Judge — October 25, 1919 — page 23: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes the early 20th-century anti-corset movement by showing performers and public figures demonstrating physical exercises and movements supposedly designed to reduce waist size without restrictive clothing. The title plays on "wastefulness"—suggesting corsets were wasteful of women's health and freedom. The photographs feature named entertainers (Charles Fontaine, Henry Burr, John Steele, Giuseppe de Luca, Sam Ash, Vernon Dalhart, Charles Dalmores, and Amy Ellerman) performing exaggerated physical contortions—bending, stretching, twisting, holding weights—presented as fashionable "anti-waist" exercises. The satire mocks both the anti-corset crusade's earnestness and these celebrities' willingness to publicly perform undignified movements for the cause. The humor lies in the absurdity of the exercises themselves and the celebrities' participation in this health trend.