The Wasp — 1896 — page 863: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts a woman on a bicycle encountering two well-dressed figures. The caption reveals the joke: Mr. Fyne asks if Miss Cleigh inherited "something from her mother," and she replies "Yes, a good deal" — specifying it was "Mostly temper." The satire plays on late 19th-century social anxieties about the "New Woman" — specifically, women cyclists. The bicycle symbolized female independence and mobility, which scandalized conservative society. The joke targets women's temperament, suggesting that independence and "bad temper" are inherited maternal traits. The cartoon mocks both the emerging women's liberation movement and traditional attitudes toward female behavior, using the bicycle as shorthand for threatening social change.