Judge — May 13, 1922 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Judge Magazine Cartoon (May 18, 1922) This single-panel cartoon by Robert Patterson depicts two women in what appears to be a bedroom. One woman, standing and holding a mirror, asks another seated woman: "Do you go to the movies alone, my dear?" The response: "Not since I left my husband." The joke satirizes marital dynamics and changing social attitudes in the 1920s. It suggests that married women had limited independence, using "going to the movies alone" as shorthand for female autonomy. The woman's statement that she only gained this freedom after leaving her husband implies that marriage restricted women's personal liberty—a commentary on restrictive spousal expectations of the era. The cartoon humorously critiques traditional marriage constraints on women's independence.