Life — April 12, 1923 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Lines by a Lady on a Diet" This page satirizes the experience of dieting through both poem and cartoon. The poem, attributed to Baird Leonard, humorously contrasts the philosophical aspirations a dieter should pursue (mental improvement, spiritual elevation) with the actual preoccupation: food. References to "Walt Whitman's policy" and "Pater's creed" invoke serious intellectual traditions that the dieter supposedly wants to embrace, but instead finds themselves obsessing over steaks and meals. The cartoon shows two women with a child, with the caption's joke about teaching a child "to keep quiet now"—likely implying that women on restrictive diets become irritable or withdrawn due to hunger. The satire targets the social pressure on women to diet while acknowledging the psychological toll this takes.