Life, 1926-05-06 · page 20 of 52
Life — May 6, 1926 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes editorial standards and corporate morality at a magazine (likely *Life* itself). The main article, "The Newer Morality," depicts Vice-President Warthog (a caricatured executive) pressuring the editor to remove a girls' basketball team photo from publication because it shows girls in athletic costumes—deemed inappropriate for a family magazine despite being innocent. The satire targets the hypocrisy: Warthog claims moral concern for "good citizenship" and community values, yet his actual motive is controlling public perception through censorship. The editor acquiesces despite recognizing the absurdity. The accompanying cartoon "Saturday Night in the Mountains" and other sketches provide lighter comic relief on the same page. The piece reflects 1920s anxieties about women's changing social roles (athletic participation, shorter skirts) and institutional gatekeeping of acceptable imagery—criticizing how magazines claimed moral authority while practicing arbitrary censorship.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
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