Rag Rag : The Rag Rag Annual Magazine, 1957

University of Manchester Student Union

Rag Rag

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Volume 31 of the University of Manchester Rag Rag. Cover features a smiling white cartoon snake reading this issue of the Rag against a red background. The magazine was produced by students to raise money for Manchester medical charities. It cost a shilling, with more donations encouraged. The three largest beneficiaries were the National Fund for Polio Research, the Manchester University Settlement and the Manchester and Salford Council for Social Service. Others included recuperative centres, children’s refuges and church clubs.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>One feature is ‘The First Time’, a parody of a romantic short story. There are also jokes referencing civil defence programmes and the Kinsey Report, a report on unemployment in the United Kingdom. Cartoons show sexualised images of women and jokes about drunkenness, sex, romance, and married life. Some cartoons show racial stereotypes.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>There are advertisements for J. T. Richards bookmakers, Hatchett & Co engineers, the Wood Street Mission, Marks and Spencer, the Invalid Children’s Aid Association, the Music Centre, Autodrome engineers, Crown wallpapers, Manchester Abattoirs, the Wholesale Fish Market, Hogg & Mitchell Ltd. and others.</p>