View source for Flapper

{{Short description|1920's women's subculture}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2014}}
{{use American English|date=May 2017}}
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'''Flappers''' were a [[subculture]] of young [[Western world|Western]] women prominent after the [[World War I|First World War]] and through the [[1920s]] who wore short skirts (knee length was considered short during that period), [[Bob cut|bobbed]] their hair, listened to [[Jazz#1920s and 1930s|jazz]], and flaunted their disdain for prevailing codes of decent behavior. Flappers have been seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes in public, driving automobiles, treating sex in a casual manner, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers.htm|title=Flappers in the Roaring Twenties|first=Jennifer|last=Rosenberg|access-date=April 4, 2010|publisher=[[About.com]]|archive-date=August 25, 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040825114116/http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> As automobiles became more available, flappers gained freedom of movement and privacy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/flappers|title=Flappers|website=HISTORY|date=March 6, 2018 |language=en|access-date=2020-04-20}}</ref>

Flappers are icons of the [[Roaring Twenties]], a period of postwar social and political turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange, as well as of the export of American jazz culture to Europe. More conservative people, who belonged mostly to older generations, reacted with claims that the flappers' dresses were "near nakedness" and that flappers were "flippant", "reckless", and unintelligent.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024|reason=These quotes are unsourced.}}

While primarily associated with the United States, this "modern girl" [[archetype]] was a worldwide phenomenon that had other names depending on the country, such as ''joven moderna'' in Argentina,{{Sfn|Tossounian|2020|p=33}} ''garçonne'' in France, and ''[[Modern girl|moga]]'' in Japan, although the American term "flapper" was the most widespread internationally.{{Sfn|Tossounian|2020|p=36}}

== Etymology ==
The slang term "flapper" 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 "flaps" on her back,<ref>Evans, Ivan H. ''[[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]]'' (rev. ed.) New York: Harper & Row, 1981 {{ISBN|0-06-014903-5}}</ref> or from an older word meaning "prostitute".<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flapper | work = Online Etymology Dictionary | title = flapper | date = April 26, 2007}}.</ref> The slang word "flap" was used for a young prostitute as early as 1631.<ref>[[James Mabbe|Mabbe, James]]. ''Celestina'' IX. 110 "Fall to your flap, my Masters, kisse and clip"; 112 "Come hither, you foule flappes."</ref> By the 1890s, the word "flapper" was used in some localities as slang both for a very young prostitute,<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Barrere | last2 = Leland | title = Dictionary of Slang | quote = Flippers, flappers, very young girls trained to vice | year = 1889}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2019}}<ref name=teenage>[[Jon Savage|Savage, Jon]]. ''Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture''. New York: Viking, 2007. p. 202. {{ISBN|978-0-670-03837-4}}</ref> and, in a more general and less derogatory sense, of any lively mid-teenage girl.<ref>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."</ref>

[[File:Violet Romer in flapper dress, LC-DIG-ggbain-12393 crop.jpg|thumb|left|237px|[[Violet Romer]] in a flapper dress c. 1915]]

The standard non-slang usage appeared in print as early as 1903 in England and 1904 in the United States, when the novelist Desmond Coke used it in his college story of Oxford life, ''Sandford of Merton'': "There's a stunning flapper".<ref>{{cite web | last1=Barr&egrave | first1=A. | last2=Leland | first2=C. G. | last3=Farmer | first3=J. S. | last4=Ware | first4=J. R. | last5=Lowsley | first5=B. | title=flapper, n.² meanings, etymology and more | website=Oxford English Dictionary | date=March 1, 2024 | url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/flapper_n2?tab=meaning_and_use&show-all-quotations=true&tl=true | access-date=August 6, 2024}}</ref> In 1907, the English actor [[George Graves (actor)|George Graves]] explained it to Americans as theatrical slang for acrobatic young female stage performers with hair "still hanging down their backs."<ref name="Graves 1907">{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 3, 1907|title=The Comedy Old Man and His Troubles|type=interview with English comedy actor George Graves|quote=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.}}</ref> The flapper was also known as a dancer, who danced like a bird—flapping her arms while doing the [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]] move. This move became quite a competitive dance during this era.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Jazz Age. The 20s.|publisher=Editors of the Time-Life Books.|year=1997|location=Alexandria, Virginia.|pages=38}}</ref>

By 1908, newspapers as serious as ''[[The Times]]'' used the term, 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{{'"}}.<ref>{{Cite news | newspaper=The Times | date=February 20, 1908 | issue = 38574 |at=page 15, col F}}{{full citation needed|date=August 2019}}</ref> In April 1908, the fashion section of London's ''The Globe and Traveller'' contained a sketch entitled "The Dress of the Young Girl" with the following explanation: <blockquote>Americans, and those fortunate English folk whose money and status permit them to go in freely for slang terms ... call the subject of these lines the 'flapper.' The appropriateness of this term does not move me to such whole-hearted admiration of the amazing powers of enriching our language which the Americans modestly acknowledge they possess ..., [and] in fact, would scarcely merit the honour of a moment of my attention, but for the fact that I seek in vain for any other expression that is understood to signify that important young person, the maiden of some sixteen years.</blockquote> The sketch is of a girl in a frock with a long skirt, "which has the waistline quite high and semi-[[Empire silhouette|Empire]], ... quite untrimmed, its plainness being relieved by a sash knotted carelessly around the skirt."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Globe and Traveller|title=The Dress of the Young Girl|date=April 11, 1908}}</ref>

[[File:The Flapper (1920) - 1.jpg|thumb|right|200px|An advertisement for the 1920 [[silent film]] comedy ''[[The Flapper]]'', with [[Olive Thomas]], before the look of the flapper had started to coalesce.]]

