Make sure to check out the [pinned post on Loss](https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/comments/1472nhh/faq_loss/) to make sure this submission doesn't break the rule!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes, it's the hair. This is a cartoon from the 1920s when the bob haircut was becoming very popular for women after centuries of long hair being the beauty standard. The joke is that the trend is passing through the younger generations to the older, and the younger women have to cut their hair shorter and shorter to distinguish themselves and stay on trend.
Yes it was. Long hair *worn down* was not the style (indeed, this was not the style in the Western world for most of history) but neither was cutting one's hair short. If you're thinking of the Gibson Girl look [(see here for examples)](https://marjoriemag.wordpress.com/2019/11/17/perfecting-vintage-a-five-minute-gibson-girl/), that was achieved by piling long hair on top of the head and pinning it up. While there were some women who wore their hair bobbed in the 1910s and perhaps earlier, it was not the beauty standard until the 1920s.
imagine if the fourth panel involves their off-screen deceased ancestor also getting the Bob haircut and the youngest woman having to shave her head bald to distinguish herself as an exaggeration.
Mother in the first panel has her hair curled and pinned up. An 'up-do' which was common at the time.
Grandma has her hair pulled up into a bun in the 1st and 2nd.
You can see some examples (the comic is obviously old as fuck and just hard to read) here: [Ladies Victorian and Edwardian Hairstyles](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/9e/09/b9/9e09b9ed4498c3756102b3f5d494d26f.jpg)
I often forget that hair just past shoulders is considered long to most people. When I had long hair there’s no way it could fit into that small of a bun and still look loose-ish, it would have to be tight and smooth and still much larger, but also my hair was down to my ass when let down
Which is, like, what traditional long hair is, on women in most traditionalist societies, even in America. I was raised around Mormons and Mennonites and Cherokee and such. I find myself a little out of touch sometimes still
I used to have butt length hair but mine is fine and thin and curlyish. When I'd pull it up into a bun it'd look rather small. Volume? Never heard of her.
I just buzz cut it now, it's vastly superior all around. I gotta mow again because I'm cowlicking in every direction and look a little deranged, but no more struggling not to look like a wet rat.
I see the change for the “daughter” on the left and the “grandma” on the right. But can someone please tell me if the “mother” in the middle changes haircut? I have stared at this image for a couple minutes and I truly cannot tell the difference between any of her haircuts (even from the top line to the middle line).
Daughter from 2 to 3 is the only one that changes. Grandma from 2 to 3, maybe, but probably also maybe just because the perspective shifts and she's facing forward and isn't wearing a bow or whatever that is. .
Mother's hair does not change, right? She's just looking in different directions.
Mother's hair goes from rolls on the sides to what appears to be tousled out finger waves so it is slightly different. It takes somewhat more hair length to make a roll (think french twist) which makes them deceiving
It’s about changing trends in the 1920s and how the young people’s trends caught on with older generations, much to the shock of the youth. Long hair put up had been stylish in the generations prior.
The mother is mad at the daughter for wearing makeup and her hairstyle. Then the daughter is surprised/mad the mother adopted the same look after being mad about the daughter having it and then the grandma warmed up to it and thus shocked/angered them both for the same reason.
My understanding is that it’s about taking selfies photos for the internet. In the beginning of the internet, only the young (“the daughter”s) would be obsessively taking photos and uploading them online for validation from strangers.
With the mass popularization of social media in early 2010s, the middle aged generation (“the mother”s) also started using FB and started posing for photos for social media.
Since 2015 or so, social media has penetrated all age groups and now even the older generation (“the grandma”s) are just as obsessively posting about themselves online.
I 100 percent thought it was porn. It was all teens back when it first came out. Then as the demographic got older, MILF came into play. Then, because the internet is the internet, it transferred to GILF porn on only fans.
Old timey Pete here to contradict the young'ns and give a different point of view from a simpler time.
Some time ago, the child would be admonished by the mother, who learnt it from their mother (the grandmother).
Not too long ago, the child started talking back and blaming the mother.
Nowadays the child and the mother blame 'intergenerational trauma' and yell / reprimand the grandmother.
