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AmericanPowerAmpCulturalHegemony /
The Flapper: The Heroine or Antagonist of
the 1920s
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Intro
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Credits
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Resour
She Is...The Flapper
[Timeli
"She takes a man’s point of view as her mother never could, and when
she loses she is not afraid to admit defeat, whether it be a prime lover
or $20 at auction… She will never make you a hatband or knit you a
necktie… She’ll don knickers and go skiing with you… she’ll drive you
as well, perhaps better; she’ll dance as long as you care to, and she’ll
take everything you say the way you mean it…" 1.
ces?
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ne]
An Industrial
and PostIndustrial
Nation
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Intro
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Credits

Timeli
She is the rebellious and light-hearted “New Woman.” She is the
Flapper of the Roaring 1920s.
ne?
American
Power and
Cultural
Hegemony
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Intro
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Credits
Imperialism
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Intro
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Credits
Participants
edit SideBar
"The Sophisticated Flapper" 2
The 1920s were unlike any other ten years in history. Glamour became
a necessity for women. Members of the youth indulged in activities and
luxuries that made them happy. Materialism was practically unbound,
“scandalous” dancing was more than just a pastime, and ideals and
morals greatly shifted. From 1920 to 1929, America experienced a
period of great change, both socially and economically. Whether one
blames World War I, women’s suffrage, music, or prohibition, a new
rebellious youth, especially “new women,” emerged and impacted
future generations. These youthful women became known as Flappers,
and were recognized for their bold actions, their daring and self-reliant
character, their scandalous attire, and more than anything their desire
for equality with their male counterparts. Though the Flapper lifestyle
clearly did not last forever, the changes in women’s attitudes, ideals,
and actions (as they contradicted the morals of previous generations),
left a profound impact on women to be independent and un-submissive
to men. The Flapper generated both a new emotional culture for
women of vast ages and races, as well as a new youth identity for her
and her beau.
The Development of The Flapper Era
World War I undoubtedly played a great role in the development of the
Flapper. However, research on Greenwich Village attire shows that
"inherent changes in morals and manners expressed through
appearance existed among single working-class and middleclass
women in urban areas even earlier than WWI" 3. This particular
movement was sparked by New York's Bohemian women- those artsy
actresses and members of the 1910s literary culture who
"experimented with dress in a highly politicized and culturally artistic
environment permeated with feminist, socialist, and Freudian ideas" 3.
The mini-counterculture began its growth far before the Flapper icon
emerged; however, the strain of the war added to the liberal beliefs
already forming.
The Flappers and their boyfriends grew up during World War I,
surrounded by devastation, as families and prosperity fell apart.
Perhaps the drinking, smoking, and dancing, characteristic of the youth,
were means to escape the pain. The youth claimed, “We have been
forced to live in an atmosphere of ‘to-morrow we die,’ and so, naturally
we drank and were merry…” 4. During the war, families had to give up
many of their luxury items and favorite activities, and young children
even joined the workforce for extra family income. WWI forced austerity
and sacrifice upon Americans, and the Flapper was simply the result 5.
She wanted to enjoy being alive and embrace the temporarily war-free
society.
While the men served in the United States military, women split their
household duties with jobs outside the home. Before the war, and
oftentimes after, men were viewed as the breadwinners while women
stayed home tending to the house and the children. Women who held
jobs often quit upon marriage and proceeded to rely on their husbands’
income. However, after the war many women desired to remain in the
workforce. The Flapper “…demanded the same social freedom for
herself that men enjoyed. Consequently she left home and asserted
herself in the business world” 6. In fact, “by 1930, 10.8 million women
held paying jobs, an increase of 2 million since [the] war’s end” 7.
With the boys back in the country, these women often held jobs that
men were rarely interested in, so the sexes continued to be separated
in the workplace. Nonetheless, women enjoyed the money and the
purchasing power that enabled them to buy the many new labor-saving
devices that were manufactured after the war: washing machines,
irons, and vacuums. As both the gross national product and salaries
increased in the twenties, such items were available to more than just
the wealthy in American society 7. The time that women saved using
the new appliances was used not only to go out to the Flapper’s
favorite jazz club or speakeasy but also to work more hours and earn
yet more money. This money enabled the working Flapper to purchase
the ultimate ticket to independence: the automobile.
