Life — November 23, 1928 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page showcases cartoonist John Held Jr.'s satirical sketches from the 1920s era. The content appears to be social satire focused on flapper culture and Jazz Age youth behavior. The sketches depict exaggerated female figures in fashionable dress engaging in what appears to be scandalous or frivolous activities—dancing, socializing, and general revelry. The humor targets young women's perceived moral looseness and rejection of Victorian propriety during the post-WWI period. Held Jr.'s distinctive elongated figure style emphasizes the era's fashion trends (short skirts, bobbed hair) while mocking what conservative observers viewed as dangerous social changes. The biographical text confirms Held started his career as a Life contributor at age fifteen, becoming the era's definitive visual chronicler of youth culture's perceived excesses and moral decline.