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Okay,

For those who have gotten to know me a little on this board, you may already know that I have a thing for cat eye glasses. I always have. Even going back to some of the first sunglasses I had as a teenager, while they weren't cat-eyes, they were horn rimmed with a very slight curve on the brow line. I remember wearing them and looking at the brow line part of the glasses and thinking it would be cool if it tapered outward more towards the temples...

But alas... such styles are for women.... not teenage boys still timid in the world....

Below is a goofy old photo of me wearing my favorite sunglasses I had from age 17-34 when they finally broke....


Horn rimmed glasses are the only ones I prefer. I do actually have a very mild prescription pair, although I can get by without them, my eyesight is close enough to pass the DMV test with no corrective lenses. Often when reading for a long time, I may put on some reading glasses but that's all.

I especially LOVE vintage style glasses, with one of my favorite prescription pairs I have being the Shuron Ronsir Revelation glasses.



I have a current pair in horn rimmed style that are bifocal for reading. I don't like wearing them though because of the line. Next time if he prescribes bifocals I'm going to spring for the extra money and have the line smoothed out.

Now all of the photos above were prior to my exploration into gender freedom (skirts) with regards to what I wear. Now, ever since I began getting more comfortable wearing the clothing I like, from skirts, dresses, tops, shoes, etc, the next logical thing was to begin exploring eye-wear that was more to my taste.

Now many of you know about the first pair of large "cat eye" sunglasses I picked up about a year ago at one of the stores I work at. It was only a dollar. As some of you know, I lost that pair of glasses (on video actually) while I was swimming in the mountains and forgot to take them off the top of my head when I pushed my hair back. I unknowingly pushed them in the water, and to this day, I suppose the mountain has claimed them.

No matter though, after about 4 months of sunglasses that were so-so, I finally forked over $15 at one of the stores I work at and purchased a good UV protective pair of cat eye sunglasses, complete with the decorative "gold" trim on the temples. I've been wearing them ever since!



Aaaaannndddd.... are you ready for this...? Despite the sunglasses being "women's", I have actually been wearing them at work, in the presence of virtually everyone, INCLUDING the corporate office... top floor... (they were on top of my head at that point) Nobody has said anything!

And now.... the grand finale,
So, at some point in the future, I'll be heading back the eye doctor again, probably sometime later on this year, first part of 2018. When I do, I'll be getting an updated prescription most likely, and when I do, I have been debating on going all the way with one of my all time favorite frames!... Vintage cat eye glasses!

So I ordered a pair off of Amazon, they're plain lenses, although it's not a total waste as they are UV protective. I wanted to give them a try out in the world at large before I put down good money for a prescription pair. Now that I have them, I can tell they are pretty sturdy.

I wore them out all day today and in many social situations and I could tell a lot of people didn't know what to make of it! Even on my google searches, "men wearing cat eye glasses" turns up nothing like what I am wearing. It leads me to wonder... am I the first? You know when even google turns up nothing, you are in the most micro of micro trends!

I had a good time and I really like the look! So I've decided that when the time comes, I will have the eye-wear crafters put proper lenses in the pair I purchased and use them regularly. All this being said I'm afraid it may be just a little too "womanly" for work. They're much more pointed, and have a much more feminine 50's style than my current pair of sunglasses. I will probably get a more modern pair of cat eyes for work however since I've seen a couple of men wear more milder pairs while at work.

I will continue to wear these on the weekends since they are fun. Below are some pictures of the pair out and about today:






I bet you that I'm probably the only man in the world who has pulled off this exact ensemble, with the skirt, flats, top, hat, and cat eyes!
And though you can't see it, I even have a little purple flower sticking out of the tie die band around the hat.

Wow, Moon, they seem to completely alter the shape of your face, making it seem more pointed. I don't mean to offend and it's not an unpleasant effect, just sayin'. Some of us prefer the smaller lenses and I haven't worn lenses that big since the 70's when I wore them with the narrow, gold frame.

I think those specs look great, particularly in the last pic. I personally wouldn't know if they were women's specs or not - so many shapes around these days, retro etc.
A touch of your avatar with that hat.

