Life — March 23, 1922 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "In the Bank" - Life Magazine Satire This page features a humorous dialogue between female shoppers and a salesman at a bank's confectionery counter, alongside a cartoon illustration. The sketch depicts a woman and boy outside a jewelry store window ("Diamonds & Jewelry"). **The satire's point:** The conversation mocks women's shopping habits and materialism—specifically their tendency to visit banks for frivolous purchases (candy, hats) rather than financial business. The dialogue suggests women were viewed as impulsive consumers rather than serious financial actors. The cartoon's caption—"The Boy: Gee! Ain't women the limit?"—reinforces the era's stereotypes about female irrationality and excessive spending, presenting women's consumer behavior as comically incomprehensible to men. This reflects early 20th-century attitudes about gender and economics.