Life — March 4, 1920 — page 33: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes the Red Cross organization through a dialogue between a man and woman on a city street. The man asks the woman to join the Red Cross; she responds by asking if joining would permit her to "lead a double life." The joke plays on the Red Cross's red cross symbol—the woman interprets "double cross" literally as duplicity or infidelity, rather than understanding it as simply the organization's name. This satirizes both the woman's naïveté and perhaps contemporary attitudes about women's charitable work and social propriety. The cartoon suggests that joining the Red Cross might provide cover for illicit activities, mocking either the organization's oversight or satirizing assumptions about women's behavior. The humor relies entirely on this verbal/visual pun with the cross symbol.