Life, 1922-03-23 · page 14 of 34
Life — March 23, 1922 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical article uses rat-trapping as metaphor for gender relations. Director George Jennison of Manchester Zoo proposes eliminating female rats to control population—a literal approach to a common problem. The accompanying diagram shows an elaborate trap with separate entrances for males and females, allowing males to exit while trapping females. Author Oliver Hereford gently mocks this scheme, suggesting the real issue (like the female mosquito's "singing") lies with females, then ironically asks for scientific study of female mosquito behavior instead. The piece satirizes both Jennison's misogynistic solution and broader early-20th-century attitudes blaming women for social problems. The French phrase "cherchez la femme" (look for the woman) was a period cliché suggesting women caused trouble.
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‘LIFE .- Cherchez la Femme-Rat “There is only one way to rid the world of rats—to destroy the females and turn the males loose.” —Director George Jennison, Manchester Zoélogical Gardens. IRECTOR JENNISON is right as far as he goes, but like many original thinkers all he does is to break the ground of Prejudice as with a plough, and prepare the soil for other thinkers (like myself) to plant the seed of ful- fillment. To discriminate against the female of the specics seems hard under any circumstances and in warfare it is the height of savagery; but rats are rats and their males and females dress so exactly alike that the chivalrous pity aroused by feminine follies and frivolities of costume, which in the human species finds expression in the term “weaker sex,” has no place in the consideration of the rat family. Since reading the latest statistics, I can think of nothing that would annoy a rat-wife or rat-maid more than to call her one of the weaker sex. According to Mr. Jennison, four males and six females will increase in less than two years to 120,000 males and 170,000 females, which shows that in the rat family the fe- male sex is numerically the stronger and in proportion more mischievous, if not more deadly, than the male. This being so, what could be cleverer than for Mr. Jen- rated strictly in accordance with the taste, color-sense an requirements of the female rat. My plan, therefore, ig ; devise a trap whose color-scheme and furnishings will g happily reflect the taste of the home nest as to be irre sistibly attractive to the female rat. Not being familiar with the home life of the female ra Tam unable to depict, in the appended drawing (made { the Patent Office), the details of the interior furnishing and decoration of my trap, but the picture will serve j explain its basic principle, which consists of two entrance one for the male and one for the female rat. \bove th female entrance (A) is a large notice, “LADIES’ EN TRANCE,” printed in English, French, Belgian and Scan] dinavian. Over the othe door (B) is just the word “ENTRANCE,” and th door opens inward to a bare unattractive compartmen which, in addition to this en] trance, has three large door that open outwards, eac marked plainly with the wor “EXIT."* This enables the male rat to choose his ex the moment he has entere and leave at once. nison to devise for his rat The female, on the othe: hand, after she has appraise the furnishings and_ sniffe campaign a policy that may be summed up in the imper- ishable phrase of Duma pere, “Cherches la femme!” The thing to do, he says, is to kill the females and leave the males to destroy one an- other—but right here Mr. Jennison’s inventive faculty gives out. How to catch the female rats and leave the males at large he does not tell us. It has remained for me to invent a trap that will do the trick. Anyone who has made a study of the rat's nest (1 have not) must know that it is designed, furnished and deco- “This enables the male rat to choose he has entered.’ at the color-scheme and (e- cided that she prefers her own apartment, will find, to late, that she has entered by a one-way door! Since perfecting my trap it has been suggested that a it is the female mosquito that does the stinging, a trap con structed on similar principles might be invented to attra female mosquitoes. In view of this, I shall be glad to hear of any reliabl work on the home-life of the female mosquito. Oliver Herford. exit the moment *For night use, red lights may be hung over the exits. Triolets H REWITH I send you my heart. Marking it “Fragile — don't break it.” Rather a radical start— Herewith I send you my heart; Take it, I beg, in good part (That is, assuming you'll take it). Herewith I send you my heart, Marking it “Fragile—don’t break it.” What, AKE me, or let me alone— after all, does matter? Ever my feelings you've known; Take me, or let me alone— Though, I might readily own, I'd recommend you the latter. Take me, or let me alone— What, after all, does it matter? WEET, I have waited toc long; Heedless and wanton Ive tarried. Silenced forever my song,— Sweet, I have waited too long, Bitter the hemlock, and strong— Now you have gone and got marrie!! Sweet, I have waited too long: Heedless and wanton, I’ve tarried. Dorothy Parker. comicbooks.com