There are many things I identify with. I'm half Japanese, I'm a woman, I'm Mormon, I'm an exercise enthusiast (or used to be before the mission), and the list goes on and on. So why did I choose to identify with the community of glasses wearers? I don't even wear my glasses 100% of the time; I also identify with lovers of contacts. But I believe that besides improving eyesight, glasses and contacts serve very different purposes. And since glasses have much more history and personality, I chose to join with my four-eyed possy for this project.
My first picture is a collection of photos that show the evolution/history of glasses. The main objective of a pair of glasses is to improve poor eye sight, and so when they first started to be used, they weren't exactly for fashion. Different trends came and went which are clear to see through the photos. The majority of the photos are of celebrities, but in times when glasses weren't much of a fashion statement (late nineties, early thousands) it was harder to find fashion weary people wearing them. I remember watching the Wedding Planner and thinking it was very strange that a hottie like Matthew Mcconaughey was wearing nerdy glasses. At that time glasses were nerdy and contacts were definitely preferred. If glasses were necessary, they made them as indiscreet as possible. They were pretty small and lacked frames so that they didn't cause attention to themselves.
But these days glasses are very much part of fashion and sometimes the bigger, the bolder--the better. One's glasses say a lot about you, and that's why I take them seriously enough to base a whole assignment around it. Glasses may have a lot of history which is why the first picture is kind of like the history or evolution of them, but I wanted to focus on the second picture because it frames what glasses have represented during my lifetime. When I was younger glasses were geeky and didn't make you look good. And this is depicted in my "then" photo. (Sorry to the kid in the photo. That's what happens when you put photos on the internet.) But glasses no longer mean nerd or geek. At first glance (to the eye of someone living in our present) Ryan Gosling looks gooood in his glasses. And that other kid, looks really...awkward. But if you look closely, their glasses are very similar. Today, nerdy glasses are actually chic and attractive.
But besides just a fashion statement, glasses can say a lot about you. Picking out a new pair of specs was more stressful than I expected. It's like an article of clothing that you wear all the time and in clear view of anyone who looks at you. I wanted some thicker rimmed glasses because I thought they were cute, but I didn't want to go too extreme or I might be classified as a hipster, or way more artsy than I actually I am. Glasses can say a lot about you, but it also can be something that people hide behind; it can be something that defines you just by wearing them. One of my roommates is a very thoughtful person and has been wearing the same $20 glasses for the past four years. She's on the market for a new pair, but she said something that I thought that was really insightful. She said, "I just don't want to become my glasses." Glasses can make such a strong statement, that it can overpower your own personality and let other people make their assumptions about you.
So nowadays, I am a glasses wearer. I like my glasses because they can hide the fact that I just woke up and didn't put makeup on. It makes my face look thinner. It adds personality to my boring outfit. I like how they make me see better and sometimes, look better. When I was younger, glasses were embarrassing and defined the wearer as a nerd. Now they are fun and can define you in many ways, and they might even mark you as a nerd, but that's cool now. #thankyouhipsters
I think this would be an interesting assignment for my students because not only are media part of our lives now, it was also in the past, but there are differences. It takes thought to show why you identify with something, but with how things have changed.
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