Judge — March 15, 1924 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Held's Follies: "Disclosing the American Girl" This page from *Judge* magazine satirizes 1920s fashion and social mores through caricatures attributed to artist John Held Jr., a prominent chronicler of the Jazz Age. The cartoons mock the "modern American girl" by depicting her in various states of undress and athletic poses—flapper fashion including shortened skirts, rolled stockings, and revealing undergarments. The subtitle "and the American Man!" suggests the satire targets both genders' changing social behavior. The humor relies on exaggeration: the elongated figures, prominent undergarments, and exposed limbs were shocking to conservative audiences but represented actual 1920s fashion liberalization. Held satirizes society's anxiety about women's increased freedom, shorter hemlines, and participation in previously male-dominated activities like sports, playing on generational tensions of the era.