Several factors were in play in the 1920s for the emergence of what came to known as flappers, teenagers and young women who flouted convention and spent their time pursuing fun instead of settling down to raise children in the prime of their lives. Many entered college or the workforce and felt entitled to make their own decisions about how to live their lives.
A lot of young men did not return home from World War I, which left an entire cohort of women without enough husbands to go around. The horror of the war (and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918) also impressed young people with the knowledge that life is short and could end at any moment. Instead of staying home preparing to marry a man who might never come, young women wanted to spend what time they had enjoying all that life had to offer.
Movies popularized the image of the fun-loving and free-thinking woman throughout the US and Europe. The 1920 movie The Flapper introduced the term in the United States. The title character, Ginger, was a wayward girl who flouted the rules of society. Played by Olive Thomas, a former Ziegfeld Girl (left), Ginger had so much fun that a generation of lonely young women wanted to be like her. Another role model was stage and screen actress Louise Brooks (right), who also modeled for artists and fashion designers. She was the inspiration for the flapper comic strip Dixie Dugan.
Clara Bow wasn’t the first flapper on screen, but she was certainly a role model for young women of the era. She didn’t play by the rules, and was tabloid fodder for years for her sexual escapades with the biggest movie stars of the time. Bow’s first film was in 1922 and her career peaked in 1927 with the film It. “It” was defined as the sexual allure some girls have and others don’t. Bow’s fans wanted “it”, so they copied her look and behavior.
The rise of the automobile was another factor in the rise of flapper culture. Cars meant a woman could come and go as she pleased, travel to speakeasys and other entertainment venues, and use the large vehicles of the day for heavy petting or even sex.
These young women has plenty of opportunities for fun. Although Prohibition drove alcohol underground, that only added to its allure. Postwar prosperity allowed for leisure time and the means to spend that time drinking, dancing, and hanging out with free thinkers.
Being a flapper wasn’t all about fashion. It was about rebellion. In this article from 1922, a would-be flapper (but still a “nice girl”) explains her lifestyle choices to her parents. Flappers did what society did not expect from young women. They danced to Jazz Age music, they smoked, they wore makeup, they spoke their own language, and they lived for the moment. Flapper fashion followed the lifestyle. Skirts became shorter to make dancing easier. Corsets were discarded in favor of brassieres that bound their breasts, again to make dancing easier. The straight shapeless dresses were easy to make and blurred the line between the rich and everyone else. The look became fashionable because of the lifestyle. The short hair? That was pure rebellion against the older generation’s veneration of long feminine locks.
The party stopped when the economy crashed and the Great Depression curtailed the night life. Although the flapper lifestyle died along with the Roaring Twenties, the freedoms women tasted in that era weren’t easily given up. They may have gone back to marriage and long hours of toil for little pay, but hemlines stayed above the ankle, and the corset never went back to everyday status. And we’ve been driving cars ever since.
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This was a great read but I was a little surprised to see Colleen Moore not on the list. Having grown up around the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and having heard the story of her and her dollhouse many times, I guess I’ve come to associate her name with the flapper culture.
Hrmn… her dollhouse would be a great mental_floss article too. :)
posted by AM on 8-25-2009 at 9:37 am
The dollhouse was briefly mentioned in an old post. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/5613 Maybe I should look into this lady more deeply, since I am always looking for post ideas! Thanks.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-25-2009 at 10:13 am
There was a television series here in Canada (1979-1980) called “Flappers,” which was my first introduction to the term, the style, the fashion. I was only 9 or 10 years old at the time, but it made a huge impression. It must have been such an intoxicating time for young women (both literally and figuratively) never mind the clothing was beautiful.
posted by Kikadee on 8-25-2009 at 10:49 am
My grandmother was a flapper. I have some marvelous photos of her in her flapper attire with her ‘bobbed’ hair.
posted by airship on 8-25-2009 at 10:52 am
Miss Cellania, I just now “got” your name and it gave me a chuckle. My only excuse for being so dense until now is that I never really thought about it. I guess I just assumed you had an unusual name!
posted by Kelsey on 8-25-2009 at 11:14 am
My mom’s mom was born too late to be a flapper but my dad’s mom would have been in her 20′s during the 20′s. Her and my grandpa didn’t get married and have kids until their 40′s so she was young free during the right time!
But I don’t think the flapper culture invaded rural Iowa or she just wasn’t that way, have already become a nurse and was working at the local hospital by the 20s.
posted by Sarah in CA on 8-25-2009 at 11:20 am
RE: Kelsey
I didn’t know it had a meaning… I just thought it was her last name!
posted by Sarah in CA on 8-25-2009 at 11:22 am
Great post…I really liked that 1922 article.
posted by Johnny Cat on 8-25-2009 at 11:54 am
Thanks for the article! I would like to see other similar articles about what life was like in the past.
posted by Gina on 8-25-2009 at 12:47 pm
Aw c’mon. miscellania.
posted by odds 'n ends on 8-25-2009 at 2:13 pm
Sometimes jokes are so OLD they go over your head. When I was a radio announcer, I would sometimes do the news under the name Miss Information, or the traffic report as Miss Direction.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-26-2009 at 11:59 pm
And of course, American women got the right to vote in 1920.
Great article and photos!
posted by Sugarjonze on 9-16-2009 at 4:36 pm
Nice article, but you mean they flouted convention, not flaunted it.
posted by chris on 9-16-2009 at 7:37 pm
My mothers mother (the only grandparent I knew) was a flapper – I have a photo of her in her flapper wedding dress hanging in my hall, she has a kind of sad half smile in the picture and when I knew her she was a sad old lady. Her and my mom (her only offspring) didn’t get along too well, she’s kind of a sad memory for me. The women in these pictures are beautiful. This era fascinates me. The music is great too.
posted by Fred on 9-16-2009 at 11:28 pm
Thanks, Chris! Fixed.
posted by Miss Cellania on 9-17-2009 at 3:51 am
Great article – incredibly interesting and I like the way you so neatly explain the correlation between the fashions of the era / social barriers & previously long-held taboos being broken down. Great work!
(Also incredibly inspirational. I am feeling the urge to do on of my Etsy treasuries themed around the flapper gals…)
posted by Miss Nightingale on 9-17-2009 at 10:51 am
fun article. Does anyone think that we may have a similar role in today’s culture? Would hipsters be the closest thing? Just a thought.
posted by snazzyjas on 9-17-2009 at 11:26 am
My grandmother, Matilda Linn, was a flapper. She told me that origin of the term “flapper” came from the trend of women wearing men’s rubber boots and letting the buckles go unbuckled. When the women wore this style, the unbuckled buckles made a flapping sound as they walked.
posted by Creative Times on 9-18-2009 at 1:19 am
Flapper wedding dress? Now there’s an oxymoron. Freedom to… do the laundry, scrub the bathroom, and uh, all that other stuff for the next fifty years… woo-woo!
posted by jayna on 9-18-2009 at 1:39 am