Life — July 31, 1913 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "As to Julia: Suffragette" This page presents a poem by John Kendrick Bangs about a woman named Julia who is a suffragette (women's rights activist). The header illustration shows six caricatured figures representing different female stereotypes or roles. The poem expresses a man's conflicted feelings: he disapproves of Julia's suffrage activism and her neglect of traditional "feminine station," yet he cannot help loving her. He worries about her jail time and radical behavior, though he admits her passion "fills my heart with woe." The illustration below titled "Prodigal Daughters" appears to depict fashionable women in what seems a leisure setting, likely satirizing the lifestyle or perceived frivolousness of women activists or the "New Woman" of the early 20th century. The satire mocks both suffragettes and male anxiety about women's independence.