The Flapper & The Ford 8
As Ford mass-produced cars via the assembly line and gained
competition, automobiles became more affordable to even the newly
working young women. Not only did the automobile allow the Flapper to
go wherever men could and to share in all their enjoyments, but it also
spawned what would become a great shift in traditional courtship and
dating. “In other days the boy paid court to his ‘girl’ on an ivied porch or
in a cosy parlor, under the watchful eyes of a mother or the stricter vigil
of a maiden aunt” 4. In the twenties, however, couples drove away from
home, “indecently” as the parents believed. “By 1927 more autos were
enclosed… creating new private space for courtship and sex” 7. This
more intimate setting combined with the close dancing habits of the
Flapper altered women’s perspective on, and openness to, sexual
behavior.
Voting, and Drinking, and Smoking, Oh My!
The Shocking Activities, Fads, and Scandals of The New
Woman
"Standing Out In The Crowd" 9
In addition to having the mobility necessary for independence, early
Flappers were also among the first to vote along side American males.
In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
was ratified and after all the suffragist campaigns women were finally
given the right to vote. “Some blamed the vote for young women’s
excessive behavior: ‘Political and economic liberty… has come to
women, who, retaining their sex instincts and yet not knowing how to
use their freedom, are apt to claim the virtues and ape the vices of
men’” 4. They were given a privilege that their mothers never were
during their youthful years, already giving Flappers inspiration that they
could be equal with men.
Just six months before the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, the
Eighteenth Amendment referred to as the Volstead Act was approved
after reform-seeking women pressured Congress to prohibit the alcohol
that was “ruining society.” These Victorian reformers hoped to eliminate
prostitution and the saloon, while raising men’s principles. One of their
demands was this described prohibition of alcohol. However, after the
war, the new woman began concentrating on herself more than others,
and her thoughts on alcohol consumption (among many activities)
drastically altered, perhaps, as mentioned, as a means to forget the
sufferings of the war 6.
Regardless of the fact that Flappers’ thoughts on alcohol contrasted
with those of their mothers, the Volstead Act was indeed enacted. For
the next thirteen years, the manufacture, sale and possession of
alcohol were prohibited 10. But America was not as “dry” as the law
describes it to have been. Many Americans treated the Volstead Act as
a joke; it was constantly violated without concern. The Volstead Act
was broken more than any other law by “…so many ‘decent lawabiding’ people” 10. Equality-seeking Flappers and their boyfriends
drank liquor constantly in clubs and speakeasies. Mothers and
grandmothers were shocked that their these girls were drinking in
public, let alone drinking against the law.
Not only did the Flapper drink hard liquor, but she also took to smoking.
It was not uncommon in the twenties to walk into a loud jazz club and
see a young Flapper dancing barely clothed with a cigarette in one
hand a glass of alcohol in the other. The Flapper had indeed
“‘established the feminine right to equal representation in such hitherto
masculine fields of endeavor as smoking and drinking…’” 5. Flappers
could almost never settle for an activity being only a “masculine field”;
she wanted equality and fought for more unisex activities.
The habit of female smoking, however, seems to have been lees of a
result of seeking equality with men and more of a result of stress from
war. However, once the habit began, smoking in public and cigarette
choices were certainly moves to show that women would not be
dominated by their elders nor categorized below men. “A decade or so
before, a President’s daughter, Alice Roosevelt, was asked to leave the
lobby of a Chicago Hotel after she had lit a cigarette” 11. However,
during the war, the cigarette was used by both men and women as a
sedative and was considered more than just a small reason that
smoking spread to young women 11. Women in the twenties bought
cigarettes, or “coffin nails,” as the older generation preferred to call
them, just as often as men, and also chose to smoke the same brand of
potent cigarettes as men. The older generation believed that with the
war being over there was no reason to continue this crude and, as the
nickname alludes to, hazardous habit. Still, smoking continued and
became a major symbol of the rebellious Flapper.
What Would Her Mother Think?
