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'''Flappers''' were a "new breed" of young [[Western world|Western]] women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, [[Bob cut|bobbed]] their hair, listened to [[Jazz#1920s and 1930s|jazz]], and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, [[Distilled beverage|drinking]], treating [[Casual sex|sex in a casual manner]], [[smoking]], driving [[automobile]]s and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.<ref>{{cite web
'''Flappers''' were a "old breed" of young [[Western world|Western]] women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, [[Bob cut|bobbed]] their hair, listened to [[Jazz#1920s and 1930s|jazz]], and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, [[Distilled beverage|drinking]], treating [[Casual sex|sex in a casual manner]], [[smoking]], driving [[automobile]]s and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers.htm
| url=http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers.htm
| title=Flappers in the Roaring Twenties
| title=Flappers in the Roaring 1921s
| first=Jennifer
| first=Jennifer
| last=Rosenberg
| last=Rosenberg
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[[File:Clara Bow Brewster 1921.PNG|thumb|right|200px|[[Clara Bow]] in 1921, before she became a star]]
[[File:Clara Bow Brewster 1921.PNG|thumb|right|200px|[[Clara Bow]] in 1921, before she became a star]]


By 1912, the London theatrical impresario [[John Tiller]], defining the word in an interview he gave to the ''[[New York Times]]'', described a 'flapper' as belonging to a slightly older age group, a girl who has "just come out".<ref>"Mr. Tiller explained the difference between a "pony" and a "flapper". A pony, he said, is a small dancer who may be of any age. A flapper is a girl who has just "come out". She is at an awkward age, neither a child nor a woman, and she is just as likely to develop into a show girl as a pony." 'Some facts about the ballet', New York Times, 31 March 1912. Tiller's use of the phrase 'come out' has the meaning "to make a formal entry into 'society' on reaching womanhood" (Oxford English Dictionary). In polite society at the time, a teenage girl who had not 'come out' would still be classed as a child. She would be expected to keep a low profile on social occasions and ought not to be the object of male attention.</ref> Although the word was still largely understood as referring to high-spirited teenagers<ref>''The Times'', Wednesday, Jul 15, 1914; pg. 1; Issue 40576; col B: ""The father of a young lady, aged 15&nbsp;– a typical "FLAPPER"&nbsp;– with all the self assurance of a woman of 30 would be grateful for the recommendation of a seminary (not a convent) where she might be placed for a year or two with the object of taming her. It is not EDUCATION she requires, she has too much of that already..."</ref> gradually in Britain it was being extended to describe any impetuous immature woman.<ref>In a letter written in 1913 a man addressed his 21-year-old girlfriend as his "flapper":"I cannot bear to think of my flapper without an engagement ring." ''The Times'', Thursday, Oct 16, 1913; pg. 15; Issue 40344; col D '£600 Damages For Breach Of Promise'</ref> Usage increased during World War I, perhaps due to the visible emergence of young women into the workforce to supply the place of absent men<ref>“One day, at noon, I was in a departmental office of the Ministry of Munitions...very young girls and flappers, and young women, and women who were elderly, came out to their lunches...”
By 1912, the London theatrical impresario [[John Tiller]], defining the word in an interview he gave to the ''[[New York Times]]'', described a 'flapper' as belonging to a slightly older age group, a girl who has "just come out".<ref>"Mr. Tiller explained the difference between a "pony" and a "flapper". A pony, he said, is a small dancer who may be of any age. A flapper is a girl who has just "come out". She is at an awkward age, neither a child nor a woman, and she is just as likely to develop into a show girl as a pony." 'Some facts about the ballet', New York Times, 31 March 1912. Tiller's use of the phrase 'come out' has the meaning "to make a formal entry into 'society' on reaching womanhood" (Oxford English Dictionary). In polite society at the time, a teenage girl who had not 'come out' would still be classed as a child. She would be expected to keep a low profile on social occasions and ought not to be the object of male attention.</ref> Although the word was still largely understood as referring to high-spirited teenagers<ref>''The Times'', monday, may 17, 2099; pg. 1; Issue 40576; col B: ""The father of a young lady, aged 15&nbsp;– a typical "FLAPPER"&nbsp;– with all the self assurance of a woman of 30 would be grateful for the recommendation of a seminary (not a convent) where she might be placed for a year or two with the object of taming her. It is not EDUCATION she requires, she has too much of that already..."</ref> gradually in Britain it was being extended to describe any impetuous immature woman.<ref>In a letter written in 1913 a man addressed his 21-year-old girlfriend as his "flapper":"I cannot bear to think of my flapper without an engagement ring." ''The Times'', Thursday, Oct 16, 1913; pg. 15; Issue 40344; col D '£600 Damages For Breach Of Promise'</ref> Usage increased during World War I, perhaps due to the visible emergence of young women into the workforce to supply the place of absent men<ref>“One day, at noon, I was in a departmental office of the Ministry of Munitions...very young girls and flappers, and young women, and women who were elderly, came out to their lunches...”
{{cite journal|title=Daily News|date= 11 November, 1918|page=4}}
{{cite journal|title=Daily News|date= 11 November, 1918|page=4}}
</ref>: a Times article on the problem of finding jobs for women made unemployed by the return of the male workforce is headed "The Flapper's Future".<ref>''The Times'' Thursday, Oct 16, 1919; pg. 7; Issue 42232; col B</ref>
</ref>: a Times article on the problem of finding jobs for women made unemployed by the return of the male workforce is headed "The Flapper's Future".<ref>''The Times'' Thursday, Oct 16, 1919; pg. 7; Issue 42232; col B</ref>

