Life, 1909-09-23 · page 5 of 28
Life — September 23, 1909 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the **Man's Rights Movement**—an anti-feminist backlash opposing women's suffrage and expanding rights. The central cartoon shows men carrying a log labeled "MAN'S COLE" (likely "Man's Cause"), struggling under its weight while women watch. The accompanying text mocks men claiming they lack basic domestic privileges—one man complains he can't enter his own kitchen or send back sofa pillows. The satire ridicules these grievances as trivial compared to women's actual struggles for equality. "The Propaganda Spreads" section uses a farmyard allegory (a hen and rooster debating eggs) to mock how anti-suffrage arguments spread. The final jab suggests Mr. Taft (likely President William Howard Taft) should have blocked women's rights through injunction rather than apologizing—dripping with sarcasm about such efforts' futility.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PROVE 17, Man’s Rights Movement HE Man's Rights Move “at can’r succerp!” nt is assuming large proportions. There is evidently something in it. “We claim,” said a prominent Man's Righter yesterday, “ that we ought to have the right to go down in the kitchen—our own kitchen—at any hour of the day or night and get something to eat. The idea! Other men expressed themselves as want- i the privilege of bringing friends home to dinner unexpectedly. Several bachelors were of the opinion that they ought to have the right to send back sofa pillows and % slippers, when their bungalows were al- ready full Mrs. Hornblower Smith had this to say: “Ttecan't succeed! ‘The truth is that the men themselves at heart don’t want it This movement originated with a few cranks—feminine men, so to speak, who want to run things. It will die out. That the movement, however, has sig- IP YoU CAN been or- fan's Rights Order, mong the men he head of this mov was seen nificance is shown by the fact that ganized an A themselves. looking man, “Yes,” he said, “it is quite true that we are doi can to quell the movement in favor of Man's Rig burning shame that such a movement should have been started in the first place. Why should we men want any privile any way? My wife has urged me to go into this thing, in the interests of ultimate peac all we It’s a and I am doing all I can to re store law and order. We men of the right sort—the re: bone of the nation—are not looking for trouble. rest and quiet, and not power.” What the end will be no one knows. back- We want The Propaganda Spreads © the little brown hen said the big red rooster: You don’t lay eggs as often And the little brown hen said I'd have you to know I'm a useter."" No, you bet! ffragette!"* NSTEAD of apologizing for the new s@iff bill, Mr. Taft ought to have issued an injunction against it. comicbooks.com