By November 1910, the word was popular enough for 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".<ref>James, A. E. [http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/f25.htm "Her Majesty the Flapper"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091204031128/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/f25.htm |date=December 4, 2009 }}. ''[[London Magazine]]'' (November, 1910)</ref> By 1911, a newspaper review indicates the mischievous and flirtatious "flapper" was an established stage-type.<ref>{{Cite news | newspaper = The Times | date = March 23, 1911 | issue = 39540 | at = p 10, col C | title = Review of the 1911 comedy ''Lady Patricia'' | quote = 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{{'"}}.</ref>

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>{{Cite news | quote=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. | title=Some facts about the ballet |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 31, 1912}}</ref> Tiller's use of the phrase "come out" means "to make a formal entry into 'society' on reaching womanhood".<ref>Oxford English Dictionary</ref> In polite society at the time, a teenage girl who had not [[Debutante|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. Although the word was still largely understood as referring to high-spirited teenagers,<ref>{{Cite news | newspaper=The Times | date=July 15, 1914 | issue = 40576 | at=page 1, col B | quote = 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...}}{{full citation needed|date=August 2019}}</ref> gradually in Britain it was being extended to describe any impetuous immature woman.{{Efn | In a 1913 letter a man addressed his 21-year-old girlfriend as his "flapper".<ref>{{Cite news | quote = I cannot bear to think of my flapper without an engagement ring. | newspaper = The Times | date = October 16, 1913 | issue = 40344 | at = p 15, col D | title = £600 Damages For Breach of Promise}}</ref>}} By late 1914, the British magazine ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' was reporting that the Flapper was beginning to disappear in England, being replaced by the so-called "Little Creatures."<ref>Anonymous (December 1914) [http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/1914-FLAPPERS-pdf "The Melancholy Passing of the Flapper"] ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]''</ref>

A ''Times'' article on the problem of finding jobs for women made unemployed by the return of the male workforce, following the end of World War One, was titled "The Flapper's Future".<ref>{{Cite news | newspaper = The Times | date = October 16, 1919 | issue = 42232 | at = page 7, col B | title=Training demobilized women: the flapper's future}}</ref> Under this influence, the meaning of the term changed somewhat, to apply to "independent, pleasure-seeking, khaki-crazy young women".<ref name=teenage />

In his lecture in February 1920 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".<ref>{{Cite news |newspaper=The Times|date=February 5, 1920|issue=42326|at=page 9, col A}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2024}}</ref> In May of that year, [[Selznick International Pictures|Selznick Pictures]] released ''[[The Flapper]]'', a silent comedy film starring [[Olive Thomas]]. It was the first film in the United States to portray the "flapper" lifestyle. By that time, the term had taken on the full meaning of the flapper generation style and attitudes.<!-- citation needed  -->

The use of the term coincided with a fashion among teenage girls in the United States in the early 1920s for wearing unbuckled [[galoshes]],<ref>{{cite news|url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/01/29/107046892.pdf |title= Flappers flaunt fads in footwear |work=[[The New York Times]] |quote= But you have perhaps heard that there is a movie play, ''[[The Three Musketeers (1921 film)|The Three Musketeers]]'', in which [[Douglas Fairbanks]] is the D'Artagnan. You may remember having seen, in the long ago, illustrated editions of Mr. Dumas's novel showing D'Artagnan in his musketeer costume. And you may possibly remember that he wore boots, with turned down tops, which flopped as he walked. It is merely that we girls are following the style set by D'Artagnan. |date=January 29, 1922 |access-date=2021-07-18}}</ref> and a widespread [[false etymology]] held that they were called "flappers" because these flapped when they walked, showing that they defied convention in a manner similar to the 21st-century fad for untied shoelaces.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Basinger | first = Jeanne | title = Silent Stars | publisher = Wesleyan | year = 2000}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2019}}<ref>Strong, Marion in {{Cite book | quote = The more noise the buckles made, the better they flapped, that's why we were called flappers | last = Brady | first = Kathleen | title = Lucille: The life of Lucille Ball | publisher = Billboard | year = 2001}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2019}} Another such false etymology comes from a 1920s fashion trend in which a young woman would leave her overcoat unbuttoned to allow it to flap back and forth as she walked, appearing more independent and freed from tight, [[Victorian fashion|Victorian Era–style clothing]].<ref>Corrigan, Jim. ''The 1920s Decade in photos: The Roaring Twenties''. Berkeley Heights, New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, Inc, 2009, p. 19</ref>

By the mid-1930s in Britain, although still occasionally used, the word "flapper" had become associated with the past. In 1936, a ''Times'' journalist grouped it with terms such as "[[Blotto (slang)|blotto]]" as outdated slang: "[blotto] evokes a distant echo of glad rags and flappers ... It recalls a past which is not yet 'period'."<ref>''The Times'' (London, England): "Delivering Drunkards", December 2, 1936, p. 15</ref>

== Influences ==
{{quote box|bgcolor=#CCDDFF|align=right|width=25%|quote="In all countries, the First World War weakened old orthodoxies and authorities, and, when it was over, neither government nor church nor school nor family had the power to regulate the lives of human beings as it had once done. One result of this was a profound change in manners and morals that made a freer and less restrained society. Women benefited from this as much as anyone else. Time-worn prescriptions concerning what was or was not proper behavior for them no longer possessed much credibility, and taboos about unaccompanied appearances in public places, or the use of liquor or tobacco, or even pre-marital sexual relationships had lost their force. ... [W]omen were no longer as vulnerable to the tyranny of society as they had been [before]." |salign=right |source= Historian [[Gordon A. Craig]]<ref>[[Gordon A. Craig|Craig, Gordon A.]] (1991) ''The Germans'' New York: Merdian. p.161. {{ISBN|9780452010857}}</ref>}}

One cause of the change in young women's behavior was [[World War I]], which ended in November 1918. The death of large numbers of young men in the war, and the [[Spanish flu]] pandemic which struck in 1918, killing 20-40&nbsp;million people,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Flappers: A Guide to an American Subculture|url=https://archive.org/details/flappersguidetoa00sage|url-access=limited|last=Sagert|first=Kelly Boyer|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-313-37690-0|location=Santa Barbara CA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/flappersguidetoa00sage/page/n26 1]}}</ref> inspired in young people a feeling that life is short and could end at any moment. Therefore, young women wanted to spend their youth enjoying their life and freedom rather than staying at home and waiting for a man to marry them.<ref>Cellania, M. (2013, March 25). The Rise of the Flapper - Sociological Images. Retrieved April 26, 2016, from https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/03/25/guest-post-the-rise-of-the-flapper/</ref>

