Votes for Wimmin
Kemble, E. W. “Votes for Wimmin” series: Cosmopolitan (Vol. 51, No. 1): 142-144. New York: International Magazine Company, 1911.
“Votes” panel 2
“Votes” panel 3
The basic plot of the cartoon strip shows a rural couple, Maria and Silas, arguing over their literal hens, but also the larger implication of “henpecking” in their relationship. The husband and wife are shown to have a somewhat antagonistic relationship at first—the husband refuses, somewhat dismissively, to engage with his wife’s interests about the women’s rights movement. In the first panel, in the top illustration, Maria is seen carrying a newspaper that reads “women’s rights”; it appears as if she is attempting to begin a dialogue with her husband about the subject, which he staunchly refuses. Silas is then attacked by another upset suffragette—this time, his literal hen—and must depend on Maria to come to his rescue and fight the animal off. After Silas’s embarrassment and reliance on his wife’s physical proclivities, he joins in picketing for women as a new, if reluctant, supporter of the suffrage movement.
The humor in the cartoon operates in a number of ways. First, the obvious comical plot point is that the hen—which is, in itself, not a particularly threatening animal—attacks its master. The physical humor of the situation is augmented by ironic and unexpected gender-based comedy, as Silas is saved by his wife. Not only is an animal attacking its rightful owner, but a woman is protecting the physical safety of her husband. Both person and beast are enacting the opposite positions to those contemporary expectations dictated they assume. The humor also functions through the playful use of “henpecking”: a phrase typically used to describe a nagging wife, domineering her passive husband. The cartoon presents Silas’s initial opposition to becoming a victim of henpecking based on his assurance in his masculinity and his marriage; it is his confidence that he not will experience henpecking that first inspires the wager: “When I get in the henpeck class, Maria, I’ll go ter shoutin’ ‘bout votes fer wimmin, but not till then.” Despite his belief that he will never be dominated by his wife, he is only moments later.
The cartoon strip conflates figurate fears of a hen’s domineering force with literal representations of it. In doing so, the cartoon suggests—as is a common theme in the exhibit—a sort of anxiety regarding women’s assumption of power positions. The reference to a nagging hen alludes to a common trope of anti-woman, and specifically anti-wife, rhetoric that has been in circulation since the 1600s. Women are often degraded for overpowering their husbands within the domestic sphere, but in this cartoon, Silas’s wife is not only overpowering him in that sphere—but in the more masculine arena of physical protection, as well. Her subversion of his authority reaches its final culmination when he is forced to support the movement seeking to legitimize her own authority and thus allow her domination in the public arena as well as the home.