Life, 1924-05-15 · page 21 of 46
Life — May 15, 1924 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the "bobbed hair" debate of the 1920s. The main article features a husband sarcastically claiming patience while his wife argues for the fashionable short hairstyle—framing women's bodily autonomy as nagging. The top cartoon shows a car accident, captioned with a working-class man threatening violence over a vehicle collision, illustrating rough urban masculinity. The bottom cartoon depicts a tenement kitchen where a mother warns children not to touch an electrical cord, fearing electrocution and property damage. This mocks working-class superstition and ignorance about electricity—a technology newly entering poor households. Both images mock lower-class Americans: one through aggressive masculinity, the other through comedic fear of modern technology. The satire reflects 1920s attitudes viewing working-class urban life as crude and amusing to middle-class readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Protests of an Inoffensive fan ANN Man i\ HAVE listened with patience and \ silence, without the slightest betrayal of amusement, to all the common and uncommon arguments advanced by my wife in favor of bobbed hair. 1 have yet to smile, much less laugh, at the comfort thesis, the time-saving theory or the health sophistry. Neither by word nor by gesture have I ever per mitted her or any other woman to fecl that I do not subscribe to the conveni m1. i have never t any of the prog direct oF indirect, although I confess to having recognized a s witching Rheumatic Old Man: worp on THERE, YoU ME WILL GET A BEATIN’ HPL in the muscles of the right forearm once or twice. Therefore, I submit that after the from further jury duty and to decline “YY cutting has taken place and all the ar- to hear the continuous hi 4c suments in fa of it have been proved — hate as to whether she fallacious I have a right to exemption grow again MeCre “DON'T YOU BE TURNIN’ "AT CURRENT ON WHEN THEY AIN'T NO BULB T’ KETCH IT, FUST THING SPILL ALL DE 'LECTRICITY OUT ON DE FLOH AN’ MAYBE LECTERCUTE YouSE’r.” comicbooks.com