Revision as of 14:56, 4 January 2013

This article is about 1920s women. For other uses, see Flapper (disambiguation).
Actress Louise Brooks (1927)
A flapper onboard ship (1929)

Flappers were a "old breed" of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.[1]

Flappers had their origins in the liberal period of the Roaring Twenties, the social, political turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange that followed the end of World War I, as well as the export of American jazz culture to Europe.

Etymology

Violet Romer in a flapper dress c. 1915

The slang word flapper, describing a young woman, is sometimes supposed to refer to a young bird flapping its wings while learning to fly. However, it may derive from an earlier use in northern England to mean teenage girl, referring to one whose hair is not yet put up and whose plaited pigtail flapped on her back;[2] or from an older word meaning prostitute.[3] The slang word flap was used for a young prostitute as long ago as 1631.[4] By the late 19th century the word flapper was emerging in England as popular slang both for a very young prostitute[5] and in a more general—and less derogatory sense—of any lively mid-teenage girl.[6]

The word appeared in print in the United Kingdom as early as 1903 and United States 1904, when novelist Desmond Coke used it in his college story of Oxford life, Sandford of Merton: "There's a stunning flapper".[7] In 1907 English actor George Graves explained it to Americans as theatrical slang for acrobatic young female stage performers.[8] By 1908, newspapers as serious as The Times used it, although with careful explanation: "A 'flapper', we may explain, is a young lady who has not yet been promoted to long frocks and the wearing of her hair 'up'".[9] By November 1910, the word was popular enough for the author A. E. James to begin a series of stories in the London Magazine featuring the misadventures of a pretty fifteen-year-old girl and titled "Her Majesty the Flapper".[10] By 1911, a newspaper review indicates the mischievous and flirtatious 'flapper' was an established stage-type.[11]

Clara Bow in 1921, before she became a star

By 1912, the London theatrical impresario John Tiller, defining the word in an interview he gave to the New York Times, described a 'flapper' as belonging to a slightly older age group, a girl who has "just come out".[12] Although the word was still largely understood as referring to high-spirited teenagers[13] gradually in Britain it was being extended to describe any impetuous immature woman.[14] Usage increased during World War I, perhaps due to the visible emergence of young women into the workforce to supply the place of absent men[15]: a Times article on the problem of finding jobs for women made unemployed by the return of the male workforce is headed "The Flapper's Future".[16]

By 1918, the word could also be used teasingly of a "pleasure-loving" older woman: a Dr. Whatley, accused of adultery with the wife of Major Sydney George Everitt of Knowle Hall, Knowle, was asked in court why he had begun a verse to her with the words "There once was a flapper named Mary."[17]

By 1920, the term had taken on the full meaning of the flapper generation style and attitudes. In his lecture that year on Britain's surplus of young women caused by the loss of young men in war, Dr. R. Murray-Leslie criticized "the social butterfly type… the frivolous, scantily-clad, jazzing flapper, irresponsible and undisciplined, to whom a dance, a new hat, or a man with a car, were of more importance than the fate of nations."[18]