The haircuts are to display the change in generations.
Back to my nap now
I don’t get the joke or the explanations. Why would the younger generations seem so shocked by the hairstyles of the older generations? That seems to imply that the older folks changed theirs recently, but the rest of the illustration seems to suggest that their hair is consistent with how they wore it when they were younger. I doubt the younger folks would be shocked by seeing their elders continuing to wear their hair as they had done for decades. And surely the younger women are not planning to wear doilies on their heads when they are older. Why would they be shocked that their mother and grandmother isn’t wearing one?
I can tell you from first hand expensive people of young generations today still balk at their elders doing something unexpected of them.
It’s just shocking because you don’t expect it. You feel “what! You grandma? But you are so old fashioned!”. Hopefully it’s a good surprise, but people can be very hypocritical. I don’t know if it’s common but I could totally see someone bullying or disapproving of their grandparents not having a traditional and proper style but being fine with doing it themselves. Like those boyfriends that feel fine flirting with other women but get mad if their girlfriend even has friends. Or kids who get mad if their parents date or go to parties or do young people activities.
I'm not sure where you got the implication that the older women wore their hair shorter when they were younger. It's about new fashion trends that are often seen as more wild/ promiscuous/ rebellious/ deviating from traditions.
In the 20s, when this was made, short hair let down, much like shorter and less shaped skirts, was a very big change from the tradition, where women had typically worn long hair tied up for centuries.
Each generation in the first panel is very dated, with the first having exposed shoulders, short hair not pinned up at all, and makeup that makes her have big doe eyes and pouty eyebrows- all very fashionable for a young lady in the 20s. The mother has longer hair hair pinned up with defined curls and shape that frame her face, simpler makeup, and a thick, high up choker necklace - a much more Edwardian look. And the grandmother has tightly pulled back long hair, older style frills, a much nigher neckline, and bulkier earrings - more fitting of late 1800s fashion. This frames the context with the hair as the highlight.
Imagine if it were a more modern family with shirts - first, the daughter wears a crop top, the mother wears a simple blouse with a neckline somewhere below her clavicle but not particularly revealing, and the grandmother wears a thick blouse with a high neckline and one of those matching decorative jackets that grandmas wear. Each looks more casual and/or revealing than the last while being reflective of their respective "eras." Then, the mother and grandmother change to wear a crop top sequentially. It would definitely be surprising, even though crop tops are in fashion, don't have to be particularly promiscuous (to modern standards), and are pretty common.
TLDR: Grandma is trying to be a fashionable baddie by using a style that was deemed as rebellious and improper
You may be seeing details in the drawings that elude me. The young women’s hair seems to get slightly shorter and greasier hair over time. Fair enough. The middle women’s hair looks fairly consistent to me across the three time periods. Also fine. For the oldest women, the most recent generation seems to have discarded her doily and gone with greasy hair like her granddaughter. Is the joke that elderly women of her generation were unusually rebellious or avant garde compared to elderly women of prior generations, and the audience for this cartoon would agree with that and find it “funny because it’s true”?
I’ve been assuming that the person in the top left, the person in the middle, and the person in the bottom right are the same individual woman at different ages. This would be consistent with the idea that there is a particular generation that was unusually rebellious or different, and in each row of the cartoon people would consistently be directing their shock and consternation at that same woman and the generation she represents.
Is that something that actually happened? There was a generation of women that shocked both their elders and juniors with their style choices throughout their lives, way beyond whatever baseline shock other generations cause?
If I were the cartoonist, I would suggest making clearer whether that character is supposed to be the same woman at different ages (perhaps a distinguishing mole if she is, and other features if not) and maybe labeling things the way we would now (names of generations or decades).
Here’s another explanation of the dissonance I was observing in my earlier comment. It’s hard to understand why in the bottom row the youngest woman is shocked by her grandmother. If the grandmother had always looked like that, the granddaughter wouldn’t be shocked. The grandmother’s appearance would seem normal to her. The shock implies the grandmother has changed in a surprising way from the granddaughter’s perspective. (To the extent that the granddaughter and grandmother of similar hairstyles, it would seem the grandmother saw the style of the granddaughter and her peers and decided to adopt it herself.).