Political changes were another cause of the flapper culture. World War I reduced the grip of the class system on both sides of the Atlantic, encouraging different classes to mingle and share their sense of freedom.<ref name=mcg20to29>McGlinchey, S. (2014) [http://glamourdaze.com/history-of-womens-fashion/1920-to-1929 "History of Women's Fashion: 1920 to 1929"] ''Glamour Daze'' Retrieved April 12, 2016.</ref> Women finally won the right to vote in the United States on August 26, 1920.<ref>Langley, S. (2005) "Jazz" in ''Roaring '20s Fashions''. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing. p.16 {{ISBN|0764323199}}</ref> Women wanted to be men's social equals and were faced with the difficult realization of the larger goals of [[feminism]]: individuality, full political participation, economic independence, and 'sex rights'.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s|last=Latham|first=Angela J.|publisher=University Press of New England|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8195-6401-6|location=Hanover NH|pages=9}}</ref> They wanted to have freedoms like men and go smoking and drinking.<ref>Langley, S. (2005) "Jazz" in ''Roaring '20s Fashions''. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing. p.18 {{ISBN|0764323199}}</ref> In addition, many women had more opportunities in the workplace and had even taken traditionally male jobs such as doctors, lawyers, engineers and pilots.<ref name="langley17">Langley, S. (2005) "Jazz" in ''Roaring '20s Fashions''. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing. p.17 {{ISBN|0764323199}}</ref> The rise of [[consumerism]] also promoted the ideals of "fulfilment and freedom",<ref name="mcg20to29" /> which encouraged women to think independently about their garments, careers, social activities.<ref name="langley17" />

Society changed quickly after World War I. For example, customs, technology, and manufacturing all moved quickly into the 20th century after the interruption of the war.<ref>Boland, J. (April 15, 2012) [http://www.1920s-fashion-and-music.com/ "1920s Fashion & Music"]. Retrieved April 12, 2016.</ref> The rise of the automobile was an important factor in flapper culture, as cars meant a woman could come and go as she pleased, travel to [[speakeasy|speakeasies]] and other entertainment venues, and use the large vehicles of the day for heavy petting or even sex.<ref>Cellania, M. (March 25, 2013) 6, [https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/03/25/guest-post-the-rise-of-the-flapper/ "The Rise of the Flapper - Sociological Images"]. Retrieved April 26, 2016.</ref> Also, the economic boom allowed more people the time and money to play golf and tennis and to take vacations,<ref>Bramlett, L. A. (2010) [http://fuzzylizzie.com/sportswear.html "Vintage Sportswear"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422121432/http://fuzzylizzie.com/sportswear.html |date=April 22, 2021 }} ''Fuzzylizzie Vintage'' Retrieved April 12, 2016.</ref> which required clothing adapted to these activities; the flapper's slender silhouette was very suitable for movement.<ref>Stevenson, N. J. (2012) ''Fashion: A visual history from regency & romance to retro & revolution: A complete illustrated chronology of fashion from the 1800s to the present day'' (1st ed.). New York: The Ivy Press Limited. p.92-93</ref>

== Evolution of image ==
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}}The first appearance of the flapper style{{Efn|The word itself was introduced earlier.<ref name="Graves 1907" /><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=New Brunswick Times|date=February 24, 1910|quote=And over in England, as I learned, they call a girl of about fifteen a "flapper."...}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2024|reason=several occurrences: missing title}}</ref>}} in the United States came from the popular 1920 [[Frances Marion]] film ''[[The Flapper]]'', starring [[Olive Thomas]].<ref name="olive">{{Cite web | url = http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/1920s/Olive%20Thomas/ | title = Olive Thomas | work = Memories of Olive | publisher = Assumption | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130412055632/http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/1920s/Olive%20Thomas/ | archive-date = April 12, 2013 | df = mdy-all }}.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web | editor-last = Long | editor-first = Bruce | url = http://www.public.asu.edu/~ialong/Taylor33.txt | title = Taylorology: A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor | publisher = Arizona State University}}.</ref> 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.<ref name="olive" />

[[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] wrote of Crawford:<ref>quoted in Thomas, Pauline Weston (May 21, 2021). "Flapper Fashion 1920s Fashion History". ''[[Fashion-Era]]''. p.vii.</ref>{{blockquote|text=Joan Crawford is doubtless the best example of the flapper, the girl you see in smart night clubs, gowned to the apex of sophistication, toying iced glasses with a remote, faintly bitter expression, dancing deliciously, laughing a great deal, with wide, hurt eyes. Young things with a talent for living.}}

In the United States, popular contempt for [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] was a factor in the rise of the flapper. With legal saloons and cabarets closed, back alley [[Speakeasy|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 Girl]]s of the 1890s.{{Sfn | De Castelbajac | 1995 | p = 35}}<ref name=conor>Conor, Liz. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jWG2_Pt2Dw8C&pg=PA301 ''The Spectacular Modern Woman: Feminine Visibility in The 1920s''] 2004. p. 301</ref> Although that pre-war look does not resemble the flapper style, their independence may have led to the flapper wisecracking 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. In 1922, Secretary of Labor [[James J. Davis]] denounced the "flippancy of the cigarette smoking, cocktail-drinking flapper".{{Sfn|Zeitz|2007|p=6}} A Harvard psychologist reported that flappers had "the lowest degree of intelligence" and constituted "a hopeless problem for educators".{{Sfn|Zeitz|2007|p=6}}

Another writer, Lynne Frame, said in her book that a large number of scientists and health professionals have analyzed and reviewed the degree of femininity of flappers' appearance and behavior, given the "boyishness" of the flapper look and behavior. Some gynecologists gave the opinion that women were less "marriageable" if they were less "feminine", as the husband would be unhappy in his marriage. In Frame's book, she also wrote that the appearance of flappers, like the short hair and short dress, distracted attention from feminine curves to the legs and body. These attributes were not only a fashion trend but also the expression of a blurring of gender roles.<ref>Reinsch, O. (2013). [http://www.genderforum.org/issues/gender-and-consumerism/flapper-girls-feminism-and-consumer-society-in-the-1920 "Gender and Consumerism"]{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} ''Gender Forum'' Retrieved April 26, 2016.</ref>

=== Image of youth ===
The flapper stands as one of the more enduring images of youth and new women in the 20th century and is viewed by modern-day Americans as something of a cultural heroine. However, back in the 1920s, many Americans regarded flappers as threatening to conventional society, representing a new moral order. Although most of them were the daughters of the middle class, they flouted middle-class values. Lots of women in the United States were drawn to the idea of being a flapper. There were rival organizations of flappers – the National Flapper Flock and the Royal Order of the Flapper.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dalzell|first=Tom|title=Flappers 2 Rappers|publisher=Dover Publications Inc.|year=2010|isbn=978-0-486-47587-5|location=Mineola, New York|pages=9}}</ref> Flappers shrugged off their chaperones, danced suggestively, and openly flirted with boys. "Flappers prized style over substance, novelty over tradition, and pleasure over virtue."<ref name="ultimatehistoryproject.com"/> Ruth Gillettes, a 1920s singer, had a song titled "Oh Say! Can I See You Tonight?" which expresses the new behavior of girls in the 1920s. Before the 1920s, for a woman to call a man to suggest a date would be impossible. However, in the 1920s, many girls seemed to play a leading role in relationships, actively asking boys out or even coming to their homes.<ref>Langley, S. (2006). ''Roaring '20s fashions: Deco''. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, p. 16</ref>