The Flappers Defy The Norms of The Older Generations
The older generation disapproved of the crude habits Flappers adopted
and even flaunted. Flappers were energetic, but their parents believed
that their energy was focused in the wrong direction. They focused on,
as a female member of the older generation stated, “‘a frivolous pursuit
of fun rather than trying to better their sex and their race’” 4. Victorian
mothers and grandmothers frowned upon the youth’s reckless and
carefree attitudes. The young women, however, were still dealing with
returning to normalcy after the war, and, instead of helping the youth
control their need to move through reckless behavior, the elders
scorned the youth and gave them more reason to rebel against those
that wanted to control them. One Flapper reached out to the older
generation saying, “You must help us…The war tore our spiritual
foundations and challenged our faith. We are struggling to regain our
equilibrium” 12. Behind those heavily-made up faces were young girls
who wanted advice and guidance, instead of scorn and criticism 12. The
great distrust the older generation had for the youth created a large
barrier and generation gap within society. “Youth culture that had
existed on a smaller scale before the war now became a major social
phenomenon separating college students from adults” 13. The waraffected youth stuck together in disagreeing with, and acting out
against, their parents' beliefs on what was proper and acceptable.
The nation’s view of the youth shifted to shock over the rebellious
attempts at gaining gender equality. More than ever, adults realized the
age gap between themselves and their children. Although, certainly not
all teenage girls were Flappers, the Flapper became a major symbol in
the 1920s cultural view of a new radical youth. Thus, although not in
numbers, the Flapper indeed shook the (partially) global youth. This, of
course, will be seen again in the United States when the age gap of the
1950s and 1960s creates the countercultural of the 1960s protests. The
Flapper’s new sense of fashion and leisure, as we will soon see,
influenced her views of sexuality and transcended through American
middle-class society to form a new emotional and even social culture
for women.
One cannot simply blame the older generation for criticizing the
“flaming” youth. Flappers grew up with many more opportunities that
their mothers were still grasping. One Flapper, embracing her new
found freedom stated, “I can think & act; perceive & execute, reason &
react in a thousand different ways that my grandmother & even my
mother never could” 14. The parents and grandparents indeed criticized
their children and grandchildren who carried on such astoundingly
different lives than they had, but they slowly began to accept their
daughters coming home drunk and going out to petting parties. The
mothers would soon even join in the new female social culture of
openly accepting sexuality and smoking. In the early to mid-twenties,
however, the Victorians remained aghast.
Among many Flapper habits that the older generation disapproved of,
Flapper slang became well known and mocked by mothers.
Flapperdom was the first youth movement that adopted it own slang
dictionaries, and “The Flapper magazine predicted without hesitation
that ‘many of the phrases now employed by members of this order [the
Flapper movement] will eventually find a way into common usage and
be accepted as good English just like many American slang words’” 5.
Although many of the slang words such as “fire alarm” (a divorced
woman) and “blue serge” (a sweetheart) did not last much longer than
the Flapper movement, other words remain but with the same, or
altered, meanings. The terms “big timer” and “bimbo” are still used in
the 21st Century, but not to refer to a “charming and romantic man” or
“a great person” respectively. There are, however, certain terms that
have made a lasting impression on society and originated with the
Flappers. Such terms include “ab-so-lute-ly,” “and how!,” “big cheese,”
“heebie-jeebies,” "killjoy,” and "pos-i-tive-ly” just to name a few. Though
mothers were stunned by the slang, the terms were mostly innocent
and united the youth culture. These words remain today as catchy
sayings that maintain the spunk of the late Flappers 5.
She's Wearing What?
Flapper Dress and The Will to Let Loose
"Fashions from Autumn of 1928" 15
“A vivid image of the Flapper is firmly fixed in our collective cultural
memory-the shocking and wild, bootleg-gin-drinking, cigarette-inholder-smoking, necking and swearing, Charleston-dancing jazz baby;
the short-haired or bobbed-hair young girl with a defiantly boyish figure,
a fringed skirt, and stockings rolled and bunched below the knee as
brazen witness to the fact that-gasp-she wore no corset” 5.