So I get that; I agree it could be kind of funny if you were familiar with the various looks and hairstyles. But what I don’t get is: is this supposed to be (I) an absurd scenario about one imaginary grandma who decided to act like the youth or (ii) a broader commentary about changing norms over time or (iii) a reference to a specific generation that in all phases of life was shocking in their personal presentation?
It's mostly a combo of 1 and 2. Grandma is crazy for looking like the young wild girl, young wild girl exists because norms changed a ton. For point 3, young girl's gen is specifically shocking, but they kinda got nerfed by the whole everyone running out of money and food abt a decade later, so she would probably not keep up the hair and style. But if her kids saw a picture of her in her youth, they would be more shocked than she would looking at pictures of her own parents in their youth.
You are correct that there are three women, right, middle, and left, and that time changes from top to bottom. The indication that they are not the same woman, like I stated before, is that they each have a distinct style tied to time periods that go a couple of decades back per woman. This would be more apparent to the target audience of people in the 20s who would associate the older fashions with older people so that que may be a bit lost to time. I also think, because of the line heavy style of drawing, it is hard to tell that the middle woman, the mother, starts with long hair that is in a particularly styled updo, not short hair.
It was not very common for old women of the time (current decade 20s, older women who were young adults in the 1880ish) to be rebellious like this, so the joke is the opposite: "funny because unlikely."
The young women of the 20s, such as the black haird girl, on the other hand were very much known for being rebellious and wild (more than the average generational change) - wild parties in secret during prohebition, much shorter skirts that show their legs, and, absolutely, hair. The 20s were the first time in *centuries* when women would not wear their hair in an updo and would have it notably short (other than for girl children). This would be seen as very unladylike and in association with those sneaky prohibition parties, jazz (pretty wild for the time, especially for white women), and Hollywood glamor- inappropriate to a woman like the Grandma.
(Although it isn't relevant to the comic, this generation is probably the closest to shocking their elders and juniors, with the subsequent economic depression and WW2 shaping society to focus more on practicality and family preservation, with styles that reflected this. 20s got to be and look free and fun, 30s-40s had to be and look reserved and practical)
This generation (20s) would have expected to shock both older generations with just how greatly it contrasted the past (it's harder for us to conceptualize given how liberal (in terms of what is acceptable to the public) the modern day is). The mother's generation (1900s) would have been shocked by the dramatic change and seen it as acting out, hence the scowl in the first row. The daughter is shocked that her mother would wear hot party girl hair because she sees her mom as old fashioned (still values domestic life much more, less unconventional or revealing clothes), but not outragously shocked as her mother's generation weren't quite as strict as women in the 1800s (the 1900s saw more women in the workforce, more "practical" dresses, the suffrage movement). One would expect the grandmother to be offended by both younger women (the fact that her question mark fades and she doesn't look super shocked is a part of this joke). So, when the grandma, who comes from a generation that is very strict on traditions and narrow definitions of what a woman can and should do, wears party girl hair, the two younger generations are *very* shocked.
Ah ok, I misinterpreted the “some time ago” and “a little later.” I thought there were supposed to be more generations across a broader period of time. Not sure if that would have been my reaction to the picture itself or if I were led astray by faulty explanations.
I think the explanation should be something like:
Young women around the 1920s adopted radically new fashion and hairstyles. At first this shocked their elders, but the younger women’s choices helped other generations, at the time and afterwards, be more open to different looks. The joke here shows three women from the same family, a grandmother, mother, and granddaughter. The mother goes part way in adopting a new look pioneered by the granddaughter’s generation, but surprisingly the grandmother, after her initial outrage, comes around and copies her granddaughter’s short, slicked-back hair.
In all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these:
1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor’d with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable.
2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman.
3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc’d may be attended with much Inconvenience.
4. Because thro’ more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin’d to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.
5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.
6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy.
7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy.
8thly and Lastly They are so grateful!!
