The Wasp — 1893 — page 239: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

The upper illustration satirizes a fashionable women's accessory called "the pancake hat" — a flat, wide-brimmed style that was apparently the latest feminine trend. The cartoonist mocks its impracticality through exaggerated scenarios: women being attacked by wasps and insects swarming around the hat's large surface area, struggling with balance, and generally appearing ridiculous. Below, humorous advertisements parody spiritualism ("séances for at twenty dollars a night") and horse racing cruelty. The final section advertises Lyon's Fine Tailor suits, a legitimate business advertisement. The satire targets contemporary fashion absurdity and uses the hat's inherent visual comedy—its flat, pancake-like appearance—as the basis for slapstick humor about women's fashion choices.