Outgoing President Hayes as Cinderella, sitting at home by the fireside as her pompous ugly sisters former President Ulysses S. Grant, just back from a world tour and corrupt U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling head out to the Republican Convention with an arrogant confidence that they will win the 1880 nomination.
In this Halloween season, there’s no better time to look back at what is perhaps the most peculiar propensity of the past presidency.
Unknown to most Americans is the custom, begun in 1840 of male Presidential candidates and Presidents cross-dressing as every possible type of woman. For some reason, only two, the consecutive Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, seemed to slip the corset and bonnet. Perhaps it’s forgotten because since 1952, no President continued the old tradition, save for George W. Bush (to see him in a real dress and wig, see below, in a final photograph).
More precisely, our past Commanders-in-Chief did not do this willingly or even wittingly, for they were dressed as women by the nation’s political cartoonists, with sketch pencil, ink pen and watercolor brush.
An initial reaction to these startling images may well be to chuckle. After viewing but a few, however, what becomes apparent is the starker truth of just how integrated into American society the degrading stereotypes of women really were. It may be that Presidents and candidates were cast as women because so few real women had risen in any arena of public life to have earned a status of universal recognition. As one reviews the cartoons in congregate, however, the sexism, even misogyny, is inescapable.
The intent of the illustrating political pundits was to call out the hypocrisy, absurdity and duplicity of Presidents and candidates, but did it best, so the format’s enduring popularity would suggest, by ridiculing and belittling women. Here, that gender is shown as querulous, naive, arrogant, humble, meddling, and vacillating be they old widow, wet-nurse, midwife, spinster, matron, maiden, battle-axe, unwed mother, dancer, little girl, mom, movie star, cleaning woman, bride, fairytale and Biblical figure.
All of it may well leave one wishing that a real woman finally becomes a President.
In this 1840 election cartoon, former President Andrew Jackson is cast as the meddling old granny, at far right, offering unsolicited gossip about his former Vice President Martin Van Buren.
William Henry Harrison as a midwife using forceups to deliver the country of “King” Van Buren.
“It’s a dreadfully damp, nasty place,” says Millard Fillmore posing as the maid of the White House. trying to dissuade future President Franklin Pierce (far right) and other 1852 presidential candidates, dressed as househunting ladies in search of a new home. Besides, he warns, “We may conclude to keep the house another term – that is if we can get it.” Of course – he didn’t. Pierce did.
Even before he did anything as President, Buchanan was consistently satirized as a woman, albeit a strong-abled one unlike the weak, vacillating one at the end of his term.
Buchanan as a schoolmarm overwhelmed by the uncontrollable and individual states of her union.
At term’s end, Buchanan was shown as a weak spinster, being abandoned by all the men of her Cabinet as the Union disintegrated, left only in the company of her cat – a 19th century symbol of the “old-maid.”
An 1860 cartoon satirized the loser Presidents after a meeting of former Commander-in-Chiefs Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and the outgoing James Buchanan was first proposed to forestall southern secession in 1860.
With the telltale sign of the old maid’s cat, often seen with Buchanan, president-elect Lincoln is shown as a cowardly woman sneaking under cover of costume into the capital city.
Lincoln as Lady Columbia the fair lady who promises to keep things balanced and peaceful.
Lincoln as a witch, contributing to the devil’s brew of a treason? The captioned mention of “Davis” by the gent on the left (Benedict Arnold) suggests this is Lincoln dressed as Confederate President Jefferson Davis dressed as a woman.
Shown as one of several women applying for the job of wet nurse, President Andrew Johnson at far right exclaims, “My policy! That’s a little dear!” according to a transcript below in the original cartoon. The baby in question is General Ulysses S. Grant and all of the politicians are trying to teach him to favor them.
Outgoing President Hayes as Cinderella, sits at home by the fireside having decided not to seek a second term, as her pompous sisters former President Ulysses S. Grant, just back from a world tour, and corrupt Senator Roscoe Conkling, head out to the Republican Convention, both believing they will get the nomination.
