasses were my grandmothers, great aunts, maybe some teachers. Or looking back at older photos of relatives. When I was much younger, it seemed horribly old fashioned. Now, I LOVE it. I think they are way cool and that you rock them.
My theory is that the glass can be off-putting because they make the wearer look like she (or he) is frowning. The heavy top frame (as in a pair like Greta’s) stands in for your eyebrows and curves down toward the bridge of your nose, like your eyebrows do when you frown. Therefore, people wearing this style of eyewear look serious or stern or angry.
I think they work on some people, with certain face shapes or hair cuts or facial expressions, and not on others. As with any clothing, I think a lot of whether it will work has to do with your attitude, as well.
My 90 year old mother has been wearing cat’s eye glasses since the late 1940s. When I see that style I’m immediately reminded of my mother. This is a good thing, since my mother is totally awesome.
Count me as another neutral re: cat-eye glasses, but I’ll agree with fullyladenswallow that the question of whether a particular pair of glasses is sexy depends very much on whether they suit the person wearing them. Your glasses work on you, Greta, but they would not, for example, work on my wife, and Ghu knows it’s not like she’s not intelligent.
But then it comes to your assertion that “smart people fuck better,” I have to express full agreement; looking back over my (admittedly limited) selection of sexual partners, the sex has always been better the more intelligent my partner was.
Greta, this is OT but I have to say:
I just finished listening to your Skepticon 3 speech and I am… thrilled. I want to flail but that would be silly, except…..
*flail (sorry, couldn’t help myself)
Seriously, The text, the presentation, all of it was marvelous. I have thought you were an excellent writer for a long time now, but that speech was so impressive. It was one of the most overwhelmingly humane things I’ve ever heard.
Hm. I don’t like cat-eye glasses. Mostly not for the reasons you suggested. One reason is related but not strictly identical to the “old-fashioned” issue. To me, they look not just old-fashioned but old. Think of it as a “dress your age” kind of thing. When I was growing up, most of the women wearing those glasses were older than my grandparents. The younger a person is wearing cat-eye frames, the more off it seems to me.
The other reason is just that I prefer subtle glasses. I like frames that aren’t terribly prominent and smallish lenses. Unless one doesn’t have much of a choice, I don’t understand calling so much attention to the fact that one is wearing glasses. I find it more than a bit silly.
Yes, the kind of people I associate with cat-eye glasses aren’t any of those you listed. They’re frumpy grandmothers. Especially those who didn’t seek to try anything new. Those people and younger ones who want to emphasize that they’re different and special, oddly enough by imitating much older people who were set in their ways. I don’t get it.
I have my own theory pulled directly from my ass
Cat-eye glasses are unusual, they are noticeble and stick in your mind when remembering someone in a way that, for example, grey pants do not. Also because people who wear them often do so every day
Because of this, people who have a childhood experience with someone who wears them will, in my opinion, will associate cat-eyed glasses with said person.
Did you have a bitch librarian that you hated as a kid wearing cat-eyed glasses? AGH I hate those glasses they’re ugly and I have a visceral reaction of “bitter old bitty” whenever I see them.
Did you have a super fun aunt that brought you out and let you do stuff your mother wouldnt who wore cat-eyed glasses? OH I LOVE them they’re kitchy and retro in a cool cool way.
For what it’s worth, that’s my idea
On behalf of all glasses users I apologize for making you recoil in disgust whenever spectacle-wearing people like me intrude upon your personal space. The nerve of some people, disregarding your tender sensibilities for the sake of being able to see well.
I adore them, and occasionally half-think about going back to them. I think you might have a point there with the female intelligence aspect of them, barring some people’s personal experiences with them.
Also, well-said ‘Tis Himself. How very dare we want to see well in public and not conceal our revolting personal failure.
I’m a lesbian with a degree in library science and find female intelligence and dominance plenty hot, but I don’t like cat’s-eye glasses and never have. My best guess is that I associate them less with female intelligence and dominance and more with being old-fashioned, and I’ve never been a fan of retro fashions. I wear glasses, but I prefer more minimalistic frames, which matches my general taste in fashion: subtle and understated. (Unlike Greta, I like modern jewelry and prefer small pieces.) I’ve been thinking about moving to oval frames the next time I purchase new ones.
We had to wear those gawdawful things with the fucking brainstrap that made it cut into your ears. The worst injury I got at Parris Island wasn’t from almost falling off the rappel tower or from body hardening. It was the centimeter deep gash those fucking things made in my left ear.
Fuck BCG’s.
I had to wear them in basic, too.
I’d been able to stand the TIs yelling in my face, putting me in that ugly-ass green that made me look like I had hepatitis, calling all of us females “Ugly hags,” “brazen-ass hussies” and “fucking idiots”, marching around in circles all over Lackland AFB in July to do bullshit paperwork (all that USAF basic was back then), the weird hours, the bad food, drinking all that water, the eye-opening experience of having to deal with women 24/7 in large groups, of feeling like I was 8 years old and living at home again with my mother telling me what to do, how to do it, when to do it, where to do it, how fast to do it, what to wear, what to say, what to think–and NO ARGUMENTS!–
I could handle any of it, and even find amusement in it. It helped that I was 24 when I went in, so that I knew what the TIs were doing and why enough that it didn’t touch me, down deep, or bother me. I could shrug it all off.
