The Wasp — 1893 — page 520: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes **late 19th-century women's emancipation and changing social roles**. The narrative follows a woman's progression from the 1800s forward: **Panel 5** shows her gaining education and athletic pursuits (tennis), challenging Victorian expectations. **Panel 6** depicts her as a "New Woman"—confident, smoking, rejecting traditional femininity. **Panel 7** illustrates her full "development"—surpassing "all our tall mothers" in ambition and accomplishment, becoming the "accomplished FACT" (sarcastic). **Panel 8's** progression of shrinking male figures suggests masculine anxiety: as women advanced, men metaphorically diminished. The 1930 date indicates male deterioration coincided with women's liberation. The satire mocks both progressive women and anxious male responses to changing gender norms.