Here the incoming President Garfield finds the baby of civil service reform left on his doorstep by outgoing President Hayes, posed as an escaping unwed mother.
Puck Magazine depicts James Garfield as the inevitable blushing bride, about to wed Uncle Sam – unless a political rival speaks out in time as to why this marriage should not take place.
1880 Republican candidate James Garfield as a ballet dancer in tutto stumbles before a trapdoor referencing a congressional bribery scandal he was involved in, while just behind him, on one knee and arms raised, Chester Arthur holds a tableau pose.
Presented as a seemingly dubious catch, incumbent President Chester Arthur sits in a virginal white but old wedding dress among the many contestants in what appears to be a beauty contest, but uncomfortably also resembles the slave trade. And there is former President Grant again, in the upper left corner, with former President Hayes now in the mix too, three figures to the right of Grant.
In pink dress at left, President Grover Cleveland, already once a bride, prompts delight from a prospective Democratic Party, in this comically operatic version of “School for Scandal,” as founder of the Democratic Party Thomas Jefferson looks on, above it all, as a wall hanging.
Future President Benjamin Harrison, second from right, was but one of eight favorite son candidates politely vying for the 1888 Republican presidential nomination.
President William McKinley was dressed as Old Mother Hubbard….who went to the cupboard and found the federal treasury bare.
Here, outgoing President Theodore Roosevelt is shown in the gown of the Biblical widow Naomi, who affirms her faith in daughter-in-law Ruth and promises to follow her lead, Puck Magazine’s way of conveying outgoing President Theodore Roosevelt’s anointing of his good friend, War Secretary William Howard Taft for the Republican presidential nomination to succeed him during the 1908 election.
Transmogrified into a mindless sheep, the 1908 presidential candidate William Howard Taft is just happy just to have the guidance of Little Bo Peep Teddy Roosevelt.
Being a regular contributor to the national magazine “Outlook,” apparently not giving former President Theodore Roosevelt the attention he needed, he shows up as a circus performer girl, ready to run for President again in 1912.
Again references as a woman from the Bible, former President Theodore Roosevelt is depicted as the Pharoh’s daughter who found the baby Moses floating down the river; in this case Roosevelt finds a baby Bullmoose, who he then uses as the animal symbol for his new Progressive Party.
As the Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, former President Theodore Roosevelt emerged as an overnight advocate for women’s suffrage and other radical reforms, and is illustrated here as a destructive suffragist himself, smashing windows to get attention – and votes.
The naive and smiling incumbent President William Howard Taft at far left, along with national Republican and Progressive Party leaders is compared to “Mrs. Parrington,” a British woman who became famous in the early 19th century who thought that her constant mopping and bucketing away of rising seawater would save her little cottage – but proved no match to a hurricane; in this case the ominous wave of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson is about to crash and engulf them all by defeating Taft and Roosevelt to win the 1912 presidential election.
Woodrow Wilson is depicted as a petulant tattletale little girl, her complaints about the bad behavior of her naughty boy rival Teddy Roosevelt towards her and playmate, the weeping Billie Taft being brought to Uncle Sam’s attention by Miss Columbia.
Herbert Hoover was an harassed mother trying without success to calm her shrieking baby twin problems of economic depression and the western dustbowl, certainly not helped by the loudmouthed naysaying Democratic Donkey outside the window would only quiet down.
Just two weeks before Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated president on March 4, 1933, during the worst depths of the Great Depression, the hit film “She Done Him Wrong,” starring writer and actress Mae West premiered. It broke all box office records, saving Paramount studio and boosting the film industry, a considerable percentage of the national economy’s discretionary income. In his inaugural address, FDR inculcated the nation, “The only thing we have to fear is….fear itself!” In “She Done Him Wrong,” Mae West told co-star Cary Grant to “come up sometime and see me” (the original phraseology of her famous one-liner). Both remarks took on immediate popular appeal and are anecdotally credited for lifting the consumer confidence index. In this cartoon, FDR and Mae West became one.
In the 1948 campaign, President Harry Truman found himself challenged as the rightful heir to FDR’s New Deal hat, by rival candidates, Republican Tom Dewey and Progressive Henry Wallace.
