Artwork
Preeminent political cartoonist Thomas Nast lambasted the idea of woman's suffrage. His critique relied greatly on Victorian gender norms. The woman in this cartoon has traditionally masculine features, with a square jaw and pointed nose. This was a common way to portray suffragists, suggesting that asking for the right to vote made them less of a woman. The man in the background is dressed as a woman despite his beard and sideburns. This too was common, showing that men would have to take up the womanly tasks vacated by their wives and daughters. After calling attention to the perceived mismatch in gender roles, which made the image comical enough, Nast amplifies it by having them pour hot tea out of teapots rather than dump tea leaves. This suggested that suffragists did not truly understand the Revolutionary past they sought to utilize. Nevertheless, suffragists persisted.
This cartoon was published in Harper’s Weekly by celebrity editorial cartoonist Thomas Nast. Below the title, it reads,
“The New England Woman’s Tea-Party, believing that “Taxation without Representation is Tyrrany,” and that our Forefathers were justified in resisting Despotic Power by throwing Tea into Boston Harbor,” hereby do the Same.
