Life, 1910-11-10 · page 28 of 44
Life — November 10, 1910 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes two early-20th-century trends. The left side offers mock "fortunes" for women born in November (days 10-16), using caricatured female faces to predict their futures as wives—typically depicting them as vain, extravagant, or difficult. The humor relies on crude stereotypes about women's personalities and appearance. The right article, "The Fear of Fat," critiques the contemporary fashion obsession with extreme thinness. The author observes that women across all weight categories aspire to be dangerously underweight (aiming for 102-130 lbs regardless of their proper weight), driven purely by style rather than health. The piece argues this fashion damages women's energy, temperament, and ability to work, and that the "sylph-like figure" trend is socially destructive since it provides no real health benefit. The satire mocks both the fashion industry's influence and women's compliance with a harmful standard.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
« (ISPAR LIFE'S INFALLIBLE FORTUNE TELLER The Fear of Fat HY are the ladies so violently If you were born on concerned to be thin? Every- where one hears about it or sees the November signs of it. Gauntness is the fashion Women to whom it belongs to weigh 200 aspire to 160; women who by rights “ES Your future wife ‘Your future husband #@~ should weigh 180 aspire to 145; women will have what she will be a pompous who are well and comfortable and hand- ea Boheniee AT Yee ote some at 165 must be slim at 130, and so eins aaa it Gulp addicial, on down to young creatures who are cuined “by eating chewing cum. healthy and should be happy at 120, but cheap table d'hote starve themselves in hopes of being ethe- dinners, real and visionary at 102. What is the matter with contemporary women that they yearn so to be thin? “G8 Your future wile You fubime hustendaa” Is it good for them? Ask the nerve will have the expen- gas specialists and all the other doctors oe avai wink sone ealaiocs fash: Broken-down digestions may be helped ings interfere with ily and friends by by a restricted diet. Women who are her ability to walk. turning out to be a really too fat are not well, and their model spouse. health may be improved and their com- fort increased by dieting. But it is not “Ge Your future wife ‘Your future husband &@~ health or comfort that nine out of ten eee bee trcetliched Will be acuood of the contemporary reducers are after, slightly tinged with waltzer and fond of but mere style. It is the fashion to be peroxide and Pres- the sport. This as thin as possible, and our poor friends byterianism. In pol- ill clash with your are very eager to be in the fashion. itics she will be a purely domestic in- The cost of their endeavors is pretty Sutragit. elects serious. When they go without suitable food their tempers suffer and their asso- ciates are by so much the losers. Their GB Your future wile ‘Your future husband a> energies and their powers of endurance will go in for ath- will stand six he are of course depleted. Women who Ietics and sensible- two in his stocking have work to do, and do it, have to eat, length skirts. She feet, but will not will not approve of stand any back talk your waxing your from his loving moustache. wife. for otherwise they can't get through their work. It must be that these la- dies who yearn so disastrously for a fragility of appearance that nature did not intend for them, have no duties that are pressing enough to constrain them to “@B Your future wile ‘Your future husband 52 maintain their strength. Very little will be fond of ace will tn hislater ‘ food will support life if neither mind tors, and therefore years become a des- a dispenser of perate flirt, which nor body works hard, and of the two it Shree elise Ge ill bo'bigtdy attics: takes more food to maintain the mind's pedy: ing to you and your activities than the body's. Let our women friends, friends who are underfeeding themselves to bring their weight down take care that they do not pay more in gaicty “GB Your future wile ‘Your future husband #7 of spirits and social and mental capacity will have a large will be a profession- than a sylph-like figure is worth to them family, all sisters, al gambler, and you There is only one sound reason for and you will be ex- will accumulate & dicting—that is health. There is no pected to he a sort large collection of of amateur matri- masculine jewelry. monial agent. such enchantment in slimness as our dieting friends suppose. Women look best, as a rule, at the weight at which they feel best. To acquire a weight mes Vis lesen, ‘a Tieur’ Racha thirty or forty pounds below what Lirsj oy agnicied cil Wille weueh bad really belongs to them is to make ab- unos cei ded aha) abeests stention do the work of sickness, and confer: (olson. all your friends by usually with a like result—that they fect Would: yeu) ever insisting on reading mighty mean and look as they feel have an attack of it aloud. There is no beauty in anything that dis- delirium tremens. turbs the health comicbooks.com