Personal Brand Stereotypes #2: Glasses Make You Look Smart
April 3, 2008 at 11:12 am | In Misc, Personal Branding, Positioning | 11 CommentsThe previous post in the personal brand stereotypes series examined why tall people are perceived as being
m basketball players, even when most don’t play sports. I also touched on how height may be a factor when confronting the opposite sex and why girls go for taller male counterparts. Today, I examine how wearing eyeglasses makes others think your smart or a geek/dork.
My Story
When I was growing up, I refused to wear glasses, even though I was nearsighted (can’t see objects well from far away, which is the opposite of farsighted). I did this for many reasons. My friends avoided them because you get labeled immediately as a dork. When you’re in high school and people categorize you as a dork, life becomes real hard. One of the reasons I loathed high school so much is because once your labeled, it sticks and through word-of-mouth, the entire school will either isolate you or include you. The interesting thing is how I was viewed by professors. They saw me as an intellectual and would call on me more than my classmates. I do think glasses had an impact on their decision making process.
The funny thing is that when your in high school you care MUCH MORE about what other students think about you than your teachers. There is something about social circles that is so captivating, yet so disgusting. Either way, glasses are in your favor when interviewing or in a classroom setting, but may work against you in social situations, such as flirting with the opposite sex.
I’ve learned to enjoy my glasses, although I ended up getting contact lenses my sophomore year in college. My eyes are very sensitive, therefore I can only wear contacts for between 6 and 8 hours at a time. When I work on my computer, I wear glasses, which I stand by. If you stare at a computer with contact lenses your eyes dry out fast and they begin to hurt.
Quick note: I just viewed a discussion about this topic on Yahoo! Answers.
Are you Superman or Clark Kent or Both?
I choose the ladder. I like being Clark Kent at work and Superman outside of work (on the weekends). As we both know, both of their identities are the same, but they are perceived as different because of their branding. The glasses make Clark look smart and position him as a suitable reporter, when he works with Lois Lane. When the glasses come off, he becomes his true self, or the one that doesn’t mask his super powers. There is something about him removing his glasses that astounds me. Does he really feel that he’s tricked everyone just by the glasses, or is it his attitude and stance?
I’ve even met people who purposely buy glasses (with no prescription lenses) just to appear smart. Honestly, some of us are born with bad vision and need glasses to survive. While some select glasses as the cure, others choose surgery or contact lenses. I think you should do whatever is right for your brand, regardless of what others think, but you may have your own opinion.
Coming up next
In the 3rd part of this series I will go over “the curse of the pink shirt.” When people see men in pink (or purple) they assume they are homosexual. This will make for a great discussion.
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i agree. In high school I didn’t wear glasses or contacts like I should have. However, I was voted “Prettiest Eyes” my senior year and was not among the most popular in school. A few years ago I got contacts but now wear glasses and am much happier with them. My eyes dried out very quickly with the contacts.
Comment by brandonwright — April 3, 2008 #
These days I very much enjoy glasses. In high school I was okay with them, but definitely not in middle school.
Today I prefer glasses over contacts. Smart and sexy, my friend. I think they work to my advantage as far as looking smart goes – also when I wear contacts I look about 18 and not 25.
Comment by torbjornrive — April 3, 2008 #
I totally agree with your insights! Something you didn’t mention that happens to me often is that people don’t recognize me without my glasses. That’s how much a part of my “brand” they are. Just last night I showed a picture to a friend of me out at night, and she asked who she was.
Like you, I wear my glasses at work and switch to contacts for going out or being active. I think we have an advantage in that sense – it’s almost like we have a uniform that helps us segregate our tasks.
I stopped wearing my glasses out at night when the pick-up lines became unbearable. The worst was “So, who’s your favorite author?” (Obviously I read a lot because I have glasses, right? I must be oh-so-intelligent that I can only be picked up by the originality of that line. Nice.)
As to the pink shirts, they’ve become so prevalent that I no longer think of them as “gay.” More than anything I think “fraternity.” Though it has helped in one instance – I saw a guy at a bar I thought was cute and when I referred to him as “pink shirt guy” almost a year later to a friend, she remembered him immediately.
Comment by Holly Hoffman — April 3, 2008 #
Thanks for sharing your stories everyone.
Comment by Dan Schawbel — April 3, 2008 #
I love the concept of looking at the Clark/Superman dichotomy as a branding issue. I would note that there are actually two schools of thought as to which is the original brand and which is the fictional creation. The first is that Superman is the true person and that the Clark Kent persona is the one he created to protect his identity (some people have added that its a very insulting idea that the perfect man creates such a nerdy persona). The other is that Clark is the real person and that Superman is an idealization created by Clark as a representation of the perfect hero, as influenced by his Midwestern upbringing. Either way, each identity does represent an exercise in personal branding.
Comment by David Tillinger — April 4, 2008 #
I only got glasses about a year abd a half ago… It’s almost funny how much better my career has been since (promotions, new jobs, etc.). I’d never consider contacts… don’t really want to put things in my eyes.
Oh, and girls that wear glasses? I LOVE that.
Comment by Adam Darowski — April 5, 2008 #
Dan,
Awesome analysis.
Comment by Scott Bradley — April 9, 2008 #
Great stuff Dan, I remember when I first started wearing glasses in the 6th grade and my family would tell me that I look “intelligent” – that had a big impact on me. Sure, nowadays I wear contacts more often but there is something about glasses that gets people thinking that he/she has the smarts!
This is good insight into appearances in general and what people think about you.
Comment by Andre Blackman — April 11, 2008 #
[...] #2 – Glasses make you look smart [...]
Pingback by Personal Brand Stereotypes #8: Choose Your Major Wisely « Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel — April 14, 2008 #
yeah i think that it depends onthe person wearing th glasses whether or not they make u look smart. when i c ppl with glasses who suddenly get glasses, most of them dont really look different. so if this is ur case, just go with the glasses
glasses giv ur face character! i started wearing contacts in 7th grade. i know it seems really hypocritical to say i prefered myself with the contacts right after the previous stuff i just said. but glasses made my usually big eyes look REALLY small and i looked really bad! with the contacts my eyes looked bigger. so if its a big difference with ur contacts, go with contacts. if u basically look the same, go with glasses! 
Comment by Lily — June 28, 2008 #
oops on the sentence where i said “ppl with glasses who suddenly get glasses” i meant “ppl with glasses who suddenly get contacts” sorry!
Comment by Lily — June 28, 2008 #