The Negative Presentation of Women Wearing Glasses in Films

 by Becky Cleary

In the last few months, I have seen an increase in the number of deaf characters on screen, from Only Murders in the Building to Marvel’s new Hawkeye TV series. The appearance of deaf representation is certainly a positive thing, and something that I look forward to being explored in future projects. However, it did get me thinking about the representation of visually impaired people, whatever level that may be on. These TV shows are both available on the Disney Plus streaming service. Also available to watch is The Princess Diaries. When I was younger, I vaguely enjoyed the concept of the film; a regular teenager suddenly finds out that they are a princess and all the drama that it entails. I suppose we all like the idea that we are special, look at Harry Potter, for instance. However, one scene has always made me feel uncomfortable - the makeover scene. 

These montages where a group turn a plain, ‘ugly’ looking girl into an attractive young woman have been a trope in Hollywood films for a while now, with She’s All That and Miss Congeniality following the classic cliche. The Princess Diaries was particularly jarring to watch, as Mia’s glasses are literally snapped in two. Even if she could switch to contact lenses - which is not always the case, as sometimes they do not fit people’s eyes or one just may not fancy the idea of putting something onto their eyeball - it seems highly impractical to break a person’s glasses before they have even gone to find out. I know that it is a film, and thus has a lack of reality that we must accept, but the message that is being sent has always bugged me.

If we dig deeper into this trope, it is easy to find an underlying sexism that is difficult to digest. As far back as 1956, Isaac Asimov’s essay “The Cult of Ignorance” addresses the notion that a female character is “ugly, provided she is wearing glasses”. Asimov notes that this is due to this particular female character being a central figure in the film; she starts ‘plain’ and will eventually blossom into a beautiful woman who the central male figure will now notice and fall for. However, this is ridiculous, as it implies that beauty is somehow inherently linked with the need to wear glasses. I stress the word ‘need’ because glasses were invented to help people see, not as a fashion accessory.

Another trope is that the female best friend will wear glasses, indicating her boring nature and thus the reasoning of why she is not the protagonist of a film. Usually, they are presented as the intelligent, reasonable friend who dissuades the main character from doing something irrational, again feeding into the idea that girls who wear glasses are boring - the female glasses-wearing character stops another from doing something daring or even exciting. Glasses have been linked with the notion of intelligence for a while, why I do not know, and that has fed into popular culture with characters such as Velma in Scooby Doo not necessarily being presented in a negative light, but certainly her main character trait is intelligence, and of course, she is wearing glasses.

That is not to say that this odd assumption does not affect non-glasses wearers. Other tropes include the ‘dumb blonde’, and the assumption that somehow beauty and intelligence simply cannot mix. Furthermore, the idea that being blonde immediately heightens someone’s beauty, which can be seen as detrimental to all hair colours. So, I am not ignoring other issues that relate to female presentation in film, but merely highlighting one aspect that is particularly difficult for me and something that I wish to write about.

Having worn glasses since the age of 3, I have grown up with these assumptions and cliches in film, TV and the world around me. Needless to say, it has been difficult navigating life as I watch films tell me that my lack of perfect vision immediately means that I am ugly, boring, invisible and must be naturally intelligent. Jokes and comments are made about every aspect of every person in life. With 7 billion humans on the planet, it is simply impossible for everyone to agree and not insult each other. So, shrugging off jokes that may cut a little deep is really just a part of life. That, to me, is fine to accept. However, I find a great issue in the film and television industry’s promotion of this image to young and older girls. It creates self-consciousness from a young age about something that is completely out of our control. The time that is devoted to women in particular being ‘improved’ through a montage that includes removing glasses as if perfect sight miraculously appears is honestly shocking. Thus, I really hope, from the examples shown in deaf representation, that a more positive light can be shone on women who wear glasses, so that in the future, girls can see that wearing glasses is not a defining feature, and that it is not something to be ashamed of.

One final note that I would like to end on is that, although in the UK it is a mainly cultural issue, discrimination against glasses wearers has existed. In Pol Pot’s reign, anyone who wore glasses was deemed as intelligent and thus should be murdered. So, these tropes, whether they apply to men or women on a wider scale, can be hugely detrimental to people’s lives.