Antis engaged in the same cultural dialog as suffragists, and as such, these opponents often played on the same social cues and symbols. Consider this cover from Life magazine, “Ancient History,” from 1913. The cartoon toys with the suffragist’s heavy use of allegory by situating the ever controversial Susan B. Anthony in a toga and in the style of Greek pottery. The pioneer of woman’s rights wears her trademarked grimace and holds an umbrella at the throat of patrician.  Along the top and bottom of the illustration women chase away soldiers with spears and shields. The cartoon pokes fun at the aggression of suffragists and frames the reader’s mind to think of how absurd the suffragist’s claim to ancient history truly is.

Absurdity was fundamental to antisuffrage media. Antis framed the question of suffrage as trivial. An animated political cartoon entitled Strong Arm Squad of the Future (1912) featured a parade of caricatured suffragists who were either militant, or else young and naïve women using the cause as an excuse to dress up. The parade emphasizes a counterpoint to the archetypes of the suffrage campaign. Antis framed suffragists as masculine, ugly, assertive, brash. They were not mothers, protectors, or nurturers. Suffragists were conniving, corrupt political animals who threatened the stability of society and the American ethos. Antis played on the Progressive fear of anarchy by framing suffrage much like it had been in the century prior – as radical and marginal.