As the adoption of the term in America coincided with a fashion among teenage girls in the early 1920s for wearing unbuckled galoshes[19] a widespread false etymology held that they were called "flappers" because they flapped when they walked, as they wore their overshoes or galoshes unfastened, showing that they defied convention in a manner similar to the 21st century fad for untied shoelaces.[20][21]

Actress Alice Joyce, 1926

Evolution of the image

The first appearance of the word and image[22] in the United States came from the popular 1920 Frances Marion film, The Flapper, starring Olive Thomas.[23] Thomas starred in a similar role in 1917, though it was not until The Flapper that the term was used. In her final movies, she was seen as the flapper image.[24] Other actresses, such as Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, Colleen Moore and Joan Crawford would soon build their careers on the same image, achieving great popularity.[23]

In the United States, popular contempt for Prohibition was a factor in the rise of the flapper. With legal saloons and cabarets closed, back alley speakeasies became prolific and popular. This discrepancy between the law-abiding, religion-based temperance movement and the actual ubiquitous consumption of alcohol led to widespread disdain for authority. Flapper independence was also a response to the Gibson girls of the 1890s.[25][26] Although that pre-war look does not resemble the flapper style, their independence may have led to the flapper wise-cracking tenacity 30 years later.

Writers in the United States such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Anita Loos and illustrators such as Russell Patterson, John Held, Jr., Ethel Hays and Faith Burrows popularized the flapper look and lifestyle through their works, and flappers came to be seen as attractive, reckless, and independent. Among those who criticized the flapper craze was writer-critic Dorothy Parker, who penned "Flappers: A Hate Song" to poke fun at the fad. The secretary of labor denounced the "flippancy of the cigarette smoking, cocktail-drinking flapper."[27] A Harvard psychologist reported that flappers had "the lowest degree of intelligence" and constituted "a hopeless problem for educators."[27]

A related but alternative use of the word "flapper" in the late 1920s was as a media catch word that referred to adult women voters and how they might vote differently than men their age. While the term "flapper" had multiple uses, flappers as a social group were distinct from other 1920s fads.

Behavior

Flappers' behavior was considered outlandish at the time and redefined women's roles. In the English media they were stereotyped as pleasure-loving, reckless and prone to defy convention by initiating sexual relationships.[28] Some[29] have suggested that the flapper concept as a stage of life particular to young women was imported to England from Germany, where it originated "as a sexual reaction against the over-fed, under-exercised monumental woman, and as a compromise between pederasty and normal sex".[29] In Germany teenage girls were called "backfisch", which meant a young fish not yet big enough to be sold in the market.[30][31] Although the concept of "backfisch" was known in England by the late 1880s, the term was understood to mean a very demure social type[32] unlike the flapper, who was typically rebellious and defiant of convention. The evolving image of flappers was of independent young women who went by night to jazz clubs where they danced provocatively, smoked cigarettes and dated freely, perhaps indiscriminately. They were active, sporting, rode bicycles, drove cars, and openly drank alcohol, a defiant act in the American period of Prohibition.[33] With time, came the development of dance styles then considered shocking, such as the Charleston, the Shimmy, the Bunny Hug, and the Black Bottom.

Billie Dove on the cover of The Flapper magazine ("Not for Old Fogies"), November 1922
Cover of the Saturday Evening Post, February 4, 1922, entitled Flapper by Ellen B.T. Pyle

Overturning of Victorian roles

Flappers also began working outside the home and challenging women's traditional societal roles.[citation needed] They were considered a significant challenge to traditional Victorian gender roles, devotion to plain-living, hard work and religion. Increasingly, women discarded old, rigid ideas about roles and embraced consumerism and personal choice, and were often described in terms of representing a "culture war" of old versus new. Flappers also advocated voting and women's rights.[citation needed]

In this manner, flappers were an artifact of larger social changes — women were able to vote in the United States in 1920, and religious society had been rocked by the Scopes trial.[34]

For all the concern about women stepping out of their traditional roles, however, some say many flappers weren't necessarily particularly engaged in politics. In fact, older suffragettes, who fought for the right for women to vote, viewed flappers as vapid and in some ways unworthy of the enfranchisement they had worked so hard to win. Others argued, though, that flappers' laissez-faire attitude was simply a natural progression of feminine liberation, the right having already been won. Dorothy Dunbar Bromley, a noted liberal writer at the time, summed up this dichotomy by describing flappers as "truly modern", "New Style" feminists who "admit that a full life calls for marriage and children" and also "are moved by an inescapable inner compulsion to be individuals in their own right."[35]

