Life, 1919-02-06 · page 12 of 38
Life — February 6, 1919 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1919 *Life* magazine page satirizes women's wartime service and post-war identity. The top cartoon mocks the "Ex-Chorus Lady" — women who served in WWI efforts but whose contributions were being dismissed or trivialized back home. The main illustration, titled "Promenade des Soldierettes," depicts women in military-style uniforms with exaggerated hats, suggesting confusion about female military dress codes. The caption jokes that women should first "decide on the branch of service you desire to enter" and "see if the uniform suits your style" — satirizing both the novelty of women in uniform and society's superficial concern with fashion over actual service. The page reflects post-WWI anxieties about women's changing roles and the tension between acknowledging female contributions and dismissing them as temporary or performative.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
First Ex-Chorus Lady: rin kOW THAT OUGHT TO it Visitors Welcome O far, nothing has been heard of the likelihood of a return visit by of the stay-at-home rulers of Europe. Not so much as one party-call on the White House social calendar. Yet we do have our little problems over here. There's the Federal amendment, example. (No, ladies, not the B, Anthony one, but the one about the Susan SAY, MADG MANAGER HERE, RUT THERE'S A LOT OF HOMELY GUYS IN THAT FRONT WAY Ut STAGE, £, 1 AIN'T SAYING ANYTHING ALOUT Demon.) Now, wouldn't it be nice if Clemencean, say, could be perstiaded to come over to America and help recon- cile the differences between the dis- tillers and the Anti-Saloon League be fore they take up arms about it in the © Court! Or, in case he got his amendments mixed, he might do something to help us get together on He could take King Victor Emmanuel of Italy Supre votes-for-womer his choice, “PROMENADE DES SOLDIERETTES* is a democratic sort, they say. Why not persuade him to pay us a call, and sce what he can do to help the govern ment and the railroads work out a ndi that will please every- body? As for the Georges—Lloyd and V—we would gladly get out the family sgold service and give one or both » hang-up dinner if they'd only drop in and teach the milkman and the farmer how to stop quarreling over prices and give us milk. On the other han Albert of Belgium might be the ve man, If the experiment works abroad, modus why not here? Where Rum Found Voice HUGE two million-gallon tank of molasses blew up on a wharf in Boston on Janu 15th, killing ten or twelve people, injuring f c buildings and raising general, and very sticky, hob. The explosion was un precedented and unaccountable, except by post-mortem hypotheses that alleged fermentation. Nobo¢ ms to have suggested that it was the expiring pro- test of the Demon Rum against. the hone-dry amendment. An Important Cablegram Wirsox, Parts: LEASE hurry home. Let someone clse do it, Tur Awerican Prorte LADIVS, BEFORE DECIDING ON THE BRANCH OF SERVICE YOU DESIRE TO ENTER, SER IF THE UNIFORM SUITS YOUR STYLE