Flappers were young, working women who went to the jazz club after
work or perhaps after school, depending on her age; she did not have
the time nor the desire to be held back by a highly restrictive corset, as
her mother and grandmother most likely wore their entire lives.
Women’s attire showed major alterations as early as the 1910s,
through Bohemian dress common in New York City’s Greenwich
Village. The bohemian feminists intensity was obvious not only in her
extreme beliefs regarding sex and marriage, but also in her desire to
dress in less restricting clothing. This “feminist dress” was evident by
1914, when females began “bobbing” their hair and dancing at youthful
halls such as the Village’s Liberal Club in “calf-length skirts and
jumpers, tunic tops, and low sandal-type shoes” 3. Such attire already
posed a threat to the traditional garments of the Victorian Era.
With long hair and heavy, layered clothing, Flappers' Victorian mothers
bore quite the contrast to the slim mini-dresses of the 1920’s youth 7.
The Victorians, while conservative in the amount of skin they showed,
maintained their own opinions on sexiness and appropriateness of
dress. Corsets created hourglass bodies and shoulders peered over
the large, generally floor-length, gowns of adult women.
Proper Length for Victorian Dress 16
The Village trends, however, changed many feminists’ ideas on
acceptable dress and influenced the wardrobe of emerging Flappers.
Flappers’ bare knees below their shapeless dresses were more than an
initial shock to their mothers. As The New Republic journalist Bruce
Bliven wrote, in 1925 “the corset is as dead as the dodo’s
grandfather…the petticoat is even more defunct…[and] the brassiere
has been abandoned, since 1924” 17. The older generation claimed this
as a loss in femininity. Rather than a decline, however, Flappers altered
the definition of femininity. If Flappers ever wore bras or corsets, they
were ones designed to flatten the woman’s breasts and stomach 13.
“The emergence of the boyish figure as the ideal of feminine beauty
may seem to belong to the history of fashion, but contemporaries
regarded this figure as the symbol of the new morality, a sign of the
transition from a sexually and socially heterogeneous society to one
that was unisex, uniform and classless” 18. The great cultural and social
split between men and women was transformed under the Flappers as
she sought equality with men, including in the workforce and in the
ability to attend public amusements. Her androgynous figure was just
one sign of the homogeneity occurring between men and women in the
1920s.
Unlike her mother and grandmother, the New Woman fully painted her
face and topped it off with bright red lipstick. The Flappers wanted to
make their own decisions and felt that one of the greatest ways to do
so was in their physical appearance. In general, Flapper fashion
consisted of “dropped waist dresses, shorter skirts, cloche hats, long
beaded necklaces, high heels, raccoon coats, and transparent hosiery”
13
. Aside from the raccoon coats worn for evening dates, the Flapper’s
attire was light, allowing her well-groomed skin to be shown. The
wardrobe weighed approximately a mere two pounds and even less
when the flapper decided to roll of her transparent hosiery 17.
Sometimes, however, she simply rolled down her stocking to powder
her knees. Victorian women, without a beat, were shocked by their
daughters' lack of embarrassment.
"A Flapper Powders Her Knees" 19
Flappers, however, were spotted in the crowd, above all, because of
their characteristic bobbed haircut. The cut added to their boyish
figures and was extremely popular on college campuses in the 1920s.
The bob was not a factor of race or institutional differences; it was an
appealing look to both white students and African American students 13.
For the time being, the bob and the entire Flapper wardrobe, united
blacks and whites under a common hip-culture. Although, the majority
of 1920s American women were not Flappers, the symbolic attire was
able to spread to those who desired it, making it a defining feature of
1920s collegiate culture for both black and white adolescents 13. When
women saw their favorite feminist actresses and artists in Flapper
attire, they could easily imitate them, causing the Flapper to become
the symbol of the 1920s flaming youth, not only in America but also
abroad. This younger generation showed their ability to alter the
national identity to one focused around--both in criticism of and in
admiration for--the rebellious and flamboyant youth who were not afraid
to shake the social norms.
