Life is Just One Damn Thing After Another

This is one postcard from a series of anti-suffrage/anti-feminist postcards showcasing husbands reluctantly doing the housework while their wives are out fighting for their right to vote. The man is at the center of this composition, sneering at the viewer in anguish as he rolls the dough and takes care of his crying child, all while smoking. On the wall behind him are two pictures: a photo of a woman captioned “Our Presidentess” and another sign rhetorically asking “What is a home without a suffragette?” The entire postcard is captioned “Life is just one damn thing after another” which we can interpret as the husband's response to being stuck with house chores and childcare. 

As ridiculous as this may sound, the designers of these postcards knew exactly what they were doing. Everything from the gendered clothes of the man, his stern expression, and his color contrast with the “feminine objects” led men of this era (and to some extent today) to fear that their status, life, and overall identity as a man will suffer as a result of suffrage and the feminist movement. Here, fear is once again politicized so that it may polarize its audience against one another.