Life — August 25, 1910 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Political/Social Satire Analysis This page from *Life* magazine (August 21, 1910) satirizes women's smoking and the W.C.T.U. (Women's Christian Temperance Union). The cartoon at top left shows two caricatured female faces labeled "While there is Life there's Hope"—likely mocking women who've taken up cigarette smoking. The article argues that American women are increasingly smoking, contrary to W.C.T.U. efforts. The author suggests that if women must smoke, they should do so "decently" rather than publicly on streets. He notes historical precedent (women once smoked pipes) while framing modern female smoking as unseemly and attention-seeking. The satire criticizes both the hypocrisy of social reformers and the perceived impropriety of women's emerging independence in consuming tobacco.