Life, 1916-09-21 · page 26 of 44
Life — September 21, 1916 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical sketch from Life magazine mocks early 20th-century gender roles by depicting three professional men—an architect, author, and doctor—behaving stereotypically like gossiping women. They wear feminine clothing (voile smoking-jackets, taffeta trousers, Georgette crepe), kiss each other in greeting, discuss others' personal scandals, abandon work for tea, and obsess over clothing for social events. The humor relies on the premise that these behaviors—chatting idly, spreading rumors, prioritizing socializing over productivity—were considered distinctly "feminine" and therefore ridiculous when performed by men. The cartoon's title "Compounding a Felony" suggests that combining such "unmanly" behavior constitutes a serious transgression. The satire critiques rigid gender stereotypes of the era by exaggerating them to absurdity, though it does so without questioning whether these traits were actually inherently feminine or genuinely negative.
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LD PRE If Men Did Things as Women Do “ME Characters: FERDINAND, an architect; CUTHBERT, an author; and OSWALD, a doctor. The Place: Ferdinand’s home on a winter’s afternoon. Ferdinand is discovered seated be fore a drawing-board in his drawing- room, clad in a@ voile smoking-jacket and taffeta trousers, and designing the front elevation for the hen-houses of a Hackensack millionaire, A maid opens the door (1) and admits Cuth- bert, who is clad in an autumn suit of russct duvetine and is carrying a large suitcase. Ferpinanp (kissing Cuthbert): My dear Cuthbert, I’m so glad you came! I was positively perishing from loneli- ness. I hope you brought your work, so that we can have a nice chat over it. I telephoned Oswald to come and bring his work, and he said he would. Cutnpert: How perfectly great! I brought a nice little short story that I've been working on for two or three weeks, and I do so hope that I can finish it to-day. (He opens his suit- case and extracts a portable typewriter, a pile of copy-paper and a heap of manuscript.) Ferpinann (measuring the plans of the hen-house with great care and a pair of calipers): I saw Ernest yesterday, and he’s looking wretchedly. They say that his wife makes him get up two or three times during the night and give the dog a puppy-biscuit. .I think that his health is giving way. Cutnpert (inserting a sheet of copy-paper in his typewriter): 1 don't doubt it. Ernest's wife is a dear girl, but I think that. she touches up her lips with finger-nail polish; and I'm morally certain that she takes a drink of hair-tonic now and then, if not oftener. (He at- tacks his typewriter keys violent- ly, hitting the wrong letter twice and swearing enthusiastically cach time.) (The maid opens the door to ad- mit Oswald, who carries his medi- cine case and is clad in a delicate Georgette crepe coat and messaline trousers, Oswald is kissed by Fer- dinand and Cuthbert, and welcomed ) ! eh if | | with a number of squeals and excited exclamations.) Oswatp: Well, old dears, I've brought my work, and I must just buckle down and do heaps this after- noon. I want to mix some sleeping powders for Conrad Fishhead — and that reminds me, boys: Conrad is rushing a new girl! She has roan- colored hair and a red nose, but some- body recently left her a quarter of a million. (He opens his medicine case and begins to paw over the bottles.) Ferpinanb (erasing a chimney from the plans of the hen-house and substi- tuting a flagpole): I never did care much for Conrad Fishhead. He's ut- terly devoid of principle. Curnpert (poking the space-bar of his typewriter viciously with his index finger): Yes, the two-faced thing! It makes me so angry to think of him that I've split an infinitive! Oswatp: Horrors! You boys talk so much that you have made me get some arsenic in Conrad's sleeping pow- ders by mistake. Ferpinann (throwing down his drawing-pencil petulantly): Oh, let's rot bother with work any more. Let's Ay tty Maia SH Mi i mi Mt ii] “COMPOUNDING A FELONY” have some tea and just sit. for tea.) CurHpert: How thoughtful of you, Ferdinand. I'm tired of this nasty old short story, anyway. And tell me, dear, what are you going to wear at Her- man Bankroll's dinner dance? Oswatp (throwing the bottles into his medicine case and kicking it under his chair): Boys, 1 have the most rav- ishing peau de soie dress-coat with green fishtails and filet mignon inser- tions! You'll be wild about it! (And so on until they have to go home to dinner.) Kennetu L. Roserts, (He rings Let Him Talk, and Print It EY iN the strongest Hughes men must grin at ex-Consul General St. John Gaffney’s intention, disclosed on the day of his arrival in New York, to “establish headquarters at the Wal- dorf and arrange with the Republican managers to stump the country in the interest of Hughes.” Gaffney is a remarkable example of what may happen to a man if he stays too long away from home, especially in war time. The best thing the Hughes papers can do is to encourage him to talk freely, and print everything he says. In that way he will attend to his own case.. At the same time there is much significance in the matter- of-course conviction of Gaffney, fresh from Germany, that Hughes is the man for pro-Germans to elect. What about it, Mr. Hughes? What about it, Republicans gen- erally? Which do you think is more haz- ardous politically, to shoulder this imputation and carry it or try to kick it loose? The Most Difficult “WHat do you consider the most difficult feat in the world? “Well, there may be things hard- er than proving to your wife that she is extravagant, but I don't know what they are.” T EACHER: Willie. “ Frigid, temperate, torpid and 0.” Name the zones,