Life, 1912-01-18 · page 7 of 44
Life — January 18, 1912 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine satirizes gender relations and women's suffrage through the article "Women Are Women" and accompanying illustrations. The main text argues that women's suffrage won't solve society's problems because women aren't fundamentally different from men—they're simply women, not pseudo-men. It critiques the notion that giving women voting rights will dramatically reform politics or society. The top illustration titled "Noblesse Oblige" depicts an elegant social gathering, likely showing the contradiction between upper-class women's refined presentation and their actual desires or capabilities. The two smaller cartoons mock gender differences in practical matters: the shoe-fitting joke plays on the stereotype that women prioritize vanity (buying smaller sizes) over comfort, while the "Commercial Traveler" cartoon involves ambiguous dialogue about stockings—likely double-entendre humor typical of the era. The overall message is skeptical of women's suffrage activism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NOBLESSE OBLIGE Women Are Women THE Civil War was fought under the impression (in the North) that a negro was a black white-man. But he isn’t, and reconstruction promoted on that basis broke down. The Votes for Women war seems to be promoted on the theory that woman is a beardless man. But she isn't. She isn’t a man at all, and in so far as the projected re- construction of society is conceived on the basis that woman has a right to be a man, it isn’t going to work. The average woman not only is not a man, but doesn’t want to be. Neither does she want to take up with man’s work. OUTH asks for love, Manhood for money and Age for peace. MAN says: If the shoe fits, put it on. A woman says: If the shoe fits, get a size smaller. IRST NEW YORKER: Been South this winter? Seconp New Yorker: Yes. “How was Fourteenth street?” “COMMERCIAL TRAVELER, EH? “ STOCKINGS.” WHAT'S YOUR LINE?”