Jack's Delight by
Becky Brown
Jack's Delight with its spiky points can remind us of how
humor has been used to maintain the status-quo.
"My Wife's Joined the Suffrage Movement.
I've suffered ever since!"
Postcard, about 1910
Many of these images
are from postcards, a craze that peaked about a hundred years ago in the midst
of the public discussion of voting rights for women. Historian Catherine
Palczewski estimates that about 4,500 suffrage-themed postcards were published.
We also find earlier anti-female political cartoons by Thomas Rowlandson,
Thomas Nast and Honore Daumier.
Woman Cleansing the
Ballot Box by Thomas Nast, 1869
Nast insults the Irish
(a favorite target) as well as women
Joke aficionados will tell you there are very few jokes in
the world and most can be traced back for thousands of years. Anti-female
visual art has a few consistent themes. As in the cartoons above and below, one theme is the unattractiveness of women, particularly those who push the edges
of convention.
Honore Daumier. The
Blue-stockings (intellectuals)
1844
Postcard about 1910
Postcard about 1910
The unattractive woman
with an unattractive personality---a bore, a moralizer, a scold or a busybody.
Just as popular is the theme of a sissified man dominated by
a behemoth of a woman who forces him to switch roles with her.
A Railroad Accident,
1870
A lesser theme is the idea that women are too distractible
or too dumb to vote.
"Her First
Vote:"
Can't vote---too self-absorbed!
"Dear, What was that candidate's name who kissed our baby?"
Can't Vote---Too easily swayed.
And if too incompetent to vote, far too incompetent to
govern---
One of an anti-suffrage series by
Walter Wellman in English suffrage colors
Walter Wellman in English suffrage colors
There is also the age-old warning that women who push the
boundaries are promiscuous...
1789,
Thomas Rowlandson,
The political Duchess of Devonshire secures votes
1869 The Age of Brass
Currier & Ives
...Or as Rush Limbaugh might put it "sluts".
An evil alternative:
Christabel Pankhurst
as a witch 1912
Cartoons weren't the only format for anti-female humor. In
1914 Charlie Chaplin made a strange little movie in which he dressed as a
woman. "A Busy Day or The Militant Suffragette" incorporated several classic themes. Watch it
here:
Jack's Delight by
Dustin Cecil
Jack's Delight by
Georgann Eglinski
The sawtooth block was published as Jack's Delight by
Massachusetts columnist Clara Stone a little over a hundred years ago.
Cutting an 8"
Finished Block
A - Cut 2 squares 4-7/8".
Cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. You need 4
corner triangles.
B - Cut 5
squares 5-3/16" Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles.
You need 20
triangles.
C - Cut 1
square 4-1/4".
Cutting a 12" Finished Block
A - Cut 2 squares 3-1/2".
Cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. You need 4 corner triangles.
B - Cut 5 squares 3-7/8" Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles.
You need 20 triangles.
C - Cut 1 square 6-3/16".
Jack's Delight by
Becky Brown
See the Catherine
H. Palczewski Postcard Archive at the University of Northern Iowa by clicking
here:
Another
collection of anti-suffrage humor:
Read Gary L. Bunker's "The Art of Condescension,"
for an in-depth look at political cartoons and the 19th century women's
movement.
http://www.common-place.org/vol-07/no-03/bunker/
http://www.common-place.org/vol-07/no-03/bunker/
"Maria, I won't wash another dud."
Stereograph photos were another format for anti-female humor,
here predicting an unthinkable role reversal.