==Magazines==
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| caption1 = Woman depicted in typical flapper outfit in the cover art for ''[[The Plastic Age]]'', 1924
| caption2 = [[Billie Dove]] on {{Cite news| type = cover | newspaper = The Flapper | title = Not for Old Fogies | date = November 1922}}
| caption3 = [[Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle]] "The Flapper" ''[[Saturday Evening Post]]'' (February 4, 1922)
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In 1922, a small-circulation magazine – ''The Flapper'', located in Chicago – celebrated the flapper's appeal. On the opening page of its first issue, it proudly declared flappers' break with traditional values.' Also, flappers defended themselves by contrasting their lifestyles with those of earlier generations of women whom they called "clinging vines". They mocked the confining fashions and demure passivity of older women and reveled in their own freedom. They did not even acknowledge that the previous generation of female activists had made the flappers' freedom possible.<ref name="ultimatehistoryproject.com">Ferentinos, S. (n.d.). ''Not for Old Fogies: The Flapper''. Retrieved May 18, 2016, from http://www.ultimatehistoryproject.com/flapper.html</ref>

In 1923, the flapper magazine ''Experience'' included an article on police reform, possibly indicating a concern for societal issues.<ref name="historynewsnetwork.org">Jason Ulysses Rose (August 7, 2022). '' A Primary Source Shows the Connection Between 1920s Flappers and Social Media Youth Organizers Today''. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/183623</ref>

In the 1920s, new magazines appealed to young German women with a sensuous image and advertisements for the appropriate clothes and accessories they would want to purchase. The glossy pages of ''Die Dame'' and ''Das Blatt der Hausfrau'' displayed the "Girl"—the flapper. She was young and fashionable, financially independent, and was an eager consumer of the latest fashions. The magazines kept her up to date on fashion, arts, sports, and modern technology such as automobiles and telephones.<ref>Nina Sylvester, "Before Cosmopolitan: The Girl in German women's magazines in the 1920s". ''Journalism Studies'' 8#4 (2007): 550–54.</ref>

Although many young women in the 1920s saw flappers as the symbol of a brighter future, some also questioned the flappers' more extreme behavior. Therefore, in 1923, the magazine began asking for true stories from its readers for a new column called "Confessions of a Flapper". Some of these were lighthearted stories of girls getting the better of those who underestimated them, but others described girls betraying their own standards of behavior in order to live up to the image of flappers. There were several examples: a newlywed confessed to having cheated on her husband, a college student described being told by a boyfriend that she was not "the marrying kind" because of the sexual liberties she had permitted him, and a minister's daughter recounted the humiliation of being caught in the lie of pretending she was older and more sophisticated than she was. Many readers thought that flappers had gone too far in their quest for adventure. One 23-year-old "ex-vamp" declared: "In my opinion, the average flappers from 15 to 19 were brainless, inconsiderate of others, and easy to get into serious trouble."<ref name="ultimatehistoryproject.com"/>

So, among the readers of ''The Flapper'', some of them celebrated the flappers' spirit and appropriation of male privilege, while others acknowledged the dangers of emulating flappers too faithfully, with some even confessing to violating their own codes of ethics so as to live up to all the hype.<ref name="ultimatehistoryproject.com"/>

== Behavior ==
[[File:Strand Theater ad - 15 April 1923, Birmingham, AL.png|thumb|left|upright|Advertisement for ''[[Prodigal Daughters]]'', 1923]]

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 defying convention by initiating sexual relationships.<ref>{{cite magazine| magazine = The Weekly Dispatch|date=July 29, 1917|page=7 | title="Sporting" girls and the risks they run. An open letter to "The Flappers" of England | first = Mrs. Alfred | last = Praga | quote = 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.</ref> Some<ref name="Graves">{{Cite book | last1 = Graves | first1 = Robert | last2 = Hodge | first2 = Alan | title = The Long Week End: a Social History of Great Britain, 1918–1939 | year = 1994 | pages = 33–34}}.</ref> 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".<ref name="Graves" /> In Germany, teenage girls were called "[[Backfischroman|''Backfisch'']]", which meant a young fish not yet big enough to be sold in the market.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UNBOAwopuZsC&pg=PT14 ''Backfisch'']. In: Sigi Kube: ''Wie kommt die Katze in den Sack und was weiß der Kuckuck davon?: Tierische Redewendungen und ihre Bedeutung''. Heyne, 2011, {{ISBN|978-3-641-05361-1}} (German)</ref><ref>{{Cite news |newspaper=New Brunswick Times|date=February 24, 1910|quote = ...&nbsp;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.}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2024}} 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."</ref> Although the concept of "''Backfisch''" was known in England by the late 1880s, the term was understood to mean a very demure social type<ref>{{Cite news | quote = 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. | newspaper = Pall Mall Gazette | date = August 29, 1891| volume = 3 | issue = 2}}, in the {{Cite encyclopedia | title = Oxford English Dictionary | year = 1989 | edition = 2nd}}{{full citation needed|date=August 2019}}</ref> 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 club]]s such as those in [[Harlem, New York|Harlem]], which were viewed as erotic and dangerous, where they danced provocatively, smoked cigarettes and dated freely, perhaps indiscriminately. They were active and sporting, [[Bicycles#Female emancipation|rode bicycles]], drove cars, and openly drank alcohol, a defiant act in the American period of [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]].<ref>{{Cite news | author =Mrs William Atherton du Puy | quote = 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. | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = October 15, 1921 | title = Let Girls Smoke, Mrs Dupuy's Plea}}.</ref> With time, came the development of dance styles such as the [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]], the [[Shimmy]], the [[Bunny Hug]], and the [[Black Bottom (dance)|Black Bottom]], which were considered shocking, but were a symbolic badge of the flapper's rejection of traditional standards.<ref>Dumenil (1995)</ref>

=== Overturning of Victorian roles ===
Flappers also began working outside the home and challenging women's traditional societal roles and the monolithic historical idea of women being powerless throughout social history.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s|last=Latham|first=Angela J.|publisher=University Press of New England|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8195-6401-6|location=Hanover, NH|pages=7–8}}</ref>

They were considered a significant challenge to traditional [[Victorian era|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.

