The Wasp — 1894 — page 129: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes Victorian beach etiquette and gender anxieties. Two well-dressed women are on the beach; one has lost her bathing suit in the surf. The dialogue between "Maud" and "Jack" makes the joke explicit: Ethel nearly had her new bathing suit "wet by that wave"—a euphemistic reference to an embarrassing wardrobe mishap that could expose her body. The humor targets Victorian prudishness about women's bodies and the elaborate bathing costumes of the era. The accompanying advertisements for champagne, fancy tailoring, and millinery reinforce the upper-class context. The cartoon mocks how seriously society took female modesty while depicting women's beach recreation as fraught with social danger.