Life, 1914-03-12 · page 27 of 44
Life — March 12, 1914 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes gender politics and social hypocrisy in early 20th-century America. The top photograph shows laborers and horses—"work"—contrasting with the illustrated vignettes below showing romantic courtship—"play." The text criticizes a figure named "Doctor Wright" (likely a real public figure) who carelessly revealed his true opinions about women's roles, committing a "diplomatic sin" by speaking plainly rather than maintaining polite pretense. The article mocks him for being "genuinely unconscious" of his gaffe and destined to become "a laughing stock." The cartoon captions underscore the satire: a man begs a woman to hide her "reactionary fashions" and "endearing young charms" next year—implying women were expected to perform femininity and attractiveness while men publicly denied that women deserved equality or franchise (voting rights). The joke targets the contradiction between what men *say* about women's roles and what they actually *believe*.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
0 history (if his arguments prove anything at all it is that he himself should be dis franchised for feminity), but as a Burchard. Like the famous. cricr of “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion”, Doctor Wright—who would doubtless rather dic than keep his hat on in a lift where there has let anger lead him into indiseretion—into stripping off pretence like a coat and handing it 10 a bystander while he jumps into the ring and bawls out in plain English what he and. his hind really think in their hearts that vomen were made for. Poor gentleman! He is so genuinely he has done; or of the may be a bone were la conscious of w act that, whi contention for a mo- nt, he is soon destined to be a laugh- ing stock. For he has committed the unpardonable diplomatic sin. He has let the cat out of the bag. J. B. Kerfoot N the school for scandal there are no women in the kindergarten class. WORK AND PLAY “OM, RELIEVE ME, TR ALL THOSE ENDEARING YOUNG CHARMS, WHICIT ON SO FONDLY TO-DAY— -———WEKE To Pi YEAR bY 1p STILL AN REACTIONARY RE TRUE” HIDDEN, NPXT FASHION, comicbooks.com