Maybe You Just Have To Get Used To It (Feb, 1940)
Filed under: Personal Appearance — @ 11:16 pm
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1940
| Buy on Ebay
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1940
| Buy on Ebay
This attitude had passed by the sixties: Men Do Make Passes at Girls Who Wear Glasses
Maybe You Just Have To Get Used To It
NO, THE ladies aren’t going to a masquerade. They are just demonstrating what the glasses of tomorrow may look like. New York fashion experts claim that glasses can be a beauty and fashion aid if properly accented with clothes, hats, coiffure and make-up. We’re a mechanix magazine and not supposed to know much about these things, but if the girl of tomorrow is going to wear these goggles, we are all for the girl of today.
My mother grew up in the 30s and wore glasses. According to her, it was almost a sin for a young woman to wear glasses on the street. The young woman who did so would be thought of as either a “pinch-mouthed man-hater” (her words) or a slob. Real, feminine women carried around their glasses, only taking them out to read and spending the rest of their lives half-blind.
She thought it was strange; men would sneer at the “vanity” of women who wouldn’t wear their glasses, but they’d be viciously cruel to girls who did wear glasses in public.
Comment by Charlene — February 18, 2009 @ 8:05 am
The 1930’s stereotype of men who wore glasses was nearly as harsh: foolishly intellectual (the origins of the nerd stereotype) with strong overtones of effeminacy and homosexuality. There’s a weird anti-eyeglass ideology for both men and women that is still alive today. A few years ago, a male friend of was having difficulty seeing road signs and other distant objects. I’ve worn glasses since I was 8 and I immediately advised him to get his eyes checked. He didn’t want to, saying that his mother had always told him that poor vision was caused by “weak” eyes. He believed that if he started wearing glasses, his eyes would become dependent on this “crutch,” eventually ruining his vision entirely, while continuing to squint myopically at the world would somehow “strengthen” his eyes. This guy has a PhD in physics, by the way.
Comment by Jerry — February 18, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
This attitude had passed by the sixties: http://blog.modernmechanix.com.....r-glasses/
Comment by Charlie — February 18, 2009 @ 12:34 pm
This attitude is still with us. The attorney for whom I work won’t wear his bifocals even when he’s reading because he thinks it’ll make him look old. (Unlike using his magnifying glass and/or squinting at the page from inches away…) The funny thing is that I’m four years older than he is (60) wear trifocals, and people still think I’m at least ten years younger than he. Vanity, oh vanity…
Regarding the story itself, those glasses were a vast improvement over the previous round lenses that had been standard fare for many years. It’s much easier to get people to wear them when they’re attractive instead of ugly.
Comment by Eliyahu — February 18, 2009 @ 6:20 pm
Forget the glasses, its the unnaturally dark colored lips and wierd hats that put me off. And another thing, I swear the one in the middle is a guy.
Comment by John M. Hanna — February 18, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
Guys don’t make passes and gals who wear glasses.
Comment by Mike — February 18, 2009 @ 8:43 pm
And = at
Comment by Mike — February 18, 2009 @ 8:43 pm
Haven’t you seen How to Marry a Millionare?
Comment by katey — February 18, 2009 @ 10:10 pm
In 1940, those were the glasses of the future. By 1960, they were the glasses of the present. In the 1980s, they were the funny old glasses your grandma kept as spares. Now, they’re almost too retro to be retro.
Comment by nlpnt — February 18, 2009 @ 11:01 pm
When I was studying ASL I learned that even today there is a similar bigotry such as Charlene mentions toward people wearing hearing aids and other prosthetics. I had never even considered it but after learning of it I have observed it distressingly often.
Comment by StanFlouride — February 19, 2009 @ 1:14 am