In this manner, flappers were a result 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]].<ref>Zeitz, 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."</ref>

For all the concern about women stepping out of their traditional roles, however, many flappers were not engaged in politics. In fact, older [[suffragette]]s, 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.<ref>Zeitz, 2007. "Others argued, though, that flappers' laissez-faire attitude was simply a natural progression of feminine liberation, the right having already been won."; p.107: "T[he Jazz Age flapper ... [was] [d]isengaged from politics..."</ref> [[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".{{Sfn|Zeitz|2007|p=117}}

=== Petting parties ===
"[[Petting]]" ("[[making out]]" or [[foreplay]] or [[non-penetrative sex]]) became more common than in the [[Victorian era]], for example, with the rise in popularity of "petting parties".<ref>{{cite web |author=Weeks, Linton |title=When 'Petting Parties' Scandalized The Nation | work=[[NPR]] | date=June 26, 2015 | url=https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/05/26/409126557/when-petting-parties-scandalized-the-nation | access-date=December 18, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | title = Mothers Complain that Modern Girls 'Vamp' Their Sons at Petting Parties | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = February 17, 1922}}.<br />An earlier article in the same newspaper rebutted an attack on the behaviour of American girls made recently in the ''Cosmopolitan'' by [[Elinor Glyn]]. It 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<br />{{Cite news | first = Mrs William Atherton | last = Dupuy | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = October 15, 1921|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DE2DC133EEE3ABC4D52DFB667838A639EDE&legacy=true|title=Let Girls Smoke, Mrs. Dupuy's Plea; Penwomen's President Rises in Defense of Young Thing Who 'Parks Corsets' Before Dance. MRS.GLYN WRONG, SHE SAYS Declares Short-Skirt Girl of Today Who Goes to "Petting Parties" Is All She Should Be}}.</ref> At these parties, promiscuity became more commonplace, breaking from the traditions of monogamy or courtship with their expectations of eventual marriage.<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = McArthur | first1 = Judith N | last2 = Smith | first2 = Harold L | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_txLjKkckCYC&pg=PA105 | title = Texas Through Women's Eyes: The Twentieth-Century Experience | year = 2010 | pages = 104–05 | publisher = University of Texas Press | quote = 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.| isbn = 978-0-292-77835-1 }}</ref> This was typical on college campuses, where young people "spent a great deal of unsupervised time in mixed company".<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Drowne | first1 = Kathleen Morgan | last2 = Huber | first2 = Patrick | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CecCHiI95dYC&pg=PA45 | title = The 1920s | page = 45| isbn = 978-0-313-32013-2 | year = 2004 | publisher = Greenwood Publishing }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last = Nelson | first = Lawrence J | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=o0hCZkuwlhAC&pg=PA39 | title = Rumors of Indiscretion | year = 2003 | page = 39| publisher = University of Missouri Press | isbn = 978-0-8262-6290-5 }}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last = Bragdon | first = Claude | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Z12OIL1jIMYC&pg=PA45 | title = Delphic Woman | year = 2007 | pages = 45–46| publisher = Cosimo | isbn = 978-1-59605-430-1 }}.</ref>

[[File:The Enemy Sex poster.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A flapper is featured on the poster for the 1924 film ''[[The Enemy Sex]]'']]

Carolyn Van Wyck wrote a column for ''[[Photoplay (magazine)|Photoplay]]'', an upmarket magazine that featured articles on pop culture, advice on fashion, and even articles on helping readers channel their inner celebrity. In March 1926, an anonymous young woman wrote in describing petting as a problem, explaining, "The boys all seem to do it and don't seem to come back if you don't do it also. We girls are at our wits' end to know what to do. ... I'm sure that I don't want to marry anyone who is too slow to want to pet. But I want to discover what is right. Please help me." Van Wyck sympathized with the problem the writer faced and added, "It seems to me much better to be known as a flat tire and keep romance in one's mind than to be called a hot date and have fear in one's heart."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dubois|first1=Ellen Carol|last2=Dumenil|first2=Lynn|title=Through Women's Eyes|date=2012|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|location=Boston, MA|page=561|edition=Third}}</ref>

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".<ref>Havemann, Ernest. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EkgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA45 "The Kinsey Report on Women"] [[Life (magazine)|''Life'' magazine]] (August 24, 1953)</ref> In the Kinsey Report of 1950, there was an indicated increase in premarital intercourse for the generation of the 1920s. Kinsey found that of women born before 1900, 14 percent acknowledged premarital sex before the age of 25, while those born after 1900 were two and a half times more likely (36 percent) to have premarital intercourse and experience an orgasm.<ref>{{cite book|last=Duenil|first=Lynn|title=The Modern Temper:American Culture and Society in the 1920s|date=1995|publisher=Hill and Wang|location=New York, NY|page=136}}</ref>

=== Slang ===
Flappers were associated with the use of a number of slang words, including "junk", "necker", "heavy petting", and "necking parties",<ref>{{Cite news | title = Shifters No Longer Appeal to Slackers | newspaper = The New York Times | date = March 26, 1922 | quote = 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.}}.</ref> although these words existed before the 1920s.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', online ed., March 2012.</ref> Flappers also used the word "jazz" in the sense of anything exciting or fun.<!-- This needs a citation. --> 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. Moreover, flappers invented slang terms like "hush money", which meant the allowance from a father or "dropping the pilot", which meant getting a divorce.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 5, 2019|title=Flapper Slang: Talk the 1920s talk|url=https://www.kcts9.org/article/flapper-slang-talk-1920s-talk|access-date=2020-10-13|website=KCTS 9|language=en}}</ref> Also reflective of their preoccupations were phrases to express approval, such as "That's so Jake"{{Efn | First occurring as American criminal slang before 1914.<ref>{{Cite book | first1 = Louis E | last1 = Jackson | first2 = CR | last2 = Hellyer | title = A dictionary of criminal slang | year = 1914}} in {{Cite encyclopedia | title = Oxford English Dictionary | edition = online | date = March 2012}}.{{full citation needed|date=August 2019}}</ref>}} (okay), "She/he's the [[wikt:bee's knees|bee's knees]]" (a superb person), "Cake-eater" (a ladies' man), and the popular "the [[wikt:cat's meow|cat's meow]]" (anything wonderful).<ref>{{Cite book |title=The jazz age: the 20s |date=1998 |publisher=Time-Life Books |isbn=0-7835-5509-1 |location=Alexandria, VA |pages=32–33 |oclc=39706802}}</ref>

