Life — March 2, 1922 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Fickle Girl" - Life Magazine, March 2, 1922 This cover illustration by Herbert Paus depicts a woman riding atop a massive, unstable structure composed of stacked heads and classical architectural elements. The tagline "The wind bloweth where it listeth" (from the Bible) suggests her capricious, unpredictable nature. The cartoon likely satirizes women's newly gained voting rights (19th Amendment ratified in 1920) and concerns about female political fickleness—a common anxiety among male commentators of the era. The precarious, top-heavy composition suggests women voters were seen as unstable forces that could topple established order. The cherub with Cupid's arrow reinforces stereotypes linking women's choices to romance rather than rational judgment. This reflects early 1920s anxieties about women's expanded political power.