Judge — August 28, 1920 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This Judge magazine page (August 28, 1920) features an illustration titled "Held's Belles" by artist John Held Jr., depicting fashionable young women in 1920s attire and poses. The subtitle "A, E, I, O, U— or The Mysterious Letters" by Gelett Burgess suggests wordplay or coded meaning, though the specific reference is unclear. The cartoon satirizes the "flapper" aesthetic—the modern, liberated woman of the Jazz Age era. The exaggerated proportions, abbreviated clothing (bathing suits and sportswear), and dynamic poses mock both the new women's fashion and the social anxieties surrounding changing gender roles during this period. Held was famous for popularizing the flapper image in American culture.