“November, you?” quips the Democratic Donkey in response to the Republican Elephant’s question of when she was “expecting.” By 1952, whether it was reluctance to depict the stoic World War II hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower as a woman or simply that demeaning perceptions of women had finally altered, feminine roles were no longer thrust on the male presidential candidates but rather the two animals representing their parties, both shown here as pregnant Baby Boomer moms.
As best as the furtherest and deepest searches can offer a definitive answer, Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama were not caricatured in political cartoons as women.
Instead, they were made into crooks, kings, dimwits, traitors, weaklings, murderers, know-it-alls, dictators, and puppets.
A World War I drag show, with Irving Berlin, center, joining in.
Certainly, the tradition of real-life men dressing up as women in parody as part of sketches and revues has never ended.
The most common venue for these sorts of drag performances were all-male institutions putting on comedic shows, especially popular during World War I and World War II.
One from World War II.
There was a good and serious reason for staging the performances.
Intended to provide an immediate hit of outrageous hilarity and provoke bellyaching laughter, the drag shows served the purpose of reducing or preventing the onset of depression and anxiety common among troops about to enter active combat, where all knew it was inevitable that some among them were likely to be killed. Anecdotal claims suggested the drag shows may have even lowered the number of AWOL cases.
Despite the enlistment in the U.S. Navy of future Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Bush, where they likely watched comrades stage these entertainments, there are no reports that any of them put on dresses and wigs to join the show.
Presidents who served in the US Navy during World War II: JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush; Reagan served in an entertainment branch of the US Army.
Nor was actor Ronald Reagan, stationed at “Camp Hal Roach” in Hollywood during World War II, where he helped make government propaganda film shorts, known to do so.
With a lurid cover image, a 1993 Spy Magazine story claimed JFK joined a US Navy World War II drag show but no documentation proved it as anything but a legend.
A half-century after the fact, the irreverent magazine Spy reported a claim that during his Navy stint, John F. Kennedy had joined one of the World War II drag shows.
Apart from its provocative cover image in the 1993 issue, a doctored picture of the future president in his naval uniform wearing lipstick, no genuine documentation emerged to support the tale.
Another all-male institution, the Bohemian Grove, a bastion of conservatism, was famous for its drag show during the strictly private club’s long annual gathering.
Future Presidents Reagan and Nixon at a 1967 Bohemian Grove gathering.
Future President Eisenhower did come to address its members in 1950 and Jimmy Carter would do so as a former President. Former President Herbert Hoover and future Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush were members. Theodore Roosevelt was named an honorary member.
The 1957 Bohemian Grove annual drag show.
While they likely took in the show, there is again no evidence or even rumors that any of the Presidents participated.
None of the three most recent Presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama, served on active military duty. Among them, however, one did spend time in an all-male institution, boarding during his high school years at the preparatory institution Phillips Academy Andover, located in Andover, Massachusetts.
The 1964 Philips Academy Andover yearbook picture of senior class member George W. Bush
In 1963, during his senior year and in his role as head of the cheerleaders, future President George W. Bush put on a short white dress, falsies on his upper chest, and a curly blond wig. Positioning himself on stage in the center of a line of his fellow cheerleading team members dressed as women, he led them in a traditional mocking of rival prep schools.
George W. Bush as captain of the Andover cheerleading team.
A campus photograph snapped a single image of them on stage and days later, it appeared in the school newspaper.
The grainy school newspaper photograph might have ivoried and crumbled away over time had a student editor not remembered seeing it and thought it would be fun to include in George W. Bush’s 1964 graduating class yearbook.
Thirty-six years later, as he was running for President, a copy of the yearbook found its way into the hands of a New York Times reporter and the newspaper printed the only known photograph of a President in drag, for the world to see.
And the rest is history.
In 1963, future President George W. Bush, standing at center in white skirt, led his fellow male Philips Academy Andover cheerleaders in a drag skit mocking rival schools.
Categories: Political Satire, Presidents
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