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| Cover of Life Magazine of a Flapper with an older man, 1926 |
Flappers emerged during the Roaring Twenties or the Era of Wonderful Nonsense as strong, reckless, and daring women. The 1920s was a great time for most women, women earned their suffrage in the 19th amendment, there was an abundance of job opportunities, and women's fashion was transforming dramatically.
Before WWI, the Gibson Girl was the ideal woman, feminine and sophisticated but knew how to have a good time and take risks. During the war, women were forced to fill in on the jobs that needed to be completed because men were being recruited into the army. As a result, women at home were expected to create a patriotic fervor and to take over jobs they never needed to perform before. This idea of the Gibson Girl was finally at its peak because of the war and gradually evolved into what is known today as the Flappers. One of the major changes was that women began to break away from the traditional values of waiting for a suitor to approach her and instead began taking these risks herself. This is largely a result of the fact that potential suitors were killed during the war and so women decided to pursue love or any interests on their own.
Women were able to experiment and take risks with how they looked to further illustrate how they felt on the inside. Women began to break away from the Victorian long hair and the "ironsides", or corsets of the past. Instead, the typical flapper had shoulder length hair, wore knee-length dresses that were typically covered in fringe, and wore makeup. The ideal body shape was a flat chest, slim hips, and a generally slim figure. Flappers didn't shy away from alcohol and smoking either. The typical flapper dress draped straight down and allowed movement for women in clubs and parties. A renowned French designer that is even popular today, Coco Chanel, helped to popularize the flapper look.
Flappers usually held clerking jobs because the increase in phone usage called for a greater demand of operators. Women were employed in department stores on all sales floors to allow customers, primarily women to relate and therefore purchase more products.
Although in the modern day flappers are referred to as a revolutionary type of fashion, or perhaps a "costume", it is hard to wrap the mind around the fact that for many women, the flapper was a lifestyle. It was a lifestyle that embodied traits that women today pursue, the desire to be independent, free, and not having to be grounded by responsibilities or societal expectations.
Sources:
http://www.ushistory.org/us/46d.asp
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Flappers.aspx
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers.htm
This is a good description of how flappers evolved from the more conservative lifestyle and social roles of the past. The scope of this newfound freedom extended throughout America and it was an important step in defying the gender roles of the past.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good description of how flappers evolved from the more conservative lifestyle and social roles of the past. The scope of this newfound freedom extended throughout America and it was an important step in defying the gender roles of the past.
ReplyDeleteI love your description of the evolution of women up until the 'Roaring 20's' and your description of the evolution of flappers from their more conservative and social life of what they were before up to what they have become in the 20's. I also like your comparison at the end from flappers today to flappers in the 20's it shows the difference between what we think of as flappers now as to what they were thought of back then. Showing that back then they were more excepted and popular, they were strived for, whereas today they are more revolutionary and seen more as outcasts.
ReplyDeleteHow different do you believe flappers are today than from when they first became popular? Do you think they are more accepted today or they were more accepted back in their invention day?
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It is interesting that there is more to the fashion trend than just a new idea. This was very well written and points out some interesting patterns in this fashion style. I wonder how fashion is used today to make a statement for certain groups?
ReplyDeleteI think something worth mentioning is the increased sexual freedom that women of this era seemed to gain. Flappers were much less hesitant to engage in sexual activity than were women of previous generations; this created a sense of promiscuity and sexual "looseness" that surrounded women of this era. In addition, they showed more skin by wearing shorter clothing, and wore more make-up. This mirrored the idea of individuality in that women did what pleased them, not what pleased their husbands or fathers. Interestingly, this matched with the ideas of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who stated that sexual libido was a natural human urge.
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It was very interesting to read the way that the concept of "flappers" evolved, and how these women were very different to the women of the generation before them. I was very glad you included the "Gibson Girl" in your post because after all the "Gibson Girl" served as the precursor to the ultimate model of what all women wanted to be like. What I would also like to see is an analysis of how the "flappers" and their behavior inspired the civil rights movement for women. While "flappers" started to behave more independently the 1920's also saw the rise of prominent female figures such as Alice Paul, who vowed to fight until an Equal Rights Amendment was added to the Constitution. I would like to know if "flappers" themselves participated in social movements, or if they were simply changing the image of the typical American women.
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