Life, 1911-08-03 · page 16 of 40
Life — August 3, 1911 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the "New Woman" movement and commercialized femininity of the early 1900s. The cartoon depicts a dubious "League" teaching young women to prioritize appearance and attract male attention through makeup, fashion, and deportment. The satire targets: 1. **Shallow consumerism**: The fake institution offers absurd paid services—$100 for five-minute introductions to "society leaders," $300+ corsets, $10,000/year dress lessons—mocking wealthy women's spending and the fashion industry's exploitation. 2. **Anti-feminist backlash**: The text dismisses modesty as outdated while promoting appearance as women's primary power, rejecting education (mocking "suffragettes"). It's cynical commentary on how society redirects female ambition into consumer culture. 3. **Class anxiety**: References to "nouveaux riches" trying to "break into" society satirize the nouveau-riche obsession with status markers during America's Gilded Age. The accompanying article about children's suicide attempts provides grim contrast, suggesting social commentary on desperation underlying this gilded facade.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
184 the sentiment of many mistaken and old-fashioned people who do not keep pace with the progress of the times. This League is based, as we have all along insisted, upon a fundamental principle, and that principle is that unless you can keep the men of the country. startled and interested, we shall begin to retrograde. Woman controls man through her appearance ; therefore the earlier she starts to learn how to do this the better she will be, Modesty has long since gone out. We do not believe from our ex- perience that it interests the men any more. We think it may, later on, wher new styles come in, As soon as it does, all our machinery shall be em- ployed to bring it out. At present all young girls, unless they wish to be- come school teachers or suffragettes, should take advantage of our unique opportunity and learn how to wear clothes. To wives who wish to appear in the latest mode, but whose husbands say they cannot afford it, we have some news of interest. We have opened up in connection with our dressmaking department a bureau of instruction for wives, showing them how to buy all the clothes they want and have their husbands continually pleased about it. No matter how small your income is, we teach you how to live beyond it with ease The Park lake has just been opened and classes in bathing suits meet every morning at eleven We show you how to wear a bathing suit on the beach, and how to walk into the water with one on. Before going away for your summer outing step in, register and take a few lessons. The lake is open to the public, the idea being to get our patrons used to being stared at by a promiscuous crowd, this being one of the essentials of an American education. Our daily programme is as follo’ Park opens at nine aM. School of salesmanship at ten at. In this school we teach young women how to sell goods to fashionable patrons. We teach you in three lessons how to acquire “the super- cilious stare” and “the haughty aspect.” Natatorium at cleven. Grand parade of nouveaux riches at noon. All of our cus- tomers who are trying to “ break in” to society are requested to be on hand at this hour. The parade is divided into “ Par- venues,” “ Mushrooms,” “ Sports,” ete. « At one o'clock daily a reception is held, in which those who desire to get into society are introduced to a few real society leaders who have kindly consented to meet them. A small charge of a hundred dollars is made for a five minutes’ interview with any society leader on our list. Special scale of prices sent on application. Banting class at two o'clock. We specially recommend this to all ladies of fifty or over. No rolling on the floor or dieting. We reduce your figure by xsthetic measures. Ex- hibition daily. If you cannot leave your own home and wish to learn how to dress yourself, consult our correspondence department. We can show you how to make your own clothes at home at PAINT THE PACE WITH INSURES THE RESPECTPUL ATTENTION OF EVERY MALE YOU MEET “MAKE-UP” FOR GIRLS OF SIXTEEN SEPULCHRE WHITE AND VAMPIRE CERISE. THIS COLOR-SCHEME a cost not exceeding ten thousand dollars a year. It is always necessary to have your corsets made to order. The other day a lady from Keokuk came in with a four-hundred-dollar gown over a six-dollar corset. Lay the foundation and we will do the rest. See our corset maker before going further. For three hundred dollars we will make you a pair of corsets that will be simple, but entirely effective. The material alone in these corsets costs nearly cighty cents. Addre Fasuton Rerorm Leacue. Good Business Men yes is from theAtianta, Ga., Constitution: ATTEMPTED DEATH REVEALS CHILDREN’S SUICIDE PACT Cuattanoocs, Texx., July 13 | children, utterly weary of their (Special) —attempts of four: | Work and appalled ‘by’ the lone. ten-year-old Alma Whaley, a child of the cotton mills, to ‘kill herself by drinking carbclic acid have brought to light the exist: ence of a solemn. suicide pact among a number of the small toilers in Knoxville mills. Alma drank one and one-half drams of the acid Tuesday night, and it was all physicians could do to rave her. Later she was visited by Mrs. W. J. Oliver, the wife of the millionaire contractor, and the kindness of the charitable wom- an drew a confession from the child that she and several other cheerless vista before them, de: cided to die. “We wanted to die,” said the little girl. “We have no time to play or to go anywhere except to the mills and back home. We go to work at six and work until six, and there's nothing in the future for us but work, and we thought it would be better to die.” Mrs. Oliver ‘will give this child a long vacation, and, the incident may ‘serve to lighten the labors of the other mill chit- dren. There must be money in children, if one knows how to work ‘em to advantage. We offer our congratulations to the owners of the Knoa- ville cotton mills. { | |