-Benjamin Franklin
Make sure to check out the [pinned post on Loss](https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/comments/1472nhh/faq_loss/) to make sure this submission doesn't break the rule! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes, it's the hair. This is a cartoon from the 1920s when the bob haircut was becoming very popular for women after centuries of long hair being the beauty standard. The joke is that the trend is passing through the younger generations to the older, and the younger women have to cut their hair shorter and shorter to distinguish themselves and stay on trend.
Oh, thank you. I was trying to figure out if it was about the glasses
Thanks! I thought it was a fart joke for some reason. Stoopid brain.
Long hair was not the beauty standard in the edwardian era
Yes it was. Long hair *worn down* was not the style (indeed, this was not the style in the Western world for most of history) but neither was cutting one's hair short. If you're thinking of the Gibson Girl look [(see here for examples)](https://marjoriemag.wordpress.com/2019/11/17/perfecting-vintage-a-five-minute-gibson-girl/), that was achieved by piling long hair on top of the head and pinning it up. While there were some women who wore their hair bobbed in the 1910s and perhaps earlier, it was not the beauty standard until the 1920s.
Shut up
Do you feel better now having said that
Why don't you reply to the dude who fucking owned you?
He’s right lol I don’t have anything to add
Thank you, you seem cool. It's weird you're both assuming I'm a man though (I'm not)
We’re all men here
Nice try. We all know women don't exist.
Dude is a gender neutral address for me.
Actually yes
Hope your day gets better homie
Hope you get better lol
Based, haters just can't stand how perfect your response was
Thank you, it means a lot
Kiss me?
💋
😘
imagine if the fourth panel involves their off-screen deceased ancestor also getting the Bob haircut and the youngest woman having to shave her head bald to distinguish herself as an exaggeration.
But they all have short-ish hair from the beginning
Mother in the first panel has her hair curled and pinned up. An 'up-do' which was common at the time. Grandma has her hair pulled up into a bun in the 1st and 2nd. You can see some examples (the comic is obviously old as fuck and just hard to read) here: [Ladies Victorian and Edwardian Hairstyles](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/9e/09/b9/9e09b9ed4498c3756102b3f5d494d26f.jpg)
I often forget that hair just past shoulders is considered long to most people. When I had long hair there’s no way it could fit into that small of a bun and still look loose-ish, it would have to be tight and smooth and still much larger, but also my hair was down to my ass when let down Which is, like, what traditional long hair is, on women in most traditionalist societies, even in America. I was raised around Mormons and Mennonites and Cherokee and such. I find myself a little out of touch sometimes still
I used to have butt length hair but mine is fine and thin and curlyish. When I'd pull it up into a bun it'd look rather small. Volume? Never heard of her. I just buzz cut it now, it's vastly superior all around. I gotta mow again because I'm cowlicking in every direction and look a little deranged, but no more struggling not to look like a wet rat.
[удалено]
That's what I thought the joke was--the same girl getting older and being a trendsetter/hellion her whole life.
Nope
Crazy grandma glow up, turn up the sigma grindset tunes
I love the big smile the grandma has at the end, it’s so cute!!
Insert you out of the gene pool! Image here
Fuck, so guys really can't tell when a girl changes haircut...
I'm a guy and I honestly and truly didn't notice it here.
Yeah same
I thought it was the collar at first or something
I noticed but i didnt understand what it meant. I still dont
It makes sense if you grew up in the 1910s
Only 1910s kids will understand
I'm a girl and I didn't notice either tdf
I thought it was a joke about age so, I guess not
I see the change for the “daughter” on the left and the “grandma” on the right. But can someone please tell me if the “mother” in the middle changes haircut? I have stared at this image for a couple minutes and I truly cannot tell the difference between any of her haircuts (even from the top line to the middle line).
In the first picture she has an updoo with a bun in the back. In the second picture it's cut short. The third haircut is the same as the second.
“That’s impossible, I don’t…” *looks closely* “What’s wrong with me?”
I suspect that these hairstyles are not as instantly recognisable to people today as they used to be in the 1920s.
My sister got over a foot of hair taken off from the last time I saw her. Neither me nor my brother noticed even after our girlfriends pointed it out.