Prominent women emerged in the 1920s from the literary and poetry
realm, and of course from the new Hollywood scene that was already
uniting Americans at inexpensive theaters. Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay
was appealing to America’s young women because of her Greenwich
Village-born liberal views of sexuality and her unrestricted personality,
personified in her lack of brassiere and her bobbed hair 3. Journalist
Louise Bryant also cut her hair and painted her face, and was
described as “‘the picture of flaming youth’” 3. These women’s liberal
sentiments spread throughout the female culture; the nation’s females
were liberalizing.
Edna St. Vincent Millay 20
While Flappers were often mistrusted, some saw beneath their activism
a certain coy playfulness. The Hollywood film industry “adopted the
strategy of poking fun at the foibles of the younger set while at the
same time exploiting them…by this means, the younger set was
presented as laughable rather than threatening” 21. Actresses such as
Clara Bow and Colleen Moore showed Americans, as wells as Western
Europeans and Russians, both the wildness and the subtle innocence
of the Flapper. Colleen Moore played flappers, including Pat in Flaming
Youth, who were both daring yet innocent and playful underneath their
wild antics. Clara Bow, while also portraying a Flapper of innocence
and sexuality, showed “the flapper’s signature naughty behaviors, such
as drinking, smoking and wearing revealing clothing, with an unusually
unadulterated degrees of sensual pleasure…” 21. Clara Bow 22,
therefore, showed a Flapper, including Pepper Whipple in Love Among
the Millionaires who publicly sings while intoxicated, who lacked
hesitation in her “wild” actions in contrast to the cautiousness of
Moore’s characters. Together Moore and Bow portrayed youthful
innocence and sexiness, which allowed the older generation to cope
with the somewhat radical female protagonists of the youth generation
21
.
Indeed, a sense of innocence existed behind the Flappers’ meticulously
painted faces, but if she were spotted at a speakeasy or nightclub, her
innocence would be difficult to perceive. These unlawful “hot spots”
introduced the youth to the new sensation of jazz music, combined with
illegal liquor and sensual dancing. Flappers were known at home and
abroad for their taste in upbeat dance styles that positioned them closer
to their male companions. Many members of the older generation,
including those in the Soviet Union felt that the physical contact and
peculiar movements involving in the Flapper’s dances “suggested a
loss of control and ‘the abandonment of civilized restraint’” 23. The new
youth cultural, however, was simply exploring freedom and developing
equality.
The Charleston 24
Dancing also strengthened the bond that was beginning between white
and black adolescents. After all, “the dace styles, music, and slang
identified with white college students in the 1910s and 1920s owed
much to African American invention” 12. Jazz music became yet another
symbol of the Flapper as she danced the Tango, the Black Bottom, and
predominately the Charleston 10. Although jazz was often considered an
evil entity, the older generation’s actual issue with the music “seemed
to be that jazz dances inspired young women to leave their corsets at
home- and loosen up!” 10. As females became more closely connected
with young men, she began to make her presence at other previously
predominately male gatherings such as baseball games and crew
races at men’s colleges 12. Never before had young ladies spent time in
such close (physical) contact with young men. Not only was the
dancing and frolicking an enjoyment for the youth, but they were also
yet another factor which influenced young women’s new sense of
sexuality both in America and abroad.
Is She Proper?
The 1920s Modern Sexuality
Under the influence of the self-expressive Flappers and their rowdy
beaus “the line between acceptable and inappropriate behavior blurred
as…frankness about sex became fashionable” 7.
As Flappers became closer with men, women’s thoughts on sexuality
and relationships with men changed drastically. Although not all women
agreed with the change in opinion, the frankness of the youth spread to
other nations and allowed even older women to speak a bit more
openly about sex. Reportedly, “the sexualized body of the 1920s
student grew out of what historians have termed the first modern sexual
revolution (in contrast to the second in the 1960s and 1970s), which
developed in working-class neighborhoods and radical circles in the
early 1900s before it spread to middle-class youth and college
campuses” 13. What began with a few flappers necking and petting
behind their mothers’ backs, evolved into an entire revolution for
sexuality equality. Unlike the vast majority of Victorian women, many
Flappers saw no harm in kissing boys whom they did not intend to
marry. Without any embarrassment, one flapper exclaimed kissing as
“terribly exciting. We get such a thrill. I think it is natural to want nice
men to kiss you, so why not do what is natural?” 25.
