non-jerkface sunglasses

August 13, 2024 1:05 PM

Some kinds of sunglasses can make you look unsympathetic. If you're a dude over 40 wanting to buy some 100% UV protective, polarized sunglasses for <= $30 at a retail store, and then wear them consistently when outside, what are your best options?

Apparently, darker/lighter lenses are equally protective (but is this true for migraines?). So, I'd generally look for more transparent lenses, but those seem hard to find.

Also, I'd shy away from aviator glasses and pretty much anything that might have been on a cop show in the 1980's.

However, these are just my own ideas about this, and I don't know if other people agree (I did try searching for other people commenting on this, but didn't find anything other than that it's rude to wear sunglasses indoors).

Am I right? Wrong? If I'm right, could anyone recommend specific models?

Thanks in advance.

posted by amtho to Society & Culture (12 answers total)

How sunglasses make a person look is almost entirely dependent on how that person's face is shaped.

[This is the second time in 2 days I've dropped my phone while typing and it's posted and now I gotta cram everything else into the dwindling edit window god damnit!!!!]

Anyway my real advice is you can buy sunglasses on Zenni and similar websites. Choose your lenses and your frames separately so you can make sure to get exactly what you want and keep them at a reasonable price. I got sunglasses on Zenni (with a light distance Rx for driving optimization, optional) and they're great. (Protip: you can do virtual try on and see the glasses shape on your own face.)
posted by phunniemee at 1:11 PM on August 13 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks. This question is specifically about lens/color/other choices and taste. It's mainly about not looking like a jerk, even if jerks look cool.
posted by amtho at 1:39 PM on August 13

My husband also worries about this and has pivoted to "fun" sunglasses - if these aren't the exact ones he has now, they're very close.

I also think a tortoise is a lot less severe-looking than black.

This is weird to describe, but there's a certain vibe to most "gas station sunglasses" as my husband calls them - the cheapy-cheap glasses you get as an emergency or afterthought - that even in basically the same format just reads differently with a better-manufactured frame.

Avoid anything too "futuristic", those do read a little edgelordy, but go for something that suggests a bit of fashion - either classic-ish or a tiny bit hipster-ish or...okay, well, to put it frankly any glasses that say "I am not concerned if my glasses could possibly make me look gay" because I think that's really what's behind "aggressive" sunglasses. They're kinda deliberately ugly and Not Fashion, and/or deliberately military-like.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:44 PM on August 13 [3 favorites]

I think a classic wayfarer-style is a way to go, anything a musician might wear. Sporty can make you look like a Facebook right winger and modern aviators can look cop-adjacent, but like, plastic frame seventies aviators could work.
posted by Iteki at 1:45 PM on August 13

Goodr OGs.

Pick one that doesn't have reflective lenses or rep a college sports team.
posted by box at 1:45 PM on August 13 [7 favorites]

Ray-Ban Wayfarers are the safest choice and widely knocked off.
posted by potrzebie at 1:46 PM on August 13 [1 favorite]

I've got no data, but I can at least validate your idea with "yeah, that makes sense." I expect that eye contact and being able to see where someone is looking will make folks more comfortable with you.

So along those lines, avoid avoid avoid mirrored finishes. I recently bought some sunglasses from Zenni with their basic sunglasses tint, and they were transparent to a level that surprised me. When I'm wearing them outside, you can definitely see my eyes and where I'm looking. The specific lenses/tints I chose are described in their system as "Polarized - Amber (Tint at 80%)" (or Gray or Green are available too).

They may be somewhat above your price point, though, as at least mine with prescription lenses were ~$60 each pair. Even with non-prescription lenses, I'm not finding them below $45 on a quick search through Zenni's site. Worth a look, though, and like phunniemee mentioned, the virtual try-on is decent for getting a sense of how they'll look on you.
posted by whatnotever at 1:48 PM on August 13

Gen Z are often wearing a fuller faced ski goggle style with colorful lenses; that kind of thing meant jerk in the 90s but it has come all the way back around to generically in fashion. I think the sporty ones from the aughts are the ones that scan as kind of a militarized MAGA jerk to me, like these. I think aviators are cool but they certainly can often have a timeless preppy jerk quality that I don't usually mind projecting or observing. I think a lot depends on who you are worried will think that you're a jerk, but I agree with those who suggest that wayfarers are a safer bet, and that glasses that signal a variance from heteronormative masculinity in some way will scan as less jerky.
posted by Kwine at 2:01 PM on August 13 [1 favorite]

I found these via Wirecutter, and they are cheap wayfarer knockoffs that get the job done. And I don't feel bad when I inevitably loose them.
posted by coffeecat at 2:07 PM on August 13

I think the jerkiest sunglasses at this point are Oakleys. They seem to be the near-universal choice of MAGA dudes sitting in their trucks shooting selfie videos where they opine about how everything is woke nowadays.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 2:12 PM on August 13 [8 favorites]

As a bald bearded middle aged man who also fears aggro glasses, I like Knockarounds in fun colors. I get compliments on them.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 5:09 PM on August 13 [1 favorite]

If these are to prevent migraines, probably what’s needed is big wraparound lenses. And/or a hat.

The reason sunglasses look “cool” is they allow the wearer to look at others without having their own micro expressions available to view, they make the wearer slightly invulnerable. So really from that POV any glasses could lead to someone appearing “non sympathetic”. The less your eyes are concealed the lesser the effect. Maybe ask the optometrist how light the lenses need to be to offer protection from migraines.
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:28 AM on August 14