Petting parties

Petting became more common than in the Victorian era. Petting Parties, where petting ("making out" or foreplay) was the main attraction, became popular.[36] In youthful imagination, it gave the lie to the old clichés of “the only man” and “the only girl.”[37] This was typical on college campuses, where young people "spent a great deal of unsupervised time in mixed company."[38][39][40] F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose The Great Gatsby (1925) featured character Daisy Buchanan as a flapper girl,[26] wrote a short story in which an annoying reporter asks him:

Do you think the — ah — petting-party is a serious menace to the Constitution? And, just to link it up, can we say that your suicide will be largely on account of past petting-parties?[41]

In the 1950s, LIFE magazine depicted petting parties as "that famed and shocking institution of the '20s", and commenting on the Kinsey Report, said that they have been "very much with us ever since."[42]

Slang

Flappers were associated with the use of a number of slang words, including "junk", "necker", "heavy necker" and "necking parties",[43] although these words existed before the 1920s.[44] Flappers also used the word "jazz", though not specifically in the sense of a form of music, but more generally of anything exciting or fun. Their language sometimes reflected their feelings about dating, marriage and drinking habits: "I have to see a man about a dog" at this period often meant going to buy whiskey; and a "handcuff" or "manacle" was an engagement or wedding ring. Also reflective of their preoccupations were phrases to express approval, such as "That's so Jake",[45] "That's the bee's knees," and the popular "the cat's meow" or "cat's pyjamas".

Actress Norma Talmadge

Appearance

In addition to their irreverent behavior, flappers were known for their style, which largely emerged as a result of French fashions,[46] especially those pioneered by Coco Chanel, the effect on dress of the rapid spread of American jazz, and the popularization of dancing that accompanied it.[47] Called garçonne in French ("boy" with a feminine suffix), flapper style made girls look young and boyish: short hair, flattened breasts, and straight waists accentuated it. By at least 1913, the association between slim adolescence and a certain characteristic look became fixed in the public's mind. Lilian Nordica, commenting on New York fashions that year, referred to

a thin little flapper of a girl donning a skirt in which she can hardly take a step, extinguishing all but her little white teeth with a dumpy bucket of a hat, and tripping down Fifth Avenue.[48]

At this early date, it seems that the style associated with a flapper already included the boyish physique[49] and close-fitting hat, but a hobble skirt rather than one with a high hemline.[46]

Although the appearance typically associated now with flappers (straight waists, short hair and a hemline above the knee) did not fully emerge until about 1926,[50] there was an early association in the public mind between unconventional appearance, outrageous behaviour, and the word "flapper". A report in The Times of a 1915 Christmas entertainment for troops stationed in France described a soldier in drag burlesquing feminine flirtatiousness while wearing "short skirts, a hat of Parisian type[51] and flapper-like hair".[52]

Despite the scandal flappers generated, their look became fashionable in a toned-down form among respectable older women.[citation needed] Significantly, the flappers removed the corset from female fashion, raised skirt and gown hemlines, and popularized short hair for women. Among actresses closely identified with the style were Olive Borden, Olive Thomas, Dorothy Mackaill, Alice White, Bebe Daniels, Billie Dove, Helen Kane, Joan Crawford, Leatrice Joy, Norma Shearer, Laura La Plante, Norma Talmadge, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, and Colleen Moore.

"Where there's smoke there's fire" by Russell Patterson, showing a fashionably dressed flapper in the 1920s.

Apparel

Main article: 1920s in fashion

Flapper dresses were straight and loose, leaving the arms bare (sometimes no straps at all) and dropping the waistline to the hips. Silk or rayon stockings were held up by garters. Skirts rose to just below the knee by 1927, allowing flashes of leg to be seen when a girl danced or walked through a breeze, although the way they danced made any long loose skirt flap up to show their legs. To ehance the view, some flappers applied rouge to their knees.[53][54] Popular dress styles included the Robe de style. High heels also came into vogue at the time, reaching 2–3 inches (5–8 cm) high.[46]

Lingerie

Flappers did away with corsets and pantaloons in favor of "step-in" panties. Without the old restrictive corsets, flappers wore simple bust bodices to make their chest hold still when dancing. They also wore new, softer and suppler corsets that reached to their hips, smoothing the whole frame, giving women a straight up and down appearance, as opposed to the old corsets which slenderized the waist and accented the hips and bust.[46]

The lack of curves of a corset promoted a boyish look. Adding an even more boyish look, the Symington Side Lacer was invented and became a popular essential as an every-day bra. This type of bra was made to pull in the back to flatten the chest.[46] Other women envied flappers for their flat chests and bought the Symington Side Lacer to enhance the same look; large breasts were commonly regarded as a trait of unsophistication. Hence, flat chests became appealing to women, although flappers were the most common to wear such bras.