In the Victorian Era, however, such acts were considered unnatural and
completely unacceptable. In fact, amongst all her differences with her
mother, it was mostly likely the “sexual freedom of the young people
that set the post war generation apart” 14. The “wild dancing” of the Jazz
Age youth brought hormonal adolescents practically as close as
physically possible. The dances, thus, brought about “postrevolutionary concepts of ‘sexual liberation’ [and] ‘free love’” in both
America and abroad 23. The sexual freedom expressed in the works of
Sigmund Freud also seemingly gave young men and women the right
to openly express their healthy heterosexuality 4. While the frankness
surrounding sex made many individuals uncomfortable it could indeed
not be ignored within the modernizing youth culture.
The 1920s youth, comfortable with their sexuality, also redefined the
dating system that began as a mere high school extracurricular activity
in the 1890s 14. Beginning with the mentioned privacy of automobiles,
America’s view of dating shifting from a quaint supervised meeting, into
a system in which the two enjoyed themselves without a chaperone at
a social or public amusement event. “Physical intimacy became an
expected element of dating” causing the virginal innocence of courtship
to decline 14. The Flappers who married found the partnership virtually
impossible and unpleasant if it lacked physically intimacy. The nation
was overwhelmed by the fact that flapper college students “flirted,
kissed, danced, and petted with men. Expected to give and receive
sexual pleasure, they used their bodies to explore this new landscape”
12
.
Consequently, this physical intimacy led to a new obsession that
seemingly never faded: the obsession with being physically beautiful
and slim. Especially as women joined sports teams and attended
sporting events, they began to see unwanted weight as a personal
failing 14. Women strove for what could only be called the “It” factor. “It”
could described as a woman with an appealing personality or with sex
appeal. Clara Bow was the epitome of the characteristic in the 1927
movie It, and many women could not help but desire her pleasing traits
14
. Hence, the desire for the ideal body began, and, today, still
continues.
And She Travels Too
The Flapper's Influence Abroad
The Hollywood movies, filled with flirtatious slim flappers, spread to
Eastern Europe and consequently to Russia. As individuals abroad
bore witness to the happy-go-lucky youth of America, many members
of the younger generation abroad also joined in the festivities. For the
older generation, however, “the mass media dramatized common
prejudices and inflated the fears aroused by the discovery of the new
feminine sexuality” 26.
In Britain, Flappers made an impact with their desire for careers and,
consequently, their influence on the supposed decline of the family unit.
These modern, independent, and of course attractive, girls were
reportedly going “out in the world to earn a living, thereby driving men
to emigrate” 26. Older Brits, like the older generation of America, mostly
worried about the change in social balance strong women would cause.
In Paris, dancing played a major role in many middle-class women’s
social lives 14. One magazine described “…how the War had upset the
balance of the sexes in Europe and the girls over there were wearing
the new styles as part of the competition for husbands” 17. Not only
were youthful women in Europe becoming resembling American
flappers in their competition for jobs, but they also competed against
one another, with their strong reproductive instincts and feminine
sexuality to obtain men 26.
The Flapper on Life Magazine 27
As Western Europe’s youth began dressing in Flapper attire and
showing Flapper rebellion, the Hollywood films that influenced these
young women were spreading to the Soviet Union. Simultaneously,
fashion magazines from Western Europe showed Russian women the
desirable fashion that they too could wear. Soon the youth of the
bourgeoisie working class, under the New Economic Policy (the
Soviet's new economic plan as of 1921), were completely in tune with
what their European and American counterparts were both wearing and
dancing 28. Russian Flappers defied the Communist Bolsheviks and
their pressure for cultural unity, and instead preferred to indulge in
entertainment and “adopted the flapper fashions of Paris and New York
and danced to the seductive rhythms of American jazz” 28. Soviet youth,
like that of America, also loved to dance. After its début in Paris, the
popular dance of the Charleston was introduced to Moscow in 1926
and the youth gathered together to dance alongside traveling American
jazz bands. Dance and jazz band acts were soon advertised as
“American” and were the symbol of modernity and sophistication 23.
