Why we think what we think: Glasses

Glasses

Peering into our perception

Andrew Tolu

Ask almost any American the first thing that comes to mind regarding glasses and you’ll get a variety of answers ranging from nerd, to smart, to geek, all under the common theme that the media's presentation of people who wear glasses are nerdier than the general populace.

“The very first printed image of somebody wearing a pair of spectacles dates back to 1475, and it's a scholar, or somebody who is educated,” said Neil Handley, the museum curator for the world's oldest optical museum, The British Optical Association Museum at the College of Optometrists in London, and author of the book “Cult Eyewear.”

The original purpose of glasses likely caused the initial association with being smart. That is due to the fact the simplest corrective lenses were those that made it easier to read, meaning that most people who wore glasses were also literate.

Handley, who has been studying the cultural relevance of glasses for over two decades, suggests that popular culture’s representation of glasses and their correlation to intelligence, was done out of a necessity to find a symbol to externally portray an individual's intellect.

“If you wanted to mark out an intellectual in art, the simplest way to depict them was with a pair of glasses, and everybody knew that person was a person who was bookish, educated, and had lots of knowledge,” Handley said.

Over the centuries, glasses have been portrayed as representations of intellect. In recent pop culture, the media centers around nerds. This idea was especially present in the beginning of film, particularly silent films, where character traits relied heavily on external appearance.

One prominent example of this is Harold Lloyd, a famous silent actor who starred in silent films in the 1910s and 20s. Lloyd’s popularization of a character known as the “Glass” character, sometimes referred to as Harold in many of his films, was one of the first occasions where a character sporting glasses became a well known figure.

“Whereas my character was always the boy with the glasses, and whereas he was always fighting odds, fighting the big fellows, still his attitude of thinking was entirely different from one character role to another,” Lloyd said in an interview in 1966.

The idea of a glasses archetype being an underdog and a bookish character has since stuck around in the popular media in large part due to the portrayal of characters like Lloyd’s “Glass” character.

“The media has been extremely influential, if a stereotype exists, and it might begin in a very small way, and then it gets reinforced by constant repetition, that’s the way that people start to view spectacle wearers,” Handley said.

Portrayal in media, however, may not be the only culprit behind the stereotypes surrounding glasses continuation. Many studies have actually shown that people with myopia—or nearsightedness—affecting over 40% of Americans, according to the National Eye Institute, may be more intelligent.

The National Library of Medicine conducted a study on the IQ of individuals and found that people within the highest 25th percentile were twice as likely to be myopic as the general population.

A survey conducted between 19992008 with nearly 20,000 respondents by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found that myopia was also associated with higher rates of education. The survey found that only 16.8% of people with less than a ninth grade education had myopia with 23.5% for a ninth through 11th grade level education, 28.6% for having graduated high school, and 45% for those who had graduated college at a time where roughly 40% of the population has myopia.

In order to understand this, it is essential to know whether myopia is developed through environmental factors, or from genetics. The answer to this is both.

According to the National Library of Medicine, “There are well-established links between myopia and urbanization, lack of time outdoors, reduced light

Art by Glydelle Espano

exposure, socio-economic status, prenatal factors, near work, and educational attainment.”

Myopia is oftentimes linked to a higher intelligence in large part due to the idea that children who spend more time indoors reading and looking at screens are more likely to develop myopia and that people predisposed to myopia are more likely to spend time indoors in the first place, according to the National Eye Institute (NEI).

The NEI also voices that because myopia is frequently accompanied by those who spend more time indoors, children with glasses are seen as nerdier throughout their youth and may also have an intelligence boost as result of the additional reading and productive screen usage.

An intelligence boost, however, is not the only stereotype surrounding glasses. Some have come to view wearing glasses as a sign of weakness due to its association with indoor activities, which has influenced many to hide their seeing impairments, such as Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States.

“It suggests physical weakness, it might suggest sexual impotence, Reagan refused to be shown wearing his glasses because he thought it would be a very negative impression and he didn’t want to be seen as weak. So although he did wear glasses, he was taking them off when the film cameras were around,” Handley said.

Cultural views on glasses like this, have in part contributed to a $10 billion-a-year contact lens industry, according to Fortune Business Insights. The idea that contact lenses have been boosted by the negative connotation glasses have has been backed by multiple studies, such as a children's study conducted by the Ohio State University’s College of Optometry. The study found that children who wore contact lenses rather than glasses were more confident in physical appearance, more sure of their athletic abilities, and felt they were more socially accepted.

“I never really liked the glasses that I wore. I always felt embarrassed or bothered by them, which is something I wanted to change going into middle school,” said Enzo Carvalho Goncalves, a senior and contact wearer at Carlmont.

However, as society evolves over time, so may be its view on glasses.

“I feel like people are moving on to wearing glasses, because I see some people wearing glasses, because I see some people wearing fake glasses. So it’s becoming kind of like a fashion accessory now, especially the people wearing non-prescription glasses,” Carvalho Goncalves said.

Handley chalks this shift up to the fashion industry promoting glasses as another accessory.

“Glasses are now seen as something desirable to wear because it allows you to express yourself, you can express your character and your cultural allegiances,” Handley said.

Handley, however, stresses that stereotypes regarding medical devices like glasses shouldn’t have an impact on people who use the device for health benefits.

“We don’t want there to be this prejudice against people who are simply using a device that wants to help them and can be life changing,” Handley said.