Hair and accessories

French actress Polaire in 1899

Boyish cuts were in vogue, especially the Bob cut, Eton crop, and Shingle bob. Finger Waving was used as a means of styling. Hats were still required wear and popular styles included the Newsboy cap and Cloche hat.

Jewelry usually consisted of art deco pieces, especially many layers of beaded necklaces. Pins, rings, and brooches came into style. Horn-rimmed glasses were also popular.

Cosmetics

Main article: Cosmetics in the 1920s

As far back as the 1890s, French actress Polaire pioneered a look which included short, dishevelled hair, emphatic mouth and huge eyes heavily outlined in kohl.[55] The evolving flapper look required "heavy makeup" in comparison to what had previously been acceptable outside of professional usage in the theatre. With the invention of the metal lipstick container as well as compact mirrors bee stung lips came into vogue. Dark eyes, especially kohl-rimmed, were the style. Blush came into vogue now that it was no longer a messy application process.

Originally, pale skin was considered most attractive. However, tanned skin became increasingly popular after Coco Chanel showed off a tan after spending too much time in the sun on holiday – it suggested a life of leisure, without the onerous need to work. Women wanted to look fit, sporty, and, above all, healthy.

Semiotics of the flapper

Being liberated from restrictive dress, from laces that interfered with breathing, and from hoops that needed managing suggested liberation of another sort. The new-found freedom to breathe and walk encouraged movement out of the house, and the flapper took full advantage.[56] The flapper was an extreme manifestation of changes in the lifestyles of American women made visible through dress.[57]

Changes in fashion were signs of deeper changes in the American feminine ideal.[58] The short skirt and bobbed hair were likely to be used as a symbol of emancipation.[59] Signs of the moral revolution consisted of premarital sex, birth control, drinking, and contempt for older values. Before the war, a lady did not set foot in a saloon; after the war she entered a speakeasy as thoughtlessly as she would go into a railroad station. Women had taken to swearing and smoking, using contraceptives, raising their skirts above the knee and rolling their hose below it. Women were now competing with men in the business world and obtaining financial independence and, therefore, other kinds of independence from men.[57]

The New Woman was pushing the boundaries of gender identity, representing sexual and economic freedom. She cut her hair short and took to loose-fitting clothing and low cut dresses. No longer restrained by a tight waist and long trailing skirts and the need for a man's help at every turn, the modern woman of the 1920s was an independent thinker, who no longer followed the ordinances of those before her.[56] The flapper epitomized the prevailing conceptions of women and her role during the Roaring 1920s. The flappers' ideal was motion with characteristics being intensity, energy, and volatility. She refused the traditional moral code. Modesty, chastity, morality, and traditional concepts of male and female were seemingly becoming invisible. The flapper was making an appeal to authority and was being attached to the impending "demoralization" of the country.[57]

The Victorian American conception of sexuality and other roles of men and women in society and to one another were being challenged. Modern clothing was lighter and more flexible, better suiting the modern woman. Rather than keeping herself busy with the need to appear decorous and reputable, the flapper wanted to be well suited to engage in active sport. Women were now becoming more assertive and less willing to keep the home fires burning. The flappers' costume was seen as sexual and arose deeper questions of the behavior and values it symbolized.[57]