There were two more slang terms that reflected flappers' behaviors or lifestyles, which were "[[treating (dating)|treating]]" and "charity girls". In the social context of [[dating]], treating was the practice of providing companionship and intimate activity in exchange for entertainment outings, gifts, and other items of monetary value.<ref>Clement, Elizabeth Alice. ''Love for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City, 1900–1945'' (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006), pp. 1, 3.</ref> The activity was prevalent in the large urban areas of the [[United States]] from the 1890s to the 1940s and was most commonly engaged in by young [[working class|working-class women]]. As treating became more widespread, the activity acquired the label "charity," and the young women who engaged in the more risqué aspects of the practice were often called charity girls.<ref name="sale">Clement, Elizabeth Alice. ''Love for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City, 1900–1945'' (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006), pp. 1, 48–49.</ref>

== Appearance ==
[[File:Where there's smoke there's fire by Russell Patterson crop.jpg|thumb|285px|left|"Where there's smoke there's fire" by [[Russell Patterson]], showing a fashionably dressed flapper in the 1920s.]]

In addition to their irreverent behavior, flappers were known for their style, which largely emerged as a result of French fashions,<ref name="Rae" /> 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.<ref name="fashion-era">{{Cite web | last = Thomas | first = Pauline Weston | url = https://fashion-era.com/1920s/flapper-fashion/ | title = Flapper Fashion 1920s Fashion History |website = Fashion-Era | date = May 21, 2021 |access-date = September 7, 2021}}</ref> Called ''garçonne'' in [[French language|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. [[Lillian Nordica]], commenting on New York fashions that year, referred to

{{Blockquote | 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.<ref>{{Cite news | newspaper = The New York Times | date = January 1, 1913 | title = Mme Nordica Buys No Paris Gowns}}.</ref>}}
[[File:Norma Shearer in short dress.jpg|thumb|right|[[Norma Shearer]] in 1927]]

At this early date, it seems that the style associated with a flapper already included the boyish physique<ref>{{Cite news | newspaper = The New York Times | date = January 1, 1913 | title = Mme Nordica Buys No Paris Gowns | quote = ...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.}}</ref> and close-fitting hat, but a [[hobble skirt]] rather than one with a high hemline.<ref name="Rae">{{cite book|last= Kemper|first= Rachel|title= History of Costume|publisher= WW Norton & Co|isbn= 978-0-88225-137-0|location= New York|date= December 1977|url-access= registration|url= https://archive.org/details/costume00kemp}}</ref>

Although the appearance typically associated now with flappers (straight waists, short hair and a hemline above or around the knee) did not fully emerge until 1925,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yztuN1PVWcQC|last1=McEvoy|first1=Anna|title=The 1920s And 1930s|isbn=978-1-60413-383-7|year=2009|page=7|publisher=[[Infobase|Facts On File]]}}</ref> there was an early association in the public mind between unconventional appearance, outrageous behavior, 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<ref>{{Cite news | quote = ...the jaunty little toque | newspaper = The Times | date = December 23, 1915 | page = 11}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2024}}</ref> and flapper-like hair".<ref>{{Cite news | newspaper = The Times | date = December 30, 1915 | issue = 41050 | at = p 7, col E | title = Pantomime At The Front, Soldier "Heroines" | quote = 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.}}</ref>

Despite the scandal flappers generated, their look became fashionable in a toned-down form among respectable older women.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Merril D.|title=Cultural Encyclopedia of the Breast|date=2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7591-2332-8|page=114|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qrCCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA114|language=en}}</ref> Significantly, the flappers removed the [[corset]] from female fashion, raised skirt and gown hemlines, and popularized [[bob cut|short hair]] for women. Among actresses closely identified with the style were <!--alphabetical order, please-->[[Tallulah Bankhead]],<ref>Hughes, Kathryn. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/01/flappers-judith-mackrell-review "Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation by Judith Mackrell – review"] ''[[The Guardian]]'' (June 1, 2013)</ref> [[Olive Borden]], [[Clara Bow]], [[Louise Brooks]], [[Joan Crawford]], [[Bebe Daniels]], [[Billie Dove]], [[Leatrice Joy]], [[Helen Kane]], [[Laura La Plante]], [[Dorothy Mackaill]], [[Colleen Moore]], [[Norma Shearer]], [[Norma Talmadge]], [[Olive Thomas]], and [[Alice White]].<!--alphabetical order, please-->

Beginning in the early 1920s, flappers began appearing in newspaper comic strips; [[Blondie (comic strip)|Blondie Boopadoop]] and [[Nancy (comic strip)|Fritzi Ritz]] – later depicted more domestically, as the wife of Dagwood Bumstead and aunt of Nancy, respectively – were introduced as flappers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cartoonician.com/fritzi-ritz-before-bushmiller-shes-come-a-long-way-baby/|title=Fritzi Ritz Before Bushmiller: She's Come a Long Way, Baby!|work=Hogan's Alley|date=September 22, 2017|access-date=June 11, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523214534/http://cartoonician.com/fritzi-ritz-before-bushmiller-shes-come-a-long-way-baby/|archive-date=May 23, 2013}}</ref>

=== Apparel ===
[[File:Normatalmadge crop.jpg|thumb|200px|Actress [[Norma Talmadge]]]]{{Main|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 enhance the view, some flappers applied [[Rouge (cosmetics)|rouge]] to their knees.<ref>Lowry, Helen Bullitt. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/02/12/98781527.pdf "On the Knees of Our College Girls"] ''The New York Times'' (February 2, 1922)</ref><ref>Bergstein, Rachelle. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ev9FSyj7DgQC&dq=flapper+rouge+knees+-baton+-maison&pg=PT13 ''Women From the Ankle Down: The Story of Shoes and How They Define Us''] New York: HarperCollins, 2012. {{ISBN|0-06-209707-5}}.</ref> Popular dress styles included the [[robe de style]]. [[High-heeled footwear|High heels]] also came into vogue at the time, reaching 2–3 inches (5–8&nbsp;cm) high.<ref name="Rae" /> Favored shoe styles were [[Mary Jane (shoe)|Mary Janes]] and T-straps in classic black, gold, silver, or nude shades.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Gatsby Party - Your Definitive Fashion Guide|url = http://picvpic.com/fashion101/2015/gatsby-party-fashion/|website = picVpic-Fashion101|access-date = January 13, 2016|language = en-US|date = August 6, 2015}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

