Figure 1.--Here we see three sisters perched on a 1922 Chevy. The flappers are best known for their eye-catching shiort skirts. Somewhat under the radar is that we begin to see some young women wearing men's trousers, a trend that would expand in subsequent decades.

The flapper was one of the most famous elements of the Roaring 20s. A flapper was a young woman pursuing an energetic lifestyle, much more energetic even frenetic and independent than any past generation of women who led lives largely constrained by their fathers as teenagers and unmarried young women and their husbands after marriage. They were a fashion-setting subculture. Most at he time were disturbed by the development, seeing the flapper life style on a continuum from eyebrow raising, outrageous, immoral, or actually dangerous. Some see the flappers as the first generation of independent women. This is unfair. The frontier tended to promote and unprecedented level of female empowerment. It is the primary reason the United States led what is now called the women's movement. We notice that many feminist professors go and on about restrictions that women faced. While this is basically true, most of these professors refuse to tel; the whole story, namely that America and the West in general led the way in removing these restrictions. While the flappers were not the first feminists, it is undeniable that the flappers were challenged barriers to economic, political, and sexual freedom. In terms of fashion, the flappers were most notable for short skirts, which in the early-20th century meant knee height hems. They also began shedding long stockings which were common n the 1910s, although we continue to see silk stockings. (Nylons did nit appear until 1939). Rather more startling were bathing suits. They went well above the knee and were commonly worn with long stockings in the 1910s. The police were seen out in force on quite a number of beaches with tape measurers to enforce morality. A less discussed, but important development because short skirts were so eye catching is that young women began wearing pants. That was almost never seem in the the 1910s, but we begin to see it for the first time to any extent with the flappers. Also important is non-clothing fashion, especially hair styles--primarily bobbed hair. Women and h=girls began cutting their hair short. And make-up became more important and often excessive. There were a range of other cultural changes. Jazz which had been scandalous became popular. Young women in their short skirts and bobbed hair began to smoke, drink, and frequent speakeasies. They basically flaunted the entrenched codes of polite society. Henry Ford 's his Model-T Tin Lizzie was the forerunner of the more stylish, fast automobiles of the 1920s. The car contributed to the independence and privacy that young women had never known before

Created: 6:48 PM 6/17/2024
Last updated: 6:49 PM 6/17/2024