American actresses such as Clara Bow also influenced young Soviet
women to paint their faces, bob their hair, and adorn themselves in
short dresses and high heels in order to imitate the Silver Screen
“heroes” 29.
The angered Bolsheviks felt their balanced society and hope for
“creating cultural hegemony” was threatened. However, cultural
hegemony was indeed in the making, though not between the youth
and adult Communists of the Soviet Union. Instead, a new youth
culture was forming throughout many of the advanced countries of the
1920s. What began as a spread of fashion-keen feminists in the United
States spread throughout races and ethnicities to form an entirely new
youth culture. Flappers taught the youth to address their desires and
concerns for equality and pleasure. They additionally, though often
scorned because of it, advocated women’s ability to talk more openly
about sexuality and relations with males, and even created a stronger
bond between men and women throughout the nations. What the
Bolsheviks saw as “hooliganism” was actually the rebellious youth
forming a self-identity 28.
A Change of Mind
The Older Generation Catches On
Flapperdom still did not maintain the majority of these nations’ youth,
but it was certainly forming a new youth identity. Soon, however,
individuals from the flappers’ mothers’ generation began joining in the
new beliefs and style. By 1925, the symbolic flapper look was “being
worn by all of [Flapper] Jane’s sisters and her cousins and her aunts.
They [were] being worn by ladies who [were] three times Jane’s age” 17.
Although mothers and aunts probably did not wear so short of dresses
or as much makeup as youthful Flappers, the youth cultural was
evidently influencing the older generation. Indeed, the new modern
women could not be ignored.
The Flapper's Mother 30
More importantly than a change in attire, some of the older generation
in the twenties desired the youth’s free character. “Even some older
women participated in describing a new kind of femininity, one that had
eliminated the problems experienced by the older generation of
women” 4. These older women grew up with their behavior and
freedoms repressed and oftentimes remained unaware of issues
involved with sexual relationships. The New Women, on the other
hand, appeared to give the entire female cultural hope for a more
knowledgeable future. As the older generation began accepting some
of the youth’s flaming antics and personalities, the large generation gap
that had lasted most of the 1920s began fading, reuniting mother and
daughter and father and son. The New Women were able to openly
discuss syphilis, kissing, and other phenomena of the new sexual
culture, allowing both men and women to have safer, healthier
courtships 4.
She Left Her Mark
Conclusion
The 1920s were filled with shock, excitement, social and relationship
changes, but by 1929 the Flapper was fading out of existence. When
the stock market crashed and the prices of goods shot up, middle and
working class women found it much more difficult to afford the Flapper
fashion. It became more convenient to be partially dependent on a
partner, especially one who showed romance and compassion 14.
During the depression, the youth were forced to focus more on
surviving and retaining somewhat of a normal life, rather than on
advocating modernized freedoms for women. Flappers faded out of the
Soviet Union shortly after because by 1932, the Bolsheviks had
tolerated enough from the excessive youth and prevented American
jazz bands from performing throughout the country 29. The Flapper
diminished by the end of the twenties, but not without leaving her mark
on society.
The Flapper was not just a spunky rebellious young woman who strove
to defy her mother’s traditions and caused uproar in society (although
she certainly did so along the way). Rather, the Flapper was, and still
is, the key symbol of the loud, modern youth of the 1920s. Her
frankness about sexuality created both a new emotional and sexual
culture for women, and a new foundation for male and female
courtship. She shook the social norms and rocked the traditional female
roles. She showed women across the globe that being submissive
could only harm the potentially remarkable female. More than anything
else, however, the Flapper created a new youth identity, not only in the
United States but also in Europe and Russia. The older generation was
all well familiar with the “Flaming Youth” and its dare to be free.
She was “Making Noise.” She was The Flapper.
Footnotes
1 "Flapping Not Repented Of." The New York Times. The Twenties:
Fords, Flappers & Fanatics. Ed. George E. Mowry. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. 173-175.
2 The Sophisticated Flapper,
http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/jane.html (accessed February
23, 2007).
