Seeing through Glasses Clearly

Foxtrot, Agnes, Peanuts, Awkward Yeti, and Dilbert remixed by Ryan Cottam

Glasses. They are one of those things in society has many, many conflicting stereotypes and attitudes towards. Often in media, characters wearing glasses are nerds, awkward, smart, something to laugh at, a sign of being an outcast, etc. What it means can sometimes be determined by the shape of the glasses; big round ones for the awkward outcast, slim rectangular ones for the fashionable nerd, etc. In short, they have become a shorthand for different personality traits in media, especially in comics, mangas, graphic novels, etc.

In real life, for those who don’t wear them, they seem to be a thing of fascination, like crutches for those without a leg injury and who have never had them. They use deriding nicknames such as four-eyes and make jokes about wearing them. While it is true that these things are most often concentrated in grade school, they are not wholly confined there. They assume that glasses are a great thing to have as safety goggles (they are worthless as such). Most often, the only time the mandatory wearers of glasses are not derided (regarding glasses) is when there is a misconception, like safety goggles, that they can use to say that glasses wearers are lucky, as reason to be jealous of. A wearer of glasses complains about glasses, and their reply is: but you are lucky though, they double as safety glasses! (they don’t) At the same time as this, people will go and buy fake glasses as fashion accessories. Truly an odd dichotomy in society.

I hate having glasses. I view my poor vision as a mild disability. Corrective lenses of any sort are a nuisance, and a pain. Something that those with perfect vision could never understand. As much as I hate them with all my heart, these things are a part of my identity, and I want people to understand them better. Glasses, and by extension, vision issues are not something to be mocked, and you sound silly and rude when you do it. While the accessorizing of glasses assists in their normalizing, if gives those who wear “fake” glasses a false sense that they know the struggles of having glasses. Perhaps it shouldn’t hurt. Maybe it shouldn’t be a cause for offense. But to me, using “fake” glasses, feel like a mockery of the pain of having to use them for real.

In this remix of comics, I took comics featuring characters with glasses, and tried to fit a fraction of the ignorant and stereotypical things I hear and see regarding glasses into them. I could have made this far longer. In some small this, this remix is activism for understanding. It is a revealing of a portion of my identity that I hate. Keep in mind, that I do not say that all of these comic artists are guilty of these offenses, however, it contextualizes the issue in terms of the media that seems to perpetuate rather than counter the issue.