Main character with glasses
It was with equal parts curiosity and trepidation that I sat down to watch The Other Bennet Sister. Did you see it?
Curiosity because, here on my TV, with me wrapped up burrito style with my electric blanket, was something still surprisingly rare: a female protagonist who wears glasses.
Trepidation because, at this point, I’ve seen this story before.
Too many times.
The arc where a woman becomes “acceptable” and even desirable, lovable, visible BUT only after the glasses come off.
It’s a (IMHO lazy) trope that has lingered for decades, quietly reinforcing the idea that intelligence and beauty are somehow at odds.
I think of She's All That, which, at the time, felt like harmless fun but carried a sharper message underneath: transformation meant removal. Glasses off. Hair down. Suddenly worthy.
Or The Princess Diaries, where becoming a polished princess involved a similar shedding of a glasses-wearing, clumsy self.
Fab films but what were they saying to me?
And yes, while there have been women on screen wearing glasses such as Liz Lemon and Betty Suarez (I felt her soo much) there is more to it.
Liz is hilarious, but her glasses are part of a broader “messy woman” coding. She’s not framed as aspirational in a traditional sense, nor as the romantic ideal.
Betty, meanwhile, is extremely capable, running the show but I am so tired by how she seems to live outside the conventional world of beauty. (Fun fact: I used to have a bright red knitted poncho.)
These characters shifted something. But they didn’t quite break the pattern.
So when a character arrives who simply is intelligent, curious, fact-loving and for much of the ON SCREEN TIME and at IMPORTANT EVENTS keeps her glasses on without them being (too much) a punchline, a flaw, or a before-state, it feels quietly radical. Not because it should be.
But because it still is.
And what makes this shift feel even more overdue is the reality we’re living in.
Glasses aren’t rare. They’re not niche. They’re not a quirky character trait.
They’re normal.
Already, billions, YES BILLIONS of people worldwide need vision correction.
Around 40% of adults are short-sighted today and that number is expected to rise to about 1/2 the global population. Children, in particular, are being diagnosed earlier and in greater numbers, with some projections suggesting up to 40% will be affected.
In some parts of the world, it’s already the majority.
And yet, for something so ordinary, so visible, so widely shared…
we’ve spent decades barely seeing it on screen at least not on the heroine. The scientist hero often wears them as we have seen in Independence Day.
As a reminder, in my case, without my glasses, I cannot work, read, cook, drive or fend for myself. I can manage the basics through muscle memory at this point.
But growing up, I was very scared when I realised I would have to wear glasses.
So watching The Other Bennet Sister, I found myself thinking not just about me, but about my inner eight-year-old—because that is when I first started wearing them.
What did she see on TV and film then, and what has changed now?
What stories are shaping her sense of self?
Maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of a shift.
A quiet turning point where spectacle-wearing girls and women don’t have to transform to belong.
Where intelligence isn’t something to disguise.
Where the glasses and also the love of intellectualism can shine, be and the story still chooses her!
Because if half the world is going to wear glasses, then it’s about time our protagonists do too.
And yes, game, film, theatre, and TV world, I am watching you (very clearly) from behind my incredibly powerful spectacles and laser-scarred eyes.
Over to you.
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