They do give her specs appeal.
"I could wear the glasses again..."
— Lilah Morgan, Angel, "Habeas Corpses"
Think The Glasses Gotta Go? Not always.
What Sexy Secretary, Hot Librarian, or Sexy Nerd would be complete without a pair of glasses? It seems like adding a pair of spectacles to an already good-looking man or woman can increase their hotness substantially. After all, without them a character couldn't coyly nibble at the end of the ear piece or give sultry looks over the top of the lens frames. Though possibly the best thing about them is what could happen when those glasses get taken off...
The belief that "Glasses Are Hot" is a common fetish of characters, possibly because it's pretty PG as far as fetishes go, and relatively widespread in Real Life. Due to the appeal of this trope, some spectacle wearers may be unwilling to correct their eyesight even when they are have the opportunity to do so.
Subtrope to Sexy Flaw; also compare Bespectacled Cutie, when the wearer is merely cute, rather than sexy, and Speech-Impeded Love Interest, when a speech defect also serves as a "turn-on". Tends to overlap with Stoic Spectacles, surprisingly enough. The Kichiku Megane also draws powers of sexiness from glasses. Contrast Nerd Glasses, when ugly glasses decrease sexiness, and Glasses of Aging, when glasses are used as a shorthand for them being older.
Please restrict examples to those in which glasses are noted In-Universe as being part of the character's appeal, the glasses are an inherent part of their characterization, or that have Word of God confirmation. If it's primarly fans who think the glasses are sexy, chances are the character was simply meant to be a Meganekko or a Megane.
Examples:
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Advertising
- During the 90s, Richard Golden advertised his "Sexy Specs".
Anime & Manga
- In Ace of the Diamond, sports journalist Akiko Ogawa has a fetish for baseball players who wear glasses, and two of the players she considers the most attractive are star catcher Miyuki Kazuya of Seidou, and ace pitcher You Shunshin of Akikawa.
- Ai Kora: Yukari, who even has a fangirl of her own with a glasses fetish. The mangaka even devoted a whole chapter to this topic: when Yukari feels insecure about her looks, thinking that her glasses make her ugly, the aforementioned fangirl takes her to a cafe full of glasses fetishists, who make her model different outfits and glasses and repeat that the glasses enhance the look. They even teach her 'glasses techniques', like peering over the glasses, etc. Of course, when she meets the protagonist and tries it out, he doesn't notice, because his fetish ain't her glasses.
- Durarara!!: Anri Sonohara is somewhat of a mix between Stoic Spectacles and Meganekko, though Masaomi has said at least once that he finds her glasses particularly attractive.
- The 2014 Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] adaptation includes a scene where Rin, Shirou and Saber go shopping and Rin tries on glasses, getting this reaction from Shirou.
- Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! has a scene where Nyarko makes her love interest Mahiro try on a pair, believing he doesn't understand "the power of the glasses" after her attempt to invoke the Meganekko look on him failed. When he does, it causes Nyarko (and Hasta) to collapse to the ground, drooling and muttering "The glasses...the glasses..."
- In The Prince of Tennis, Yuushi Oshitari has perfect vision. However, he invokes the trope via wearing Purely Aesthetic Glasses... because he wants to look smarter and more attractive to girls.
- Discussed in a Princess Princess omake where the author reveals that Harue is surprisingly popular among readers, and remarks that his glasses is probably the reason for his popularity. The strip ends with other two student council members (plus Arisada) wearing Purely Aesthetic Glasses to enhance their own appeal.
- Parodied in Private Prince. The lead girl Miyako is a meganekko, and during a party she catches the sight of lead boy Will in public. The next day, dozens of girls show up in front of Will wearing glasses as they believe he has a fetish for cute girls with spectacles, which leaves him rather... surprised. (He actually has a fetish for big-chested girls... and Miyako happens to be VERY well-endowed.)
- In Rising × Rydeen the first time Takara meets Aria he's stunned over how beautiful she looks and starts noting her attractive features, her glasses being one of them.
- Ristorante Paradiso: Nicoletta's mom has a thing for guys in reading glasses and only hires Waiters who wear them, though she doesn't mind if they are Purely Aesthetic Glasses.
Comic Books
- The Atom apparently has a glasses fetish. His first impulse upon meeting Oracle in person is to make a pass at her. He later offers the explanation that living in a college town has conditioned him to hit on girls in glasses.
- In Empowered, Emp's Hot Librarian costume includes a pair of glasses. Thug Boy finds them very hot.
- In Archie Comics' Josie and the Pussycats, Melody gets glasses, and for some reason, attracts even more guys (if that's even possible), Which prompts Josie and Valerie to pretend to be blind in order to get glasses themselves.
- Wallace Wells from Scott Pilgrim openly has a fetish for glasses; he even seduces Stacey's new boyfriend on their first date simply because he has glasses.
- In Mystique's solo series, she demonstrates how her shapeshifting extends to creating accessories like glasses. Her handler's response upon seeing her in glasses is to declare that if he was into evil women, he'd be in love with her.
Fan Works
- In Chapter 43 of The Command Quarters, Megatron finds a glasses-clad Starscream to be very attractive, even though Starscream insists that his glasses are not a sex prop.