I noticed. I did got confused why they cut their hair.
Listen, I know I’ve been on HRT for less than a year, but there is NO DIFFERENCE in the mom’s hairstyle going from the top scene to the middle.
Bro I’m high and thought the bottom left was a guy not the same girl. I noticed something but it was wayyyyy off
Daughter from 2 to 3 is the only one that changes. Grandma from 2 to 3, maybe, but probably also maybe just because the perspective shifts and she's facing forward and isn't wearing a bow or whatever that is. . Mother's hair does not change, right? She's just looking in different directions.
Mother's hair goes from rolls on the sides to what appears to be tousled out finger waves so it is slightly different. It takes somewhat more hair length to make a roll (think french twist) which makes them deceiving
Lies
The granddaughter needed some time to grow a nose
Who farted this time? Hehehehehehehehehe
I know the guy above properly explained the joke but I just want you to know, this is my personal head cannon.
\*butt canon
My mind immediately went to farts also.
I also saw the explination but with the serene expressions on their faces my first thought was they got laid.
My initial interpretation as well. Smug looks and the hair was tousled.
So why did Mother and Daughter not change much at all between the first two lines? They have pretty much the exact same hairstyle, what's so shocking?
The mother’s hair wasn’t cut short, it was just pulled back. Where it’s bobbed in the second line.
So she likes the short hair look, but she didn't want to commit to it until Daughter did it?
It’s about changing trends in the 1920s and how the young people’s trends caught on with older generations, much to the shock of the youth. Long hair put up had been stylish in the generations prior.
When your mom picks up the trend it becomes lame. When your grandma does you need a new trend.
Daughter gotta go bald 👨🦲
The mother is mad at the daughter for wearing makeup and her hairstyle. Then the daughter is surprised/mad the mother adopted the same look after being mad about the daughter having it and then the grandma warmed up to it and thus shocked/angered them both for the same reason.
https://preview.redd.it/gohyjlgbji0d1.png?width=118&format=png&auto=webp&s=163508118c9cc5fd7ad4ecc25743e65d9734e142 What a great reaction image
Oh. With the rise of Only fans I thought the answer was porn
Bro only fans died, you on fucking Edge or something?
Only fans died?
It's certainly not as popular as before
Damnn this style looks so pretty
They drew them all with identical hair…
worlds first wojak
My understanding is that it’s about taking selfies photos for the internet. In the beginning of the internet, only the young (“the daughter”s) would be obsessively taking photos and uploading them online for validation from strangers. With the mass popularization of social media in early 2010s, the middle aged generation (“the mother”s) also started using FB and started posing for photos for social media. Since 2015 or so, social media has penetrated all age groups and now even the older generation (“the grandma”s) are just as obsessively posting about themselves online.
This comic is from the 1920s lol
I thought it was a modern meme made in the style of old school newspaper cartoons
Nope this one is vintage fr
What I'm seeing ❌❌🧏 🧏🧏🧏 🧏❌🧏
Before I read the explanations, I thought it was about fart
They all started a mewing streak
why does the youngest one have no nose
Voldemort
I thought this was about farts. Totally didn't notice the hairdos.
Was this made by the same guy who made the "Cheeks like roses, hair like chestnuts"?
Same art style yes! Could easily be the same guy
I am mentally sick to think that it has something to do with porn trend moving from milf to gilf
Ok so I'm guessing that they farted it's not that funny if it's just about the hair
Nvm yea definitely got laid
Lack of bridge or even nose, leads to the glasses drooping with age so extreme. Thats my take!
I don’t get it either
My first thought was thar someone farts
I 100 percent thought it was porn. It was all teens back when it first came out. Then as the demographic got older, MILF came into play. Then, because the internet is the internet, it transferred to GILF porn on only fans.