End of the flapper era

Despite its popularity, the flapper lifestyle and look could not survive the Wall Street Crash and the following Great Depression. The high-spirited attitude and hedonism simply could not find a place amid the economic hardships of the 1930s.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Flappers in the Roaring 1921s". About.com. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  2. ^ Evans, Ivan H. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (rev. ed.) New York: Harper & Row, 1981 ISBN 0-06-014903-5
  3. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 26 Apr. 2007.
  4. ^ Mabbe, James. Celestina IX. 110 "Fall to your flap, my Masters, kisse and clip. Ibid. 112 Come hither, you foule flappes."
  5. ^ Barrere & Leland, Dictionary of Slang: "Flippers, flappers, very young girls trained to vice" (1889)
  6. ^ Lowsley, Barzillai, A glossary of Berkshire words and phrases 1888 (E.D.S.):"Vlapper,..applied in joke to a girl of the bread-and-butter age."
  7. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1989 edition.
  8. ^ "New York Times". 3 February 1907. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help):'The Comedy Old Man and His Troubles' (interview with English comedy actor George Graves):... 'Edwardes is a wonderful man when it comes to choruses...I believe he must have a farm for 'flappers'. What are 'flappers'? Why, they are the young girls with their hair still hanging down their backs. They are the sort that can climb up ropes hand over hand and pose at the top.'
  9. ^ The Times, Thursday, Feb 20, 1908; pg. 15; Issue 38574; col F
  10. ^ James, A. E. "Her Majesty the Flapper". London Magazine (1910)
  11. ^ The Times, Thursday, Mar 23, 1911; pg. 10; Issue 39540; col C , reviewing the 1911 comedy Lady Patricia: "Now the 'flapper' is Miss Clare Lesley, the Dean's tomboy daughter..." In the play a mature married couple, Patricia and Michael, vainly pursue slang-talking teenagers Billy and Clare, and so "Clare, out of the charity of youth for enamoured maturity, indulges Michael with a little mild flirtation" before at the end finding real love with Billy, who is her own age. The actress playing the flapper is characterized as "full of youth and 'go'".
  12. ^ "Mr. Tiller explained the difference between a "pony" and a "flapper". A pony, he said, is a small dancer who may be of any age. A flapper is a girl who has just "come out". She is at an awkward age, neither a child nor a woman, and she is just as likely to develop into a show girl as a pony." 'Some facts about the ballet', New York Times, 31 March 1912. Tiller's use of the phrase 'come out' has the meaning "to make a formal entry into 'society' on reaching womanhood" (Oxford English Dictionary). In polite society at the time, a teenage girl who had not 'come out' would still be classed as a child. She would be expected to keep a low profile on social occasions and ought not to be the object of male attention.
  13. ^ The Times, monday, may 17, 2099; pg. 1; Issue 40576; col B: ""The father of a young lady, aged 15 – a typical "FLAPPER" – with all the self assurance of a woman of 30 would be grateful for the recommendation of a seminary (not a convent) where she might be placed for a year or two with the object of taming her. It is not EDUCATION she requires, she has too much of that already..."
  14. ^ In a letter written in 1913 a man addressed his 21-year-old girlfriend as his "flapper":"I cannot bear to think of my flapper without an engagement ring." The Times, Thursday, Oct 16, 1913; pg. 15; Issue 40344; col D '£600 Damages For Breach Of Promise'
  15. ^ “One day, at noon, I was in a departmental office of the Ministry of Munitions...very young girls and flappers, and young women, and women who were elderly, came out to their lunches...” "Daily News". 11 November, 1918: 4. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. ^ The Times Thursday, Oct 16, 1919; pg. 7; Issue 42232; col B
  17. ^ "Was that Mrs Everitt?" – "Yes." Why did you call this married woman with two children a flapper?" — "It is impossible to give a reason." The Times, Thursday, 30 Oct 1919; pg. 5; Issue 42244; col A
  18. ^ The Times, Thursday, 05 Feb 1920; pg. 9; Issue 42326; col A
  19. ^ "Flappers flaunt fads in footwear" New York Times (January 29, 1922) The article alleges the origin of the fashion was a Douglas Fairbanks costume in the film The Three Musketeers, in which he wore his boot-tops turned down.
  20. ^ Basinger, Jeanne. Silent Stars (Wesleyan, 2000)
