Life, 1914-06-04 · page 47 of 52
Life — June 4, 1914 — page 47: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Left Column - Editorial Content:** This is Hutchins Hapgood's essay attacking feminism as a "criminal instinct." The piece sarcastically praises feminism while condemning it, arguing that the organized Suffrage Party and Socialist Party are ineffectual because they're too respectable and law-abiding. Hapgood's central claim: true feminism is radical and lawless, destined to disrupt male-dominated institutions regardless of political legality. The "Narcissus" illustration (top left) likely depicts self-absorption—possibly critiquing either male vanity or the movement's focus. **Right Column - Advertisement:** A Richard Hudnut toilet water ad featuring an ornate decorative border. This placement is notable: the magazine juxtaposes Hapgood's lengthy polemic against women's liberation with a luxury beauty product advertisement targeting women, creating ironic contrast between the editorial's radical rhetoric and the magazine's commercial appeal to female consumers. **Context:** This reflects early 20th-century Life magazine's satirical, often contradictory stance on women's rights—simultaneously mocking suffragists while profiting from women's consumer culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NARCISSUS and sterilized husk of the Social Movement. Both Suf- fragism and Party Socialism express the fallacious belief in the efficacy of politics to assist in evolutionary and revo- lutionary processes. The Socialist Party and the Suffrage Party are both eminently respectable. They are painfully law-abiding. They would be superstitious if they were not so practical. They want votes. So we see the spectacle of the Socialist Party fighting bitterly all disreputable or illegal move- ments connected with the deeper unrest of the day; and we find the Suffrage Party fighting bitterly all feminist instincts which go deeper than the desire for the super- ficial, legal but impotent vote. Feminism is a criminal instinct. It is like the restless monkey, who, possessed with an illegitimate desire, left the law-abiding monkeys in the trees and descended to the jungle, struggled in unfamiliar conditions, and evolved Mankind. Feminism is destined to do good to men without their knowledge or consent, especially without their consent. Feminism shocks the inherited and institutionalized moral- ity and taste of the male. The male has exploited himself by his success and power, and now he adores sentimentally the structures he has built and desires no others. He is conventionalized, and so is no longer exciting and stimu- lating to the woman. He is no longer adventurous and illegal. He is a dry and unpoetic lover. Feminism passionately determines that man shall be rescued from his own past accomplishments. He shall be stirred with a new, painful emotion. Not only shall he be jealous, but he shall be ashamed of his jealousy. To him a new, deep pain. He shall see Woman ing in fruitful excitement against those sterilized prejudices which he calls morality, virtue and taste. While feeling this pain he cannot see that Woman, by becoming in- dependent of his labor, his morality and his taste, is in reality setting him free, so that he may become a fit mate for her. At the root of feminism lics a largely unconscious im- pulse toward what the philosophers call a “re-valuation of all values”. This impulse is in the service of a larger life. The ideas connected with it are not destined to prevail, as no idea ever prevails. But the impulse, in some as yet unnameable way, is destined to affect every institution and social form, It strains against legal and respectable bounds and bonds, and hence is, in the high, salubrious sense, a criminal instinct. Hutchins Hapgood. ©. 2Y®, 9) Sy ey « ‘Bey Zf PT IEE ask bse eC TOILET WATER The value of toilet water is in the feeling of freshness its use inspires. The delicacy of Violet Sec Totlt Water, its elusive fragrance and lasting quality have made it the choice of smart women everywhere. RICHARD HUDNUT NEW YORK AND PARIS comicbooks.com