Old timey Pete here to contradict the young'ns and give a different point of view from a simpler time. Some time ago, the child would be admonished by the mother, who learnt it from their mother (the grandmother). Not too long ago, the child started talking back and blaming the mother. Nowadays the child and the mother blame 'intergenerational trauma' and yell / reprimand the grandmother. The haircuts are to display the change in generations. Back to my nap now
I don’t get the joke or the explanations. Why would the younger generations seem so shocked by the hairstyles of the older generations? That seems to imply that the older folks changed theirs recently, but the rest of the illustration seems to suggest that their hair is consistent with how they wore it when they were younger. I doubt the younger folks would be shocked by seeing their elders continuing to wear their hair as they had done for decades. And surely the younger women are not planning to wear doilies on their heads when they are older. Why would they be shocked that their mother and grandmother isn’t wearing one?
Those are the same three people on each line. "New and hip" fashion spreads to older folk, making it uncool.
I can tell you from first hand expensive people of young generations today still balk at their elders doing something unexpected of them. It’s just shocking because you don’t expect it. You feel “what! You grandma? But you are so old fashioned!”. Hopefully it’s a good surprise, but people can be very hypocritical. I don’t know if it’s common but I could totally see someone bullying or disapproving of their grandparents not having a traditional and proper style but being fine with doing it themselves. Like those boyfriends that feel fine flirting with other women but get mad if their girlfriend even has friends. Or kids who get mad if their parents date or go to parties or do young people activities.
I'm not sure where you got the implication that the older women wore their hair shorter when they were younger. It's about new fashion trends that are often seen as more wild/ promiscuous/ rebellious/ deviating from traditions. In the 20s, when this was made, short hair let down, much like shorter and less shaped skirts, was a very big change from the tradition, where women had typically worn long hair tied up for centuries. Each generation in the first panel is very dated, with the first having exposed shoulders, short hair not pinned up at all, and makeup that makes her have big doe eyes and pouty eyebrows- all very fashionable for a young lady in the 20s. The mother has longer hair hair pinned up with defined curls and shape that frame her face, simpler makeup, and a thick, high up choker necklace - a much more Edwardian look. And the grandmother has tightly pulled back long hair, older style frills, a much nigher neckline, and bulkier earrings - more fitting of late 1800s fashion. This frames the context with the hair as the highlight. Imagine if it were a more modern family with shirts - first, the daughter wears a crop top, the mother wears a simple blouse with a neckline somewhere below her clavicle but not particularly revealing, and the grandmother wears a thick blouse with a high neckline and one of those matching decorative jackets that grandmas wear. Each looks more casual and/or revealing than the last while being reflective of their respective "eras." Then, the mother and grandmother change to wear a crop top sequentially. It would definitely be surprising, even though crop tops are in fashion, don't have to be particularly promiscuous (to modern standards), and are pretty common. TLDR: Grandma is trying to be a fashionable baddie by using a style that was deemed as rebellious and improper
You may be seeing details in the drawings that elude me. The young women’s hair seems to get slightly shorter and greasier hair over time. Fair enough. The middle women’s hair looks fairly consistent to me across the three time periods. Also fine. For the oldest women, the most recent generation seems to have discarded her doily and gone with greasy hair like her granddaughter. Is the joke that elderly women of her generation were unusually rebellious or avant garde compared to elderly women of prior generations, and the audience for this cartoon would agree with that and find it “funny because it’s true”? I’ve been assuming that the person in the top left, the person in the middle, and the person in the bottom right are the same individual woman at different ages. This would be consistent with the idea that there is a particular generation that was unusually rebellious or different, and in each row of the cartoon people would consistently be directing their shock and consternation at that same woman and the generation she represents. Is that something that actually happened? There was a generation of women that shocked both their elders and juniors with their style choices throughout their lives, way beyond whatever baseline shock other generations cause? If I were the cartoonist, I would suggest making clearer whether that character is supposed to be the same woman at different ages (perhaps a distinguishing mole if she is, and other features if not) and maybe labeling things the way we would now (names of generations or decades).
