Vinegar Valentines were a type of insulting valentine card. Illustrated with a caricature and an insulting poem. These were very popular during the Victorian era, as the anti spirit of Valentines day. The cards were sent to people they hated and wanted to mock. In Civil War Humor, Cameron C. Nickels wrote that vinegar valentines were “tasteless, even vulgar,” and were sent to “drunks, shrews, bachelors, old maids, dandies, flirts, and penny pinchers, and the like.” Will be interesting to look into the history of caricature.

The origin of the word ‘caricature’ comes from the Italian carico and caricare – to load, to exaggerate. Caricatures are portraits that distort and exaggerate certain features whilst retaining a likeness. They were created in the 16th century to ridicule public figures and politicians. James Gillray was an important caricaturist in the 18th century – made powerful moral statements and was able to communicate powerful messages. These images held a lot of power in a time where a vast majority of the population could not read or write.

Now we live in a different era so we have to be careful how we caricature people of certain groups. I need to think about cliches and how I can use humour to drive home a point. The first thought that came to mind was the cliche of girls who shop, like in the movie from the 90s Clueless and from the 00’s Mean girls.