==== Lingerie ====
Flappers started wearing "step-in" panties and simple bust bodices to restrain their chest when dancing. They also chose 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 that slenderized the waist and accented the hips and bust.<ref name="Rae" />

This lack of curves promoted a boyish look. Additionally, flat chests were fashionable and some women wore a type of bra made to pull in the back to flatten the chest, like the Symington Side Lacer.<ref name="Rae" />

=== Hair and accessories ===
[[File:MademoisellePolaireStebbing cropped.jpg|thumb|right|French actress [[Polaire]] in 1899]]

Boyish cuts were in vogue and released the weight of the tradition of women being required to grow their hair long, through popular cuts such as the [[bob cut]], [[Eton crop]], and [[shingle bob]]. [[Finger wave|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|Cosmetics in the 1920s}}
As far back as the 1890s, French actress [[Polaire]] pioneered a look which included short, disheveled hair, emphatic mouth and huge eyes heavily outlined in [[kohl (cosmetics)|kohl]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jean Lorrain|title=La Ville Empoisonnée|year=1936|place=Paris|publisher=Jean Cres|page=279|quote= ...the great voracious mouth, the immense black eyes, ringed, bruised, discolored, the incandescence of her pupils, the bewildered nocturnal hair...}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | type = category | title = Commons | work = Polaire | publisher = Wikimedia | url = http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Polaire}}.</ref> The evolving flapper look required "heavy makeup" in comparison to what had previously been acceptable outside of professional usage in the theater. 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. [[Rouge (cosmetics)|Blush]] came into vogue now that it was no longer a messy application process. Women shaped their eyebrows needle-thin and penciled them in dark, emulating such actresses as [[Clara Bow]].<ref>[http://glamourdaze.com/history-of-makeup/1920s "A Brief History of 1920s Makeuop"] ''Glamour Daze''</ref><ref>Valenti, Lauren (April 10, 2014) [http://www.marieclaire.com/beauty/makeup/a9381/eyebrows-through-the-years/ "The History of Women and Their Eyebrows"] ''[[Marie Claire]]''</ref>

Originally, [[pallor|pale]] skin was considered most attractive. However, tanned skin became increasingly popular after [[Coco Chanel]] showed off a tan after a holiday – it suggested a life of leisure, without the onerous need to work. Women wanted to look fit, sporty, and, above all, healthy.

=== American banks and "flapper" employees ===
According to a report in 1922, some banks across the United States started to regulate the dress and deportment of young female employees who were considered to be "flappers". It began with a complaint of a mother in New Jersey who felt dissatisfied because her son did business only with a young female employee, whom she considered illegally attractive. The incident was duly reported to the officials of the bank, and rules adopted regarding requirements in dress for female employees. Those rules included that the dress should not have a pattern, it should be bought from a specific store, it must be worn in either black, blue or brown, its sleeves must not be shortened above the elbow, and its hem must not be worn higher than 12 inches from the ground. After that, the anti-flapper code soon spread to the Federal Reserve, where female employees were firmly told that there was no time for them to beautify themselves during office hours.<ref>{{cite book | last=Ford | first=R.T. | title=Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History | publisher=Simon & Schuster | year=2022 | isbn=978-1-5011-8008-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dNpVEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 | access-date=December 20, 2024 | pages=149–150}}</ref>

== Semiotics and gender roles==
[[File:The Flapper by Frank Xavier Leyendecker.jpg|thumb|225px|''Life Magazine'' cover "The Flapper" by [[Frank Xavier Leyendecker]], 2 February 1922]]
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.<ref name="Kriebl 1998 113–128">{{cite book |last=Kriebl|first=Karen J |title= From bloomers to flappers: the American women's dress reform movement, 1840–1920|publisher=Ohio State University|year=1998|pages=113–28}}</ref> The flapper was an extreme manifestation of changes in the lifestyles of American women made visible through dress.<ref name="Yellis 1969 44–64">{{cite news |last=Yellis|first= Kenneth A | title = Prosperity's Child: Some thoughts on the Flapper| work = The American Quarterly|year=1969|pages=44–64}}</ref>

Changes in fashion were interpreted as signs of deeper changes in the American feminine ideal.<ref>{{cite news |last= Lowry|first= Helen| title= As the debutante tells it: more about Mrs Grundy and Miss 1921| work = The New York Times|date= January 30, 1921}}</ref> The short skirt and bobbed hair were likely to be used as a symbol of emancipation.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Freedman|first=Estelle B.|s2cid=155502077|title=The New Woman: Changing views of Women in the 1920s|journal=The Journal of American History |volume=61|issue=2|year=1974|pages=372–93|doi=10.2307/1903954|jstor=1903954}}</ref> 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, a woman, though no more "a lady", entered a [[speakeasy]] as casually as she would go into a railroad station. Women had started swearing and smoking publicly, 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.<ref name="Yellis 1969 44–64" />

The [[New Woman]] was pushing the boundaries of gender roles, 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, the modern woman of the 1920s was an independent thinker, who no longer followed the conventions of those before her.<ref name="Kriebl 1998 113–128" /> The flapper was an example of the prevailing conceptions of women and their roles during the Roaring 1920s. The flappers' ideal was motion with characteristics of intensity, energy, and volatility. She refused the traditional moral code. Modesty, chastity, morality, and traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity were seemingly ignored. The flapper was making an appeal to authority and was being attached to the impending "demoralization" of the country.<ref name="Yellis 1969 44–64" />

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 such as the flapper who wanted 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 raised deeper questions of the behavior and values it symbolized.<ref name="Yellis 1969 44–64" />