3 Saville, Deborah. "Freud, Flappers and Bohemians: The Influence of
Modern Psychological Thought and Social Ideology on Dress, 19101923." Dress (USA) 30 (2003): 63-79. Academic Search Premier. 23
February 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com.
4 Laura Davidow Hirshbein, “The Flapper and The Fogy:
Representations of Gender and Age in The 1920s.” Journal of Family
History 26 (2001): 112-128. http://jfh.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/26/1/112
(accessed February 23, 2007).
5 Tom Dalzell, Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang (Springfield:
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1996), 8-23.
6 George E. Mowry, ed., The Twenties: Fords, Flappers & Fanatics.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. 173.
7 Norton, Mary Beth, David M. Katzman, David W. Blight, Howard P.
Chudacoff, Fredrik Logevall, Beth Bailey, Thomas G. Paterson, William
M. Tuttle, Jr. A People and A Nation: A History of The United States.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 651-677.
8 The automobile was a principal symbol of the new era,
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/clash/Introduction/Intro.htm (accessed
April 20, 2007).
9 Standing Out in the Crowd: Advertising/ flapper, "Images of the Jazz
Age." http://classes.berklee.edu/llanday/fall01/jazzage/crowdweb
(accessed February 23, 2007).
10 Pick, Margaret Moos.“Speakeasies, Flappers & Red Hot Jazz:
Music of the Prohibition.”
http://www.riverwalkjazz.org/site/PageServer?pagename=jazznotes_sp
eakeasies (accessed February 23, 2007).
11 "Women Smokers." The New York Times. The Twenties: Fords,
Flappers & Fanatics. Ed. George E. Mowry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. 178-179.
12 Page, Ellen Welles. “A Flapper’s Appeal to Parents.” Outlook
Magazine (1922), http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/appeal.html
(accessed February 23 2007).
13 Lowe, Margaret A. Looking Good: College Women and Body Image,
1875-1930. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2003. 103133.
14 Spurlock, John C. and Cynthia A. Magistro. New and Improved: The
Transformation of American Women's Emotional Culture. New York:
New York University Press, 1998. 17-52.
15 Fashions for Autumn of 1928, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapper
(accessed February 23, 2007).
16 The Proper Length for Little Girls' Skirts at Various Ages. Harper's
Bazar, 1868. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_fashion (accessed
April 20, 2007).
17 Bliven, Bruce. "Flapper Jane." The New Republic
(1925),http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/jane.html (accessed
February 23, 2007).
18 Melman, Billie. Women and the Popular Imagination in the Twenties:
Flappers and Nymphs. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988. 1-12.
19 A Flapper Powders Her Knees,
http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/jane.html (accessed February
23, 2007).
20 Edna St. Vincent Millay,
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAvanzetti.htm (accessed April
22, 2007).
21 Ross, Sara. "'Good little bad girls': Controversy and the flapper
comendienne." Film History [Australia] 2001 13(4): 409-423. Academic
Search Premier. 23 February 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com.
22 "Clara Bow 'Rarin' to Go.'" Love Among the Millionaires (1930),
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z_z5o-ONqg8 (accessed April 19, 2007).
23 Gorsuch, Anne E. Flappers and Foxtrotters: Soviet Youth in the
"Roaring Twenties". Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg, 1994. 7-13.
24 The Charleston,
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigidea/stories/s1404782.htm (accessed April
21, 2007).
25 Wembridge, Eleanor Rowland. "Petting and the Campus." The
Twenties: Fords, Flappers & Fanatics. Ed. George E. Mowry.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1963. 175-178.
26 Melman, Billie. Women and the Popular Imagination in the Twenties:
Flappers and Nymphs. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988. 15-37.
27 Life (1922), http://www.compassrose.org/uptown/nirvana.html
(accessed April 20, 2007).
28 Gorsuch, Anne E. Flappers and Foxtrotters: Soviet Youth in the
"Roaring Twenties". Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg, 1994. 1-7
29 Gorsuch, Anne E. Flappers and Foxtrotters: Soviet Youth in the
"Roaring Twenties". Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg, 1994. 13-24
30 A Cartoon About Flappers (1927),
http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/flapper.htm (accessed
April 22, 2007).
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