Life — December 10, 1903 — page 15: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two distinct cartoons about love and appearance. The upper illustration depicts a fashionable woman in an elegant hat receiving a cherub's gift, with a pastoral landscape behind her. The caption reads "A CHRISTMAS GIFT. JUST WHAT HE WANTED." The lower illustration shows a row of seven male heads with exaggerated, grotesque facial features. The caption states "LOVE MAKES GOOD LOOKERS OF THEM ALL." The satirical point appears to be ironic commentary on romantic idealization: the upper cartoon suggests a woman receives romantic gifts; the lower suggests that love magically transforms even physically unattractive men into handsome ones—or conversely, that women deceive themselves into finding their partners attractive through romantic affection. This plays on the common early-20th-century theme that love blinds people to physical flaws, presented here with humorous visual exaggeration.