Films — Animation
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Flint is notably more attracted to Sam when he realizes she's a closet nerd who was Obfuscating Stupidity. But when she puts on her giant Nerd Glasses, that seals the deal.
Films — Live-Action
- As one can imagine, most pornos with Hot for Teacher, Sexy Secretary, or one of the others as its theme will give the star thick glasses to complete the look. They even keep them on during sex.
- Love on the Run: Antoine goes in to a judge's office to get his final divorce decree and is startled to find that the judge is a very good-looking woman. As the judge puts on her glasses to read the paper, Antoine remembers being in bed with his wife Christine (the woman he's divorcing at the meeting) and specifically asking her to put her glasses back on.
- In Resident Evil: Retribution, Luther gets distracted when Alice puts on the Tactical Glasses.
- The Station Agent: Finn's friends tell him to buy the librarian glasses so they can play Hot Librarian.
- Wonder Woman (2017). Steve Trevor tries to dress Diana in contemporary 1910s fashion to make her look unobtrusive, and fails completely. He tries putting glasses on her, which only ends up making her even more eye-catching.
Etta Candy: Really? Specs? And suddenly she's not the most beautiful woman you've ever seen?
Literature
- Fujoshi Kanojo: When Y-ko finds out that the protagonist wears reading glasses, she insists that he put them on and squees over them. In the manga adaptation, her character expounds at length on the appeal of guys in glasses.
- Grimoire's Soul: In Kesterline glasses are seen as something erotic, especially on Chatelaines like Ceyda.
- Tokyo Demons' Sachi went without glasses in the first volume, but he was forced to start using them again when he was away from school due to one of his friends getting kidnapped by the Core organization. Protagonist Ayase clearly approves of the spectacled look, and from then on he openly wears them. They also become a point of attraction for him both In-Universe and out.
Live-Action TV
- Angel. In "Apocalypse Nowish", jealous over Wesley's attraction to the geeky Winifred Burkle, Lilah Morgan waits for him in his office dressed in Girlish Pigtails and Nerd Glasses. As they're ripping off each others clothes to have sex, Wesley interrupts their passion to insist she keep the glasses on. He still breaks up with her in the next episode, despite Lilah's offer to wear the glasses again.
- In an episode of The Big Bang Theory, Penny puts on glasses to see if Leonard will find it attractive. He does.
Penny: "Molecules".
- Bones:
- "The Jewel In The Crown" has a Unwanted Glasses Plot when Booth gets diagnosed with a temporary eye condition and needs glasses. But he ends up changing his opinion on them once Brennan confesses she finds him sexy with glasses on.
- Bones has to borrow an elderly woman's glasses once (there's been a murder on a plane, and they're the only magnification she can get), and a stunned Booth asks her to roleplay a Hot Librarian. She doesn't understand why.
- Dollhouse: Apparently, Topher finds Bennett's librarian-glasses-on-a-chain extra attractive.
- Gilmore Girls: When Lane gets contacts, her boyfriend Zack can't articulate how less attractive he finds her. Thankfully, he eventually gets over his shock, and Lane alternates between glasses and contacts without further comment.
- In The Office (US), Pam wears her glasses for one episode because she couldn't wear her contact lenses that day. Kevin immediately expresses that he loves women wearing glasses and lets Pam know, asking her if she can scold him for returning library books late.
- One Life to Live: A certain assistant DA always wore glasses but eventually admitted that he had 20/20 vision. He had started wearing them in law school because he wanted to be taken seriously but kept wearing them because he found that women loved them.
Music
Podcasts
- Red Panda Adventures: In "Barton's Charm", the Red Panda discovers that Kit wears glasses when reading for long periods, such as doing research in the newspaper archives, to avoid getting headaches. Kit, Action Girl that she is, hates wearing them so much that she completely ignores the Red Panda's attempts to compliment her and tell her he likes them, something she would otherwise be all for hearing as a part of their relationship is her being clearly attracted to the Red Panda and teasing him.
Pro Wrestling
- Serena Deeb played Paige Webb in Wrestlicious, and the commentator sighed that it was a shame she couldn't wear her glasses while wrestling.
Video Games
- Arthur from Rune Factory 4 has a real thing for glasses. He wears a pair himself, collects hundreds of pairs simply because he thinks they're cute, and often tries to get the player or another character to try on glasses.
- Yandere Simulator: Osana finds guys with glasses attractive, which is important for the player to know when using the Matchmaking elimination method.
- Bayonetta has the titular character wearing glasses (though Word of God says she uses them more as a fashion accessory rather than actually needing them), and they definitely don't subtract from her appeal.
Webcomics
- Ally's Domme persona in Sunstone is capped off with a pair of glasses which make her look insanely hot. In her more awkward real persona, they just make her look adorable.
- Several characters in the Walkyverse have things for glasses, and it may be a personal Author Appeal as well.
- Yogurt Media: There's a short arc about Yogurt finding out that she needs glasses and fearing that they'll make her look ugly. Her friend Berry assures her that she'll look fine, and when she finds the right pair of frames he's stunned and visibly blushing at how cute she looks in them.
Western Animation
- On Daria, Kevin gets Purely Aesthetic Glasses (without lenses) because he thinks they'll literally make him smarter. As a bonus, his girlfriend Brittany apparently really likes him wearing them.
