Life — March 2, 1916 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Life Magazine Page 383: Social Satire on Post-War Fashions and Domestic Life This page contains satirical commentary on early 20th-century social conventions. The "Fashions" essay mocks wealthy husbands' fashion requirements—they must be "well decorated with large bank accounts, enormous stock holdings and substantial deeds of land." For wives, there's commentary on post-war dating: heroines no longer pursue European titled husbands but instead seek "husbands—wounded or about-to-be-wounded." The "Reported Birth-Bed Utterances" section presents humorous dialogue about matrimonial arrangements. The lower cartoon "More Than Ready" depicts a man boasting of having "one hundred and seventy-nine grown sons, and quite a few daughters for nurses"—satirizing large families' patriarchal structures and women's expected domestic roles as caregivers.