Life, 1912-04-25 · page 16 of 44
Life — April 25, 1912 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early feminist demands for women's political participation, specifically the push for female presidential candidates around 1912. **The Main Satire:** The "Presidential Application Blank" mocks women's qualifications for the presidency by listing absurd requirements: ability to speak for four hours without tiring, prior marriage, a husband capable of presiding over White House functions, and questions about hobble skirts and cocktails. The joke targets the contradiction—women are being considered "candidates" while simultaneously being required to have husbands who do the actual leading. **The Cartoons:** The top illustration shows a child disrupting a woman's work, captioned with her postponing punishment. The bottom cartoon ("I Want 'Life'!") appears to show someone desperately seeking the magazine itself. **"A True Declaration":** This mock-Declaration of Independence sarcastically rewrites American ideals, asserting that people are *not* created equal and that rights like liberty are "easiest things in the world to take away"—critiquing governments that make hollow promises. The overall message: Life magazine ridicules both women's suffrage advocates and government rhetoric as equally foolish.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
864 She must be able to speak with ease and facility for iour hours at a stretch without tiring her She must have been married at least once. Her hus- band must be thoroughly equipped to take the position of the first man of the land; this means, of course, that he is able to preside over all White House functions. In sending in your applications, please read the attached blank form very carefully, and fill it in with legible hand- writing. Your name will be placed on file and carefully considered Pri NTIAL APPLICATION BLANK. I wish to be considered as a candidate for the Presi- dency in 1912. My full name iso... and my address is (Candidates are required to fill in answers below.) Age (approximate) Weight .. * ve Have you ever worn a Hobble Skirt? Smoked a cigarette? Give circumstances Ever taken a cocktail? ........ Does your hushand support you? see What public fnctions have you presided over? Ever laid a corner stone or conducted woman's clu State full particulars . If elected President, whom would you select as mem- hers of Cabinet? - “ou, MOTHER! A WINDOW WITIT MY pau.” “VERY WELL, ToMatY, I'M BUSY JUST Now, DUT IF YOU'LL REMIND ME LATER I'LL PUNISIL YOU.” A True Declaration HEN in the course of human events, it becomes nec- essary for a people to find out how foolish they been and to reduce that foolishness to the minimum; anc to that end, to examine the abstractions and axioms traditions and superstitions and dogmas have builded their institutions; and to revise these in the light c c edge and experience, a decent re- spect for th requires them to cease their mere childish rhetoric and to tell the truth as nearly as possible. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all mer are iar from being created equal; that they are not en dowed by their Creator with any in: less the rights of life and liberty. and liberty are the easiest things in the world to take away. They may be endowed with the right to pursue happiness, but not t catch it. When silly, phrase-making governments promise to make these rights inalienable, they are promising im possible things and should be promptly subjected to the boot in favor of other governments which promise less “T Want ‘uirel’” and do more. plications or si Campaign Manager, this office. comicbooks.com