Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Stuff Arabs Like #6: Thick Rim Glasses



You read the title correctly, folks. "Geek Chic" has gripped the middle east and my middle school and high school students can't get enough!

Mind you: My middle school students at home had been bitten by the nerd bug, but they weren't rockin' Dior's versions of this fad. No, my kids at home just poked the lenses out of the glasses you get for 3D movies at the cinema. But here, if it's not Chanel, Dior or Dulce and Gabana, there's no need to wear it, and that goes for their glasses too!

Another difference between Geek Chic here as compared with home is that the fashionable nerds at home wear the Urkel look-alikes because it's ironic and hipster. I get the feeling that the kids here rock the Buddy Hollys because it's popular in the States.

What I'm not sure the kids here realize is that a lot of the Geeky Chic people at home are just wearing the frames. They don't actually need the glasses, they just need to LOOK like they need the glasses. The kids here legitimately have vision problems ("It's genetic. Everything here is genetic" as my principal once put it with a hearty eye-roll). I guess you can't blame them for wanting to fit in.

Isn't it ironic that looking like Poindexter will save you from being made fun of. Ah, how things have changed!

Vicariously yours,


3 comments:

  1. "But here, if it's not Chanel, Dior or Dulce and Gabana, there's no need to wear it, and that goes for their glasses too!"
    You're teaching in a school that costs a lot of money to get into. It's not about being in Saudi. It's about being in a school with rich students.

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  2. Dolce and Gabbana*

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  3. Nope, it's about being in Saudi.

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