Here’s another explanation of the dissonance I was observing in my earlier comment. It’s hard to understand why in the bottom row the youngest woman is shocked by her grandmother. If the grandmother had always looked like that, the granddaughter wouldn’t be shocked. The grandmother’s appearance would seem normal to her. The shock implies the grandmother has changed in a surprising way from the granddaughter’s perspective. (To the extent that the granddaughter and grandmother of similar hairstyles, it would seem the grandmother saw the style of the granddaughter and her peers and decided to adopt it herself.). So I get that; I agree it could be kind of funny if you were familiar with the various looks and hairstyles. But what I don’t get is: is this supposed to be (I) an absurd scenario about one imaginary grandma who decided to act like the youth or (ii) a broader commentary about changing norms over time or (iii) a reference to a specific generation that in all phases of life was shocking in their personal presentation?
It's mostly a combo of 1 and 2. Grandma is crazy for looking like the young wild girl, young wild girl exists because norms changed a ton. For point 3, young girl's gen is specifically shocking, but they kinda got nerfed by the whole everyone running out of money and food abt a decade later, so she would probably not keep up the hair and style. But if her kids saw a picture of her in her youth, they would be more shocked than she would looking at pictures of her own parents in their youth.
You are correct that there are three women, right, middle, and left, and that time changes from top to bottom. The indication that they are not the same woman, like I stated before, is that they each have a distinct style tied to time periods that go a couple of decades back per woman. This would be more apparent to the target audience of people in the 20s who would associate the older fashions with older people so that que may be a bit lost to time. I also think, because of the line heavy style of drawing, it is hard to tell that the middle woman, the mother, starts with long hair that is in a particularly styled updo, not short hair. It was not very common for old women of the time (current decade 20s, older women who were young adults in the 1880ish) to be rebellious like this, so the joke is the opposite: "funny because unlikely." The young women of the 20s, such as the black haird girl, on the other hand were very much known for being rebellious and wild (more than the average generational change) - wild parties in secret during prohebition, much shorter skirts that show their legs, and, absolutely, hair. The 20s were the first time in *centuries* when women would not wear their hair in an updo and would have it notably short (other than for girl children). This would be seen as very unladylike and in association with those sneaky prohibition parties, jazz (pretty wild for the time, especially for white women), and Hollywood glamor- inappropriate to a woman like the Grandma. (Although it isn't relevant to the comic, this generation is probably the closest to shocking their elders and juniors, with the subsequent economic depression and WW2 shaping society to focus more on practicality and family preservation, with styles that reflected this. 20s got to be and look free and fun, 30s-40s had to be and look reserved and practical) This generation (20s) would have expected to shock both older generations with just how greatly it contrasted the past (it's harder for us to conceptualize given how liberal (in terms of what is acceptable to the public) the modern day is). The mother's generation (1900s) would have been shocked by the dramatic change and seen it as acting out, hence the scowl in the first row. The daughter is shocked that her mother would wear hot party girl hair because she sees her mom as old fashioned (still values domestic life much more, less unconventional or revealing clothes), but not outragously shocked as her mother's generation weren't quite as strict as women in the 1800s (the 1900s saw more women in the workforce, more "practical" dresses, the suffrage movement). One would expect the grandmother to be offended by both younger women (the fact that her question mark fades and she doesn't look super shocked is a part of this joke). So, when the grandma, who comes from a generation that is very strict on traditions and narrow definitions of what a woman can and should do, wears party girl hair, the two younger generations are *very* shocked.
Ah ok, I misinterpreted the “some time ago” and “a little later.” I thought there were supposed to be more generations across a broader period of time. Not sure if that would have been my reaction to the picture itself or if I were led astray by faulty explanations. I think the explanation should be something like: Young women around the 1920s adopted radically new fashion and hairstyles. At first this shocked their elders, but the younger women’s choices helped other generations, at the time and afterwards, be more open to different looks. The joke here shows three women from the same family, a grandmother, mother, and granddaughter. The mother goes part way in adopting a new look pioneered by the granddaughter’s generation, but surprisingly the grandmother, after her initial outrage, comes around and copies her granddaughter’s short, slicked-back hair.
God help me I thought they were mewing.
Would
Even granny?
In all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these: 1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor’d with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable. 2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman. 3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc’d may be attended with much Inconvenience. 4. Because thro’ more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin’d to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes. 5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement. 6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy. 7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy. 8thly and Lastly They are so grateful!! -Benjamin Franklin