Judge — June 15, 1929 — page 14: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This Judge magazine cartoon satirizes women's abbreviated bathing costumes—likely from the early 1900s when swimwear was becoming shorter and more revealing. The title mocks a woman in a striped one-piece suit, claiming she's made "the laughing-stock of Nantasket Beach" (a popular Massachusetts resort). The cartoon jokes about scandalous beachwear by having a man in equally abbreviated striped attire reproach her. The satire cuts both ways: while criticizing women's exposed legs and bodies, it simultaneously ridicules male prudishness by showing a man dressed equally scantly complaining about impropriety. The lower text contains unrelated jokes about hair loss and artistic pretension, typical of Judge's miscellaneous humor. The overall point targets social hypocrisy around changing fashion norms and gender double standards regarding bodily exposure.