  21. ^ "The more noise the buckles made, the better they flapped, that's why we were called flappers," according to Marion Strong in Brady, Kathleen, Lucille: The life of Lucille Ball (Billboard, 2001)
  22. ^ The word itself was introduced earlier: see reference above to 3 February 1907 New York Times interview with English actor George Graves: "What are 'flappers'? Why, they are the young girls with their hair still hanging down their backs ..."; and to New Brunswick Times article, 24 February 1910, which concludes ""And over in England, as I learned, they call a girl of about fifteen a "flapper." ..."
  23. ^ a b Memories of Olive. assumption.edu.
  24. ^ Long, Bruce (editor). Taylorology: A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor. Arizona State University.
  25. ^ De Castelbajac, p35.
  26. ^ a b Conor, Liz. The Spectacular Modern Woman: Feminine Visibility in The 1920s 2004. p.301
  27. ^ a b Zeitz, Joshua Zeitz, Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, p. 6.
  28. ^ "Weekly Dispatch". 29 July 1917: 7. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)“Sporting” girls and the risks they run. An open letter to “The Flappers” of England, by Mrs. Alfred Praga. “My dear “Flappers” – I wonder if any of you in your gay youthfulness ever realise what a lot of harm you are doing to your future happiness by the way you sometimes cheapen yourselves in the eyes of your men “pals”, as you love to call them...” The article goes on to describe flappers haunting public venues in order to "get off" with men.
  29. ^ a b Graves, Robert and Hodge, Alan. The Long Week End: a Social History of Great Britain, 1918–1939. 1994. pp.33–34
  30. ^ German Wiktionary and Wikipedia
  31. ^ An article in the New Brunswick Times, 24 February 1910 describes a "backfisch" as "... a typical German girl of the well to do class between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. Before she gets to be fifteen she is simply a 'kid' as we say in this country. But for those two years she is a backfisch pure and simple." The article implies the girl is so designated to prevent someone no longer a child attempting to assume the airs of an adult woman: "These German frauleins dare not do so, because they know they are mere backfisches." The article concludes "And over in England, as I learned, they call a girl of about fifteen a 'flapper'. If I were still but fifteen I am sure I would prefer being a backfisch."
  32. ^ "Let us introduce the word 'Backfisch', for we have the Backfisch always with us. She ranges from fifteen to eighteen years of age, keeps a diary, climbs trees secretly, blushes on the smallest provocation, and has no conversation." 1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 29 Aug. 3/2, quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary, 1989, 2nd. ed.
  33. ^ President of the League of American Pen Women, Mrs William Atherton Du Puy, was quoted in a newspaper article as placing the practice of women drinking alcohol in public at an earlier date: ""Yes, girls do smoke, and there is no harm if they don't go to excess. It is not like the rush of girls to the cafés to drink which happened twenty years ago. It was that which brought about prohibition." New York Times, 15 October 1921:'Let Girls Smoke, Mrs Dupuy's Plea'.
  34. ^ Flapper: a madcap story of sex, style, celebrity, and the women who made America modern; Joshua Zeitz; Random House, 2007. "Here was where the modern culture could prove threatening to the Victorians. The ethos of the consumer market glorified not only self-indulgence and satisfaction, but also personal liberty and choice. It invited relativism in all matters ranging from color schemes and bath soap to religion, politics, sex and morality."
  35. ^ Flapper: a madcap story of sex, style, celebrity, and the women who made America modern; Joshua Zeitz; Random House, 2007.
  36. ^ "Mothers Complain that Modern Girls 'Vamp' Their Sons at Petting Parties" New York Times (February 17, 1922) In an earlier article in the same newspaper however Mrs William Atherton Dupuy rebutted an attack on the behaviour of American girls made recently in the Cosmopolitan by Elinor Glyn. Mrs Dupuy admitted the existence of petting parties but considered the activities were no worse than those which had gone on in earlier times under the guise of "kissing games", adding that tales of what occurred at such events were likely to be exaggerated by an older generation influenced by traditional misogyny: New York Times (October 15, 1921)
  37. ^ McArthur, Judith N. and Smith, Harold L. Texas Through Women's Eyes: The Twentieth-Century Experience (2010). pp.104-5 quotation:

