Eyeglass Wearers on Television : Girls DO Make Passes
I wear glasses, and I love them. I’ve always resented the image in movies or tv of girls and women who suddenly become more attractive when they whip off their glasses. And, I’ve found glasses to be very attractive on men. I like the studious look they give them. Of course, a man has to be attractive to begin with. On television, the stereotype of the glasses wearing nerd was perpetuated. But, one day, a handsome man wore glasses.
Fox Mulder, of The X-Files. I can’t say that he was the first good looking man (and more importantly, the first to be portrayed as good looking) but he was the first I had seen in prime time. And, I found out I wasn’t alone. There was a website for people who loved his glasses. After Fox Mulder came Sam Seaborn of The West Wing. Rob Lowe is a very attractive man, but I think he looks even better with glasses.
And, finally, Daniel Jackson of Stargate SG1. All these men wore glasses. Fox Mulder and Sam Seaborn seemed to wear them only for reading, but Daniel Jackson wore them almost all the time. Probably playing into the stereotype, but they were all very intelligent men. However, they weren’t written as unattractive or nerds. At least not the stereoptical kind. And, when I looked around the internet, I found I wasn’t alone in appreciating these glasses wearing men.
But, I noticed a disturbing trend. Gradually, the characters began to wear their glasses less and less. When they started dressing Mulder in expensive suits and making references to him being the ideal male figure, he seemed to stop wearing the glasses altogether. It seemed like eyeglasses didn’t fit the new image of the character. Interestingly, his partner Dana Scully also wore reading glasses in the early days, but she soon stopped as well.
Sam Seaborn’s glasses left the White House before the character left the show. So far, the character of Daniel Jackson still wears his glasses, although I find it a source of frustrating amusement to see how they can manage to have him remove them for chunks of, and sometimes entire episodes. I wonder if he wears his glasses less than he did because the actor has gotten a bit more muscular.
Perhaps people don’t think the glasses go with someone like that. Maybe the people behind the scenes realized that women find him attractive, and they feel he would be even more attractive without the glasses. Well, I have to say that this woman doesn’t think so. I’m only glad that he still does continue to wear them, even if he doesn’t do it as much as I’d like.
The right glasses don’t take away from a person’s attractiveness. They accentuate it. They give the person a look of intelligence and studiousness. If the characters actually possess these qualities, so much the better.