I noticed the question came up on Quora. . .

https://www.quora.com/Can-men-wear-cat-eye-glasses

Apparently there are some minor variations targeted to men:

http://www.zappos.com/men-sunglasses/CK ... ESwAEC.zso

I had certainly considered the possibility of a second pair of glasses with a more feminine quality, but had not given it that much consideration. Interesting idea. . . It looks like you may be the trendsetter.

whorton wrote:It looks like you may be the trendsetter.

Thanks, although I'm sure there's a reason few have attempted/thought of this before. We must understand that there are countless styles of frames out there, even among cat eyes, there are different styles. I tend to favor more vintage styles in regards to eye-wear, so modern cat eyes, while intriguing generally do not interest me as much as the more vintage styles. And when I say this I'm referring to the exaggerated points on the temples of the older versions. Newer ones tend to have slimmer lenses and milder points.

So all that said, I've zeroed in on a particular type of "women's" eye-wear. It's easy to find a good number of men who enjoy wearing skirts, even "women's" skirts. There are probably millions of crossdressers (in the closet or not) across the U.S. alone, and a few may even enjoy wearing "women's" eye-wear, but a fewer number still would prefer the vintage cat eye. I might actually be the only male identifying (non-woman impersonating) cat eye fan/wearer on the planet!

In fact, with regards to "women's" eye-wear, the cat eye is really the only one I like. All the rest just look gaudy as hell. I actually prefer a number of "men's" frames to "women's", with the exception of the cat eye frame.

Testing the waters at work with the frames above is mighty tempting. Although I think when it comes down to a mandatory prescription pair, I'll choose something a little milder... perhaps something like this would be fun and a fair compromise:

Here are some "work safe" frames in my judgement:




The two above I should probably have printed and carry a copy around in my wallet in case in run into any trouble... as they were men, taken in an era of our nations history where we were considered "great".

However here are some more modern considerations that may be workable, I've seen close styles on other men at work:

(Above): Here is one that's probably the most practical. A simple, readily available design, and this is pretty close to what I saw a mid aged man operating a floor cleaning machine on the sales floor once. Nothing too extreme here.


(Above) This one may be pushing the envelope a little bit, I'd just have to see how they look on my face, still I like the style none the less.


(Above) This one is AWESOME! But alas, a work no-go. Too damn feminine and we all know that's "against the law"... It would offend the bigots and God forbid we do that! All this said, I think it is utterly asinine that humanity has genderfied eye-wear....

Oh well... I may just have to have two separate sets... ridiculous... completely ridiculous.

We spent far too much time looking for reasons to justify and defend intolerance, judgement, and hate, and no where near enough time exploring tolerance, compassion, and understanding! Anyway... I'm getting off on a tangent....

moonshadow wrote:Oh well... I may just have to have two separate sets... ridiculous... completely ridiculous.

At least you can get prescription glasses cheap online these days if you don't need bifocals or progressive lenses. We've used Zenni and Goggles4U and both were satisfactory, although Zenni coatings don't last 2 years.

Moon, all of my eyeglasses came from the "women's" rack. I don't prefer cat eyes, but I do prefer the slightly lighter, softer, gentler-coloured,..whatever.

Chris

It looks like Dame Edna was ahead of you.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dame+ed ... 20&bih=950

ChrisM wrote:Moon, all of my eyeglasses came from the "women's" rack. I don't prefer cat eyes, but I do prefer the slightly lighter, softer, gentler-coloured,..whatever.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean, there are so many styles, finding people who share my love of cat eyes, while still wishing to maintain a male persona might be somewhat of a rarity.

But hey, that's what makes us all unique in our own special way!

beachlion wrote:It looks like Dame Edna was ahead of you.

Not quite... see the above paragraph. While a few female impersonating (however comical) crossdressers have undoubtedly tried it, I'm looking for a image of a man sporting a feminine pair of ladies cat eyes while maintaining his "male image" as we do on this site with skirts...

So far... I appear to be the only one.

That makes me feel... somewhat special.

Still, looking at the photos in the link, I can say that women of the 50's and 60's probably weren't wearing those type of cat eye frames to the typing pool. In other words... gag glasses don't count!

Dennis, Anthony, thanks for your comments. Yes Dennis, big lenses seemed like they went to the wayside for men at about the era your described (the 70's). Generally speaking I'm not a fan of big frames, however once again, cat eyes are the exception.