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Leap Year Proposals: ‘Can You Take A Hint?’
A random selection of some Edwardian postcards and postcards from 1904 and 1908, the leap years in which ladies with guns, nets, and magnets to get what they want: an eligible bachelor. On the one hand, these images attest to a view of women as manipulative, scheming, loveless fiends determined to snare husbands at any cost. On the other hand, though, these could just as easily be read as inverting the traditional male narrative of blurred lines between ‘proposal’ and ‘threat’: come on, men, you know you want it.
(Possibly the best one is the top-right, in which the printed card reads, ‘A Phonographic Proposal’ in which a lady’s recording of the big question blares into the ear of her intended: the best part, though, is the handwritten message, ‘Speak quick as it is the first + only chance’!)
See the Punch 1896 cartoon on this same gender role-reversal subject in its satirical fun here. And enjoy your Leap Day, ladies!
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