Bill Harvey: Glasses half full

‘Men seldom make passes, At girls who wear glasses.’

I am sure when Dorothy Parker first published her poem ‘News Item’ in the New York World way back in 1925, she would have smiled to herself had she known how often this would be requoted way beyond her own Algonquin Round Table intellectual set.

Just as clothing alters appearance, so do spectacles. Where there is debate, it is over what way a wearer of spectacles might be perceived differently. Some have claimed to follow a sub-Darwinian approach, and suggested that the obvious presence of an apparatus to correct a physical anomaly might render the wearer as appearing weak in some way, or prone to bullying. Some data has suggested increased likelihood to be bullied among spectacle wearers. Others have suggested the association between corrected sight and academic activity might result in spectacle wearers being viewed as more intelligent or bookish. Again, some of the myopia data implies links between myopia and reading activity.