It's 2025, and it seems that culture is finally ready to acknowledge an immutable fact — a fact that some of us have been banging on about for years. Namely, that there is nothing hotter than a man in "slutty little glasses."
Thanks to Jonathan Bailey, it is quickly shaping up to be the summer of the "slutty little glasses." If you've managed to sidestep the internet for the past few months, allow me to explain. Certified heartthrob Jonathan Bailey of Bridgerton and Wicked fame stars in one of this summer's biggest blockbusters, Jurassic World Rebirth. As Dr. Henry Loomis, Bailey is an earnest, dino-loving paleontologist with a heart of gold and a very beautiful face — a face upon which is perched a very delicate pair of glasses. Cubitts, to be precise, made with ultra-thin hexagonal titanium frames.
Or, "slutty little glasses," as culture commentator Blakely Thornton has dubbed them. What makes "slutty little glasses" such an apt description? Is it the dainty, wire-thin frame? The whimsical playfulness of the hexagonal shape? Or is it simply the way they lend an extra dash of boyish charm to Bailey's handsome features?
Whatever it is, from the moment Entertainment Weekly's first look pictures of Bailey in Jurassic World Rebirth dropped back in December 2024, the internet collapsed into a veritable tizzy. "Jonathan Bailey is truly the king of slutty little glasses," wrote one appreciator on X. "I think Jonathan Bailey in slutty little glasses should lowkey be in the future history books," wrote another. Since then, the phrase has come up again and again on social media and in the Jurassic World Rebirth press tour. But this is more than a thirst moment.
Happy "slutty little glasses" summer
Bailey himself has embraced the general delirium surrounding his glasses, wearing various pairs of sexy little specs to practically every press event for Rebirth. He has happily spoken about them in countless interviews — the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, MTV UK, Extra, and the Today Show, to name a few. (And yes, the phrase "slutty little glasses" does sound utterly delectable in his accent.)
The Jurassic World Rebirth star is even taking this sartorial moment to the next level, announcing a new collaboration between Cubitts and Bailey's own LGBTQ rights charity, The Shameless Fund. The British spectacles company has launched a pink-tinted pair of frames named "Loomis" after Bailey's character; they’re described in the product details as having "an unapologetic confidence." The frames cost $250, with 50 percent of proceeds going to The Shameless Fund.
"I’m thrilled that people are having a hormonal explosion linked to optical supports," Bailey told Entertainment Tonight at a Rebirth premiere in June. "Glasses can go a long way." In the same red carpet interview, Bailey called for a "summer of slutty glasses." He gets it.
The origins and double standard of "slutty little glasses"
In practically every interview about the trend, Bailey credits Thornton with coming up with the phrase "slutty little glasses."
In a video on Instagram posted in January, Thornton praised Bailey ahead of Rebirth's release, saying, "He was born to have a line of slutty little glasses… On and off screen, he is constantly refuting the Laney Boggs law of cinema that says characters with glasses are less f*ckable."
Referring to the female nerd (played by the stunning Rachael Leigh Cook) in 1999's She's All That who only becomes "hot" once she takes off her glasses, Thornton touches on the gendered double standard of glasses in cinema. There are countless female makeover scenes in movies that follow a similar pattern of nerd-to-hottie once their glasses are ditched. See The Princess Diaries, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Miss Congeniality, for a few examples. Even last year's Wicked saw Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba ditching her spectacles to catch the eye of Bailey himself as the dashing Fiyero.
Basically, "slutty little glasses" on women don't typically appeal to the Male Gaze, while "slutty little glasses" on men do appeal to women and queer people. Of course, there are exceptions — the "hot librarian" trope is well established, too — think the bespectacled Rachel Weisz in The Mummy and Velma in Scooby-Doo. While women in cinema usually have to take off their glasses to finally be seen as the hotties they are, men have to put them on. And suddenly, the girls and gays go weak in the knees.
Bailey is just the latest leading man to utilize this sartorial tool for making an audience swoon. Cinema's love affair with "slutty little glasses" and their equally "slutty" but more substantial, thicker-framed predecessors, goes back decades — and Bailey's character in Jurassic World Rebirth slots very nicely into the canon.
The cinema history of "slutty little glasses"
Surprisingly sexy eyewear of all shapes and sizes can be found on countless leading men throughout cinematic history. Although glasses have become a recurring supporting player in the rom-com oeuvre, they have also found their way into other genres, cropping up in prestige dramas (see Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor, Sidney Poitier in Pressure Point, Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley) and even a few blockbuster action flicks (see Michael Keaton when he's musing as Bruce Wayne in Batman, or anyone who is tasked with playing Clark Kent).
As for notable examples, I must begin by mentioning dashing Golden Age romantic comedy hero Cary Grant as Dr. David Huxley in the 1938 rom-com classic Bringing Up Baby. Like Bailey's Dr. Loomis, Dr. Huxley is a sweet, somewhat bumbling paleontologist. He just wants to be alone peering at his bones through his — what we'd now call — "slutty little glasses." Unfortunately, Katherine Hepburn as Susan, an eccentric rich girl, finds this absent-minded hot nerd irresistible, and so she whisks him off on a kooky caper. There's a leopard involved. It's delightful.
Another honorable mention goes to debonaire leading man Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). As Atticus Finch, Peck portrayed one of cinema's most beloved good guys — a lawyer who fights tirelessly for justice and equality in a racist American Deep South in the 1930s. And Atticus was a loving, if slightly tortured, single dad to boot. (It's no wonder he became the focus of a baby-naming trend in 2015.) Peck's rounded retro frames went oh-so-well with his three-piece linen suit — they also complemented the tendril of hair that fell across his troubled brow during particularly stressful moments in court. Like Bailey's specs, Peck's iconic eyewear eventually spawned their own model for purchase: Oliver Peoples' "Atticus" frames.
Following the theme of romantic heroes with professorial appeal is Ryan O'Neal in 1972's What's Up, Doc?. As Dr. Howard Bannister, he is a rather gormless musicologist who specializes in the musical properties of rocks. (Yes, rocks.) Barbra Streisand as Judy, an unpredictable and spontaneous college dropout, spies this dreamboat in elbow patches, is instantly smitten, and proceeds to chase him around a San Francisco hotel for a couple of days. After one particularly chaotic whirlwind of an evening, courtesy of Judy, Howard is left dazed in his hotel room wearing nothing but a plaid bowtie, his underwear, and, of course, his glasses. Director Peter Bogdanovich knew what he was doing.
Though Harrison Ford might be best known for his macho roles as the smirking smuggler Han Solo in the Star Wars movies, or rugged adventurer Indiana Jones, even he has "slutty little glasses" moments of note. When he's not globe-trotting after an artifact and is instead being a crush-worthy college professor, Ford complements his circular pair with a bow tie and tweed jacket in 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and later in 1989's Indiana follow-up, The Last Crusade. And he did it again to play Linus Larrabee, a curmudgeonly business man unexpectedly falling in love in the 1995 remake of the 1954 rom-com classic Sabrina.
Glasses crop up in a number of more recent classic rom-coms, too. Hugh Grant's Charles in Four Weddings and a Funeral would not be nearly so charming without his tortoiseshell frames and floppy hair. The actor dons a slimmer pair in Notting Hill during a couple of particularly emotionally vulnerable scenes — once when he's watching Julia Roberts's Anna, a famous actress, on the big screen and thinking about how their love can never be, and later when he is distraught to overhear her calling him "someone from the past" while she's on set. In fact, Grant's poor eyesight even leads to one of the best scenes in the film, when he is forced to wear absolutely giant prescription goggles ("slutty" giant goggles, perhaps?) during a trip to the cinema.
Then there's Jude Law in The Holiday, whose glasses make a few appearances to show him at his most unguarded — once after sex and once when he lets Cameron Diaz's Amanda get a glimpse into his picture-perfect life as a single dad to two daughters. Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer also slots nicely into the hot prof catalog.
Why are "slutty little glasses" so hot?
Our decades-long fascination with "slutty little glasses" does, of course, go beyond their aesthetic appeal. It gestures toward the female gaze and indeed the queer gaze. "Slutty little glasses" speak to the girls and gays because they present us with a different type of male hero, one who subverts the traditional tropes of masculinity by finding strength in his intellect and his openness rather than just his machismo.
A chiseled jawline and a toned bicep may be nice, but far more attractive is a man who has layers that go beyond the physical — like a willingness to be vulnerable. An unexpected softness. A steady intellect. Traits, in other words, that can be instantly implied with one little pair of glasses.
"Slutty little glasses" are enjoying an undeniable moment in the spotlight. After all, Bailey wears them well. But he is only the latest leading man to set our hearts a flutter with a pair of sexy little specs. Sure, the frames may have shifted from tortoiseshell to titanium, but the appeal of the "slutty little glasses" is timeless.
