---
title: '"Frightfulness!!" (The Suffragist, cover, 26 August 1916)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/frightfulness-democratic-donkey-suffragist-1916/
description: A woman voter holds out a key marked 'Vote' toward an imprisoned 'Eastern Suffragist', and the Democratic donkey blocks her.
section: Collection
---

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3. "Frightfulness!!" (The Suffragist, cover, 26 August 1916)

[!["Frightfulness!!", 1916 US cartoon: A woman voter holds out a key marked 'Vote' toward an imprisoned 'Eastern Suffragist'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/frightfulness-democratic-donkey-suffragist-1916.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/frightfulness-democratic-donkey-suffragist-1916.jpg)

# "Frightfulness!!" (The Suffragist, cover, 26 August 1916)

A woman voter holds out a key marked 'Vote' toward an imprisoned 'Eastern Suffragist', and the Democratic donkey blocks her, saying that if she uses it he will be 'terribly antagonized'. The tell: the party is shown as a donkey standing in the way, and 'Frightfulness' borrows a charge then made against the German army.

The cover of The Suffragist for 26 August 1916, published in Washington, D.C. by the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage for a domestic audience. A woman voter holds out a key marked 'Vote' toward an imprisoned 'Eastern Suffragist', and the Democratic donkey blocks her, saying he will be 'terribly antagonized' if she uses it. The record notes the Union's 1916 policy of opposing the party in power. Name-calling is the tagged technique: the party appears as a donkey in the way, and 'Frightfulness' borrows a charge then made against the German army.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

[← The Filipino People, monthly, article (Washington, D.C., August 1916)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-filipino-people-man-who-embalmed-fitness-1916/) [The Labor Call (Melbourne), 'The Same Old Enemies', page 6, 14 September 1916 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/labor-call-same-old-enemies-1916/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
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- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)