Until I got those ugly damned glasses. That broke me. As soon as they were handed to me and I was told to take off my contact lenses and put on those ugly damned things–
I broke into a billion pieces. I went into a stall and cried and cried and cried. The very idea of having to wear something that ugly, that hideous… I was so pissed I couldn’t breathe. But I had to suck it up and wear them anyway.
There I was, wearing those glasses. Me, the woman who had checked into Lackland wearing a Mugler two piece and Gucci slingbacks.
“Smart people fuck better. Intelligence is hot.”
Correct. I am happy to be sapiosexual (yes, that is a word). And I am engaged to a librarian.
Maybe late to the thread but here goes with two anecdotes that may or may not be data points:
1) Back when folks got their pr0n on with VHS cassettes, I managed a rentals place and among our – erm- adult inventory were themed videos that included ones of gals doin’ their thang while wearing glasses, and not the super-sleek Andrew Blake sunglasses after dark type videos, either. Just regular eye-glasses, of various styles and in various scenarios; schoolgirl, teacher, sexy librarian, executive etc. This was well before nerd culture was a Thing.
2) One a more personal note: there was a TV ad campaign (for cell phones I think?) featuring various hip-hop stars and the conceit was that without product X these folks you know and love would have taken very different career paths. Any-hoo, the one with Eve had her ending up as a ballet instructor, complete with hair pulled severely back, sporting cat’s-eye glasses and barking instructions in Russian. Well! For whatever confluence of archetypes and upbringing, this was a definite I’ll-be-in-my-bunk moment for me.
The funny thing is, I remember that, but I’m damned if I can recollect the product advertised…
Oh and in re Buddy Holly – guitar hero Hank Marvin of the British 1960s instro group The Shadows rocked the nerd look, to the point that one of their records was entitled SPEX APPEAL
http://www.israbox.com/1146313999-the-shadows-shadows-are-go-1996.html
Heh
Glasses are a fun kink but there’s no real umbrella for them in porn (from what I’ve seen at least). You got your super strict sexy librarian, your bespectacled nerd girl who giggles the whole time, you got your school girl with glasses and braces ectectect
Honestly, from my very limited view, it looks like porn just trying to fulfill the fantasies the writer’s had of girls and women they knew growing up.
I love them but haven’t been able to find any lately when I’ve needed to get new glasses. I wore blue rimmed cat eyes when I was 5 and would really like to have a pair again.
Me too. Also Mary Whitehouse, deceased British Christian anti-sex campaigner, although she didn’t always wear that style. Possibly Dame Edna copied them from her. Either way, about as erotic as cold, lumpy mashed potato. Without butter. (OK, OK, I’m sure someone gets off on that!)
I dunno. Cold, lumpy mashed potatoes *without butter* might even defeat Rule 34.
I love glasses, and I find intelligence and confidence a big turn-on. A woman telling me I’m talking out of my ass and backing it up is one of my things. But cat-eye glasses really aren’t my thing. I’m not fond of any big-frame glasses set-up.
Part of it is that I’m very big on eye contact. Rather than accentuating the eyes, they draw attention away from them. It’s kind of like a scar that way; I feel like I’m being rude because it keeps catching my eye, and that puts me off-balance and makes me feel faintly awkward in the conversation. And since I don’t find them visually attractive, there’s the additional awkward factor there. The person wearing them probably likes them, and you know it’s strictly a matter of preference, but there’s still the niggling little voice in your head that says, “Don’t they know those are kind of ugly?”
To me, they scream Dame Edna Everage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dame_Edna_Everage), so they’re tied to a somewhat offensive parody of fifties womanhood. I can’t recall ever meeting anyone who wears them in person.
Hmm I have mixed feeling. On the whole I don’t like cat-eye glasses for what I think are purely aesthetic reasons. I prefer gentle round shapes to severe angular ones in general. But I have a strong appreciation for both playful anachronism and snarky confidence, which I also agree are evoked by the cat-eye glasses. So I am still happy to see others wearing them, even if I would never choose them for myself. I think it’s interesting that your post and most of the comments seem to ignore simple aesthetics.
I love these fashion posts by the way! I have very strong tastes but have never really thought about why and your light-hearted dissections are a lot of fun.
When I was a child, I thought they were hideous (but that was in the 80s, so of course the styles I thought were normal were very different). I have since learned to appreciate them and I think they look amazing on some people and distracting or cartoon-ish on others. I dare to think I look rather attractive in them, but they are so bold that they would often clash with my clothes. I usually end up choosing glasses that are bland and versatile, amping up the makeup and clothes if I want to get fancy.
Okay, I’m solidly sapiosexual, so librarians with all that knowledge at their fingertips? The very f*ing definition of hotness.
That doesn’t mean I’m immune to the retro-riot grrrl-thrift store-chic look, though I don’t think that everyone who tries it pulls it off. But there are definitely times when the cat-eye glasses contribute to making the look work -and then they are hot in that additional way.
So, I vote for conditional innate hotness, but unconditional hotness of amazing magnitude by virtue of association with librarians. mmmmmm, librarians.
But since you bring up the multiplicative layers of retro, I feel the need to warn you:
html fail, sorry:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-dept-of-retro-warns-we-may-be-running-out-of-pa,873/