Life — August 22, 1930 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of "The Gloucester City Vanities" Page This page contains a letter-to-editor debate about a bronze statue of a nude female figure in Gloucester City Park (New Jersey). A woman protested the statue's "immorality," and Jack Cluett, the park commission's assistant secretary, responds dismissively. Cluett argues the statue has stood unnoticed for fifty years, that it's no worse than women in bathing suits, and that removing it would be an unnecessarily difficult task. He suggests clothing the figure instead, or waiting until spring to plant vines to cover it. The accompanying cartoon shows a weathered statue being rained on, with the caption "Will the weather this, Captain?" — suggesting that time and nature will resolve the controversy without intervention, mocking the protester's concerns as petty.