Life — February 11, 1926 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page: "The Working Girl" This page celebrates working women through poetry and humor. The top cartoon shows an artist painting a bathing-girl cover while a model poses—satirizing the objectification of women in commercial art while simultaneously participating in it. "The Professional" narrative mocks a waiter named Pierre who affects French sophistication to impress customers, despite being from Kansas. The satire targets class pretension and the performative nature of service work. The poem "The Working Girl" by Roger Burlingame praises independent women—those with jobs, education, and modern attitudes (wearing long hair, rejecting stockings). It celebrates their intellectual engagement and financial independence while gently mocking the wealthy women they contrast against. The final cartoon references Cinderella, suggesting working girls might achieve upward mobility through hard work.