The Wasp — 1894 — page 247: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes changing gender presentations of the era. The illustration shows a woman in masculine attire—wearing a top hat and what appears to be a man's suit jacket—while a man in feminine dress stands beside her, wearing a bonnet and dress. The accompanying dialogue between "Mrs. Hydestreet" and "Mr. Larkin" jokes about role reversal: he questions whether the woman's outfit constitutes "a trifle manish" (manly), while she responds about women with "bloomers made in two pistol pockets." The humor targets late-19th-century anxieties about gender norms, women's fashion reform movements (like bloomers), and the blurring of traditional masculine/feminine distinctions. The satire reflects Victorian discomfort with evolving gender presentation.