    The spirit of the petting party is light and frivolous. Its object is not marriage—only a momentary thrill. It completely gives the lie to those sweet, old phrases, "the only man" and "the only girl." For where there used to be only one girl there may be a score of them now.
  38. ^ Drowne, Kathleen Morgan and Huber, Patrick. The 1920's p.45
  39. ^ Nelson, Lawrence J. Rumors of Indiscretion 2003. p.39
  40. ^ Bragdon, Claude. Delphic Woman 2007. pp.45-6
  41. ^ Fitzgerald, F. Scott. What I think and feel at 25, in Fitzgerald: My Lost City: Personal Essays, 1920-1940 2005. p.17
  42. ^ Havemann, Ernest. "The Kinsey Report on Women" Life (August 24, 1953)
  43. ^ "Shifters No Longer Appeal to Slackers" New York Times (March 26, 1922). "..."The epithets she has evolved from her own lexicon are "junk", "necker" and "heavy necker". "Junk" is anything she considers unimportant or unworthy of consideration. A "necker" is a "petter" who puts her arms around a boy's neck. A "heavy necker" is a "petter" who hangs heavily on said neck. "Necking parties" have superseded "petting parties".
  44. ^ See Oxford English Dictionary, online edition March 2012
  45. ^ First occurring as American criminal slang before 1914: see Louis E Jackson, C. R. Hellyer, A dictionary of criminal slang(1914) quoted in Oxford English Dictionary, online edition March 2012
  46. ^ a b c d e Kemper, Rachel (1977). History of Costume. New York: W W Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-88225-137-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  47. ^ Short Skirt Misconception Of The Twenties "The Short Skirt Misconception of the Twenties" "Shortness is a popular misconception reinforced by the availability of moving film of the Charleston dance which shows very visible knees and legs on the dancing flappers."
  48. ^ New York Times, January 1, 1913: "Mme. Nordica Buys No Paris Gowns"
  49. ^ New York Times, January 1, 1913:"Mme Nordica Buys No Paris Gowns"       "...when a lady of uncertain age and very certain development attempts the same little costume because it looks well on the thin little girl, well -" And Mme. Nordica left the result to the interviewer's imagination."
  50. ^ Evolution of the flapper fashion
  51. ^ The Times described the typical Parisian hat of 1915 as being "the jaunty little toque" — The Times, 23 December 1915, p. 11
  52. ^ The Times, Thursday, 30 Dec 1915; pg. 7; Issue 41050; col E, Pantomime At The Front, Soldier "Heroines".: "There was, for instance, a Maid Marian in the cast, who was described as a "dainty dam'sell" because she was a sergeant. There was something ridiculously fascinating about that sergeant, for he was in blue short skirts, a hat of Parisian type and flapper-like hair; and when she was instructing Ferdinand, a Bad Lad...in the use of the "glad eye", the great audience shouted with laughter."
  53. ^ Lowry, Helen Bullitt. "On the Knees of Our College Girls" New York Times (February 2, 1922)
  54. ^ Bergstein, Rachelle. Women From the Ankle Down: The Story of Shoes and How They Define Us New York: HarperCollins, 2012. ISBN 0062097075.
  55. ^ Description (before 1906) by Jean Lorrain: ..."the great voracious mouth, the immense black eyes, ringed, bruised, discoloured, the incandescence of her pupils, the bewildered nocturnal hair..." See also: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Polaire
  56. ^ a b Kriebl, Karen J. (1998). "From bloomers to flappers: the American women's dress reform movement, 1840-1920". Ohio State University: 113–128.
  57. ^ a b c d Yellis, Kenneth A. (1969). "Prosperity's Child: Some thoughts on the Flapper". American Quarterly: 44–64.
  58. ^ Lowry, Helen (January 30, 1921). "As the debutante tells it:more about Mrs Grundy and Miss 1921". New York Times.
  59. ^ Freedman, Estelle B. (1974). "The New Woman: Changing views of Women in the 1920s". The Journal of American History: 372–393.

Bibliography

  • Chadwick, Whitney. The Modern Woman Revisited: Paris Between the Wars. 2003. ISBN 978-0-8135-3292-9
  • De Castelbajac, Kate. The Face of the Century: 100 Years of Makeup and Style. Rizzoli International Publications (1995), ISBN 0-8478-1895-0.
  • Fass, Paula S. The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s. 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-502492-0
  • Gourley, Kathleen. Flappers and the New American Woman: Perceptions of Women from 1918 Through the 1920s (Images and or of Women in the Twentieth Century). 2007. ISBN 978-0-8225-6060-9
  • Hudovernik, Robert. Jazz Age Beauties: The Lost Collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston. 2006. ISBN 978-0-7893-1381-2
  • Latham, Angela J. Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s. 2000. ISBN 978-0-8195-6401-6
  • Lauber, Ellie. Fashions of the Roaring '20s. 2000. ISBN 978-0-7643-0017-2
  • Zeitz, Joshua. Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern. 2007. ISBN 978-1-4000-8054-0

External links

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