==End of era==

An obituary for the "Flapper" ran in ''[[The New York Times Magazine]]'' in 1929,<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Adams |first=Mildred |author-link1=Mildred Adams |df=mdy-all |date=1929-07-28 |page=72 |title=NOW THE SIREN ECLIPSES THE FLAPPER: Seductive Languor Has Taken the Place of The Violence of The Young |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/07/28/archives/now-the-siren-eclipses-the-flapper-seductive-languor-has-taken-the.html |url-status=live |magazine=[[The New York Times Magazine]] |location=[[New York City]] |publisher= [[The New York Times Company]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250830163220/https://www.nytimes.com/1929/07/28/archives/now-the-siren-eclipses-the-flapper-seductive-languor-has-taken-the.html |archive-date=2025-08-30 |access-date=2025-08-30}}</ref> suggesting that she was being replaced by the "Siren", a mysterious, stylish, "vaguely European" ideal woman.<ref name=israel>{{cite book | title=Bachelor Girl | last=Israel | first=Betsy | publisher=HarperCollins | year=2002 | isbn=0380976498| pages=137–138}}</ref> The flapper lifestyle and look disappeared and the roaring '20s era of glitz and glamour came to an end in America after the [[Wall Street crash of 1929]].<ref>{{cite web|title = The Stock Market Crash of 1929 {{!}}|url = http://www.thebubblebubble.com/1929-crash/|website = www.thebubblebubble.com|access-date = November 3, 2015}}</ref>
Unable to afford the latest trends and lifestyle, the once-vibrant flapper women returned to their dropped hemlines, and the flapper dress disappeared. A sudden serious tone washed over the public with the appearance of the [[Great Depression]]. The high-spirited attitude and [[hedonism]] were less acceptable during the economic hardships of the 1930s. When hemlines began to rise again, numerous states took action, making laws that restricted women to wear skirts with hemlines no shorter than three inches (7.5 centimeters) above the ankle. The ever-popular bobbed haircut was the cause for some women being fired from their jobs.<ref>{{cite web|title = Flappers – Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages|url = http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/fashion_costume_culture/Modern-World-1919-1929/Flappers.html#ixzz3nJ0tToBB|website = www.fashionencyclopedia.com|access-date = November 3, 2015}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=October 2018}}

Transitioning into the 1930s was no easy task. Campaigns such as the "Make Do and Mend" slogan were becoming prevalent to ensure there was no [[overconsumption]] throughout society.<ref>{{cite web|title = Women's Fashion in War Work|url = http://www.forgeofinnovation.org/Springfield_Armory_1892-1945/Themes/People/Women/World_War_II/Fashion_in_War_Work/index.html|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130226060918/http://www.forgeofinnovation.org/springfield_armory_1892-1945/Themes/People/Women/World_War_II/Fashion_in_War_Work/index.html|url-status = usurped|archive-date = February 26, 2013|website = www.forgeofinnovation.org|access-date = November 3, 2015}}</ref>
Fabric choices were among the many items to be cut back during this poverty-stricken time. Artificial fabrics were used instead of elegant fabrics such as silk, which were so popular in the early 1900s. No longer were party dresses adorned with decorative embellishments or made brightly colored. Instead, women headed to work to take over roles of men at war. The physically demanding jobs called for the creation and social acceptance of women's trousers in society.

== See also ==
{{col-begin|width=60%}}{{col-break}}
* [[Betty Boop]]
* [[Hawksian woman]]
* [[Generation gap]]
* [[Interbellum Generation]]
* [[Jazz Age]]
* [[Lost Generation]]
{{col-break}}
* [[Modern girl]]
* ''[[Thoroughly Modern Millie]]'', 1962 film and [[Thoroughly Modern Millie (musical)|2002 stage musical]]
* [[1929 United Kingdom general election]], "the flapper election"
* [[Youth culture|Youth Culture]]
* [[Zelda Fitzgerald]]
{{col-end}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{Column list|
* Abra, Allison. (September 2016) "Going to the palais: a social and cultural history of dancing and dance halls in Britain, 1918–1960." ''Contemporary British History'' 30#3 pp.&nbsp;432–433.
* {{Cite book | last = Chadwick | first = Whitney | title = The Modern Woman Revisited: Paris Between the Wars | year = 2003 | publisher = Rutgers University Press | isbn = 978-0-8135-3292-9}}.
* {{Cite book | last = De Castelbajac | first = Kate | title = The Face of the Century: 100 Years of Makeup and Style | publisher = Rizzoli | year = 1995 | isbn = 978-0-8478-1895-2}}.
* Dumenil, Lynn (1995) ''The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s''. New York: Hill and Wang. {{ISBN|978-0-8090-1566-5}}
* Fass, Paula S. (2007) ''The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s''. 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-19-502492-0}}
* Gourley, Kathleen (2007) ''Flappers and the New American Woman: Perceptions of Women from 1918 Through the 1920s (Images and or of Women in the Twentieth Century)''. {{ISBN|978-0-8225-6060-9}}
* Hudovernik, Robert (2006) ''Jazz Age Beauties: The Lost Collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston''. {{ISBN|978-0-7893-1381-2}}
* Latham, Angela J. (2000) ''Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s''. {{ISBN|978-0-8195-6401-6}}
* Lauber, Ellie (2000) ''Fashions of the Roaring '20s''. {{ISBN|978-0-7643-0017-2}}
* Sagert, Kelly Boyer. ''Flappers: A Guide to an American Subculture''. Santa Barbara, CA: &nbsp; Greenwood Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-313-37690-0}}
* {{cite book|title=La Joven Moderna in Interwar Argentina: Gender, Nation, and Popular Culture|first=Cecilia|last=Tossounian|year=2020|location=Gainesville|publisher=[[University of Florida Press]]|isbn=978-1-6834-0116-2}}
* {{Cite book | title = Flapper: a madcap story of sex, style, celebrity, and the women who made America modern | first = Joshua | last = Zeitz | publisher = Random House | year = 2007 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kul2AAAAMAAJ | isbn = 978-1-4000-8054-0}}
}}

== Further reading ==
* Mackrell, Judith (2014) ''Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation''.  Clerkenwell, London, England: Pan MacMillan {{ISBN|978-0-330-52952-5}} ([[Lady Diana Cooper|Diana Cooper]], [[Nancy Cunard]], [[Tallulah Bankhead]], [[Zelda Fitzgerald]], [[Josephine Baker]], [[Tamara de Lempicka]])
*{{cite news |last1=Hooper |first1=Ruth |author1-link=Paul Avila Mayer#Personal life |title=Flapping Not Repented Of |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1922/07/16/archives/flapping-not-repented-of.html |access-date=30 August 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=16 July 1922}}
:*{{cite web |last1=Hooper |first1=Ruth |author1-link=Paul Avila Mayer#Personal life |title=Flapping Not Repented Of |url=http://www.humanitiesresource.com/twentieth_cen/articles/flapper.htm |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=30 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425040546/http://www.humanitiesresource.com/twentieth_cen/articles/flapper.htm |archive-date=25 April 2021 |date=16 July 1922 |via=humanitiesresource.com}}<!-- https://www.globalyceum.com/ajax/get_item_section_content_url?item_section_id=6587&itemid=262273 -->

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Flappers}}
* {{Cite web | url = http://www.1920s-fashion-and-music.com/1920s-Flapper.html | work = 1920s Flapper: Young Women in a Modern World | title = 1920s fashion & music}}.
* {{Cite web | url = http