Judge — May 5, 1917 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts a woman at her mirror being fitted into a corset by attendants, with small dogs nearby. The title "Girth Control" is a pun on "birth control"—a highly controversial topic in early 20th-century America. The satire equates women's obsession with maintaining a fashionably slim silhouette (achieved through restrictive corsetry) with birth control efforts. Both were considered scandalous subjects involving female bodily autonomy. The cartoon mocks upper-class women's vanity and the extreme measures they'd undergo for appearance, while simultaneously playing on anxieties about women's reproductive independence. The artist appears to be commenting on what was considered a more socially acceptable female preoccupation—appearance control—versus the morally fraught topic of actual birth control.