The Flapper Lifestyle In The 1920's

Flappers were not in fact only concerned with standing out and being noticed. They were not simply fashion and image-driven, selfish women, but were strong, self-willed, independent young feminist citizens who were fighting passionately for their right to stable equality amidst a prominently male-driven world. These women pushed aggressively for their social, professional, and sexual freedom which they felt were hard-earned and well overdue. Many flappers wished to pursue positions in careers which would otherwise be deemed unacceptable for the average women of the time. They hoped that by breaking away from social normality's that they could eventually obtain equality in all important aspects of life while hopefully also allowing them entry into many professional fields which would normally be unaccessible to women.

The flapper was the harbinger of a radical change in American culture. She was a product of social and political forces that assembled after the First World War. Modernization adjusted the American life. Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern by Joshua Zeitz analyzes the people who created the image of the flapper. This work is an incorporation of narrative, statistics, and scholarly work that provide a distinct insight on the “New Woman.” Joshua Zeitz asserts the flapper was not a dramatic change from traditional American values but reflected the “modern” decade under mass media, celebrity, and consumerism.

It was very popular to be a flapper. That was the cool thing to do and people saw flappers as these New Women. The older women would never "personify a lifestyle condemned by conservatives as undermining morality and religion" especially through the way the acted and dressed.

The 1920s was a very special time for woman. Women started standing for up for themselves and making points to men that women can do just the same as them, and that women should be equal to men and have the same rights. That’s where flappers came from. Flappers were basically woman who stood out and did what they wanted. Women's rights were changed drastically because of flappers, now women are more equal to men. Flappers had a large impact on the American culture going from woman’s right, music and their fashion.

At the start of the decade, society and the way people lived changed drastically. Women specifically were viewed in a different way. Before the 1920s, women were portrayed as the “typical housewife”. Women were supposed to stay home, cook, clean, and raise the children. During the 1920s, women were changing the culture and the stereotype of a “typical housewife”. Women began to go

The flapper had an indisputable look. The long locks of Victorian women fell on the floors of beauty parlors as young women cut their hair to shoulder length. Hemlines of dresses rose fiercely to the knee. The cosmetics industry prospered as women used makeup in large numbers. Flappers constrained their chests and wore high heels. Many women celebrated the age of the flapper as a female “declaration of independence”. Experimentation with new looks, jobs, and lifestyles was incomparable with the woman in the Victorian Age. The flappers chose activities to please themselves, not a father or husband. But critics were quick to elucidate the shortcomings of “flapperism.” The political agenda grasped by the previous generation was largely ignored until the feminist revival of the 1960s. Many wondered if flappers were trying to express themselves or act like men. One thing was certain: Despite the political and social gains or losses, the flappers of the 1920s sure managed to have a good time.

The flapper was a women that did what she wanted, and had lots of fun. The flapper could be recognised by her signature look of bobbed hair and easy to move in clothing which resembled that of a boys clothing. Flappers wore this so that they could easily dance and move about freely instead of being restricted to what they normally could do. Flappers were able to take charge of their lives and do what they wanted and do it when they wanted to, which really made the lives of women during the 1920’s exciting and fun. A great example of this was smoking, flappers started to smoke in the 1920’s which up until this point in time had only been done by man. The image of a women smoking would have shocked anyone during the start of the Roaring Twenties, but by the end of the decade women smoking was just a normal occurrence. Women smoking showed how they now had freedom to do what they wanted and that they did have the right to do what men do, if men are smoking cigarettes why should women not smoke. The flapper girls started to smoke as a way to both rebel and to live a little, it was fun for them and it almost made them more powerful as it pushed the boundaries of what women could do. Smoking for the flapper girls as a result of pushing these boundaries became a fun activity that made their lives much more exciting. Next another new thing flappers started to do was driving cars. Cars were new and were very exciting and fast which was perfect for the fun flapper lifestyle. Flappers loved cars as they were fast and very risky which was a great activity for the flappers as they could now push the boundaries even more because they were doing the same thing that the men were doing. Driving cars truly was able to show off a flapper’s wild side as they just wanted to have the excitement and the fun that comes along with driving a car. Finally flappers drank alcohol during a time when it was prohibited.

A flapper’s daily routine is going to a jazz club or a burlesque and even speakeasies. In society flappers were being looked upon as defying their gender roles which were traditional, commitment to being religious, and commitment to hard work and also modesty. Flappers thought that they were making a difference because they were called “New Women”.

Flappers were a new revolutionary type of woman that came about in the early 1920s. Daughters of women that fought for suffrage and equal rights, they had no interest in politics, and even less in the issue of ´social norms´. Girls from well of families drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, and took part in ´petting parties´. They cut their hair in bobs and wore short skirts that went up above the knee, Which at the time was socially unacceptable. Many people were appalled by the ways of the flapper, some even taking the case of immodesty to court. But the flapper movement would not be stopped, and would pave the way for the modern woman.

From coast to coast people were reading the exploits of a new type of woman called flapper. Prior to World War 1 Victorian ideals still dictated the behavior of American women and girls. Frederick Lewis Allen describes the traditional role of women. Women were the guardians of morality. They were made of finer stuff than men. They were expected to act accordingly. Young girls must look forward in innocence to a romantic love match which would lead them to the altar and to living happily ever after. Until the right man came

A flapper was a modern woman of the 1920’s with bobbed hair, short skirts, and dramatic make-up. (sparknotes.com) The flapper was also used to represent a new type of young woman. It represented a woman that was bold, rebellious, and energetic. Only a small percentage of American women were flappers. The image of the flapper had a huge impact on the rest of the nation’s fashion and behavior. Most women began to cut their hair short. It was called bobbing. Many parents wouldn’t allow it. To the older generation, it seemed taboo to have short hair. Some of the daughters of these people felt old-fashioned for not having their hair cut short. (Hakim, 42) Before the twenties, it was rare for a woman’s ankle to be glimpsed upon beneath long skirts. Yet, during the ’20’s, the ankles were highly visible as the hemlines for women’s skirts rapidly went up and up, as

Flapper by Joshua Zeitz is a book that tells an epic story about the American women during the time of the 1920’s. For a better understanding, a flapper would typically be a young girl who blurred the gender roles by taking on a more masculine lifestyle. They wore their hair short, drank and smoked frequently, and explored their sexuality. With this behavior, it didn’t destroy their femininity; it just simply provided the society’s perception of what a woman should and should not be.

Frederick Lewis Allen, in his famous chronicle of the 1920s Only Yesterday, contended that women’s “growing independence” had accelerated a “revolution in manners and morals” in American society (95). The 1920s did bring significant changes to the lives of American women. World War I, industrialization, suffrage, urbanization, and birth control increased women’s economic, political, and sexual freedom. However, with these advances came pressure to conform to powerful but contradictory archetypes. Women were expected to be both flapper and wife, sex object and mother. Furthermore, Hollywood and the emerging “science” of advertising increasingly tied conceptions of femininity to

A typical flapper had short, bobbed hair, and wore a short baggy skirt with turned down hose and powdered knees. Their dresses often exposed her arms as well as her legs from the knees down. Flappers were thought of by their elders as being a little fast and brazen, since they were no longer confined to home or tradition. However, Flappers did not just symbolize a revolution in fashion and way of life; they more importantly embodied the modern spirit of the Jazz Age—they symbolized, “an age anxious to enjoy itself, anxious to forget the past, anxious to ignore the future”.

This was also a time of optimism and desire. Money was a major foundation of society in America. Seeing as the decade was fixated on beauty, power, and wealth, people felt they could forget about their pasts and could become anyone they wanted, as though they could become an elite member of economic or social power. Flapper girls were also a new development of lifestyle during this era. Flappers were a new image for women, ditching the old and traditional lifestyle for a new, outlandish one. Being able to cut their hair short, wear short skirts, go out dancing and drinking without a man with them, and begin to speak their minds was a huge thing. From a world where the man is the one in the house that works and the woman stays home and takes care of the home and children to partying and making more carefree and promiscuous choices in their personal lives, this was a fascinating and empowering experience for some women. Though most women certainly did not adapt the extreme party lifestyle, many women at least adopted the fashion style and wore shorter skirts and got their hair cut into the bob style. For the women, being a flapper made them feel independent and powerful, and they freely practiced manipulation over rich and morally questionable men using seductive and promiscuous means. Due to the fact that so many people