Judge, 1902-06-21 · page 5 of 16
Judge — June 21, 1902 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes female modesty conventions of the Edwardian era. A woman in a bathing suit stands with her back turned to the ocean, facing the shore—a humorous inversion of normal bathing. The joke plays on anxieties about swimwear: women's bathing costumes of this period were extremely modest by modern standards, yet still provoked social concern about propriety. The poem suggests the woman turns her back to the water (and away from male observers) to prevent her tight bathing suit from becoming even more revealing when wet. The "swells" referenced are both ocean waves and fashionable men watching from the beach. The satire mocks the absurd prudishness of the era—women couldn't bathe comfortably without worrying about their clothing's fit and what observers might see. The cartoonist (Penrhyn Stanlaws) ridicules these exaggerated social constraints on female swimmers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
\_ Pewaupea ST Ac laws. COPYRIGHT, 1902, ay JUDGE COMPANY OF NEW YORK THE BACKWARD BATHER. It {s not what the waves are saying But what they might say when she Strange, too: it only gets more tight She turns her back on hotel swells That the maiden cares to know, stands With each new draught of water. Whene’er she takes the notion: But it's only when they are playing And turns on them her back ‘Twill be a worthy Keeleyite ‘So when she bathes the habit tells— That she gives the waves a show. _Is that no eye the strength commands ‘When a few more swells have She turns it on the ocean. To find her bath-suit slack. caught her. Jou J. A wacker. EDITOR'S NOTE.—Here is a competition for amateur artists. JUDGE will pay TEN DOLLARS for the best hand-colored copy of the above dra cents in stamps.a special hand-proof of the drawing, printed ia black outline upon Stembach water-color paper, will be seat to any address. the amateur artist in water-colors, crayon, of od, and must be sent to us by mail, postage prepa, addressed to the Judge Art Department, 110 Fifth Avenue, New York. No copy other than the special proof-copy can be used in this competition. On receipt of twenty-five ‘This special bbe colored by hand by DECISION IN THE THIRD STANLAWS ART COMPETITION. Miss la F, Derry, . Youngstown, Ohio, is awarded the §1o prize for the best colored picture sent to us of the Stanlaws drawing which ay he pictures la 5 - rvey, Hellefontaine, Penn.; Mr. Fred S. Crouse, 62 Crouse Street, Mansfield, Ohio; Miss Winitred J. Smith, wn ere Heo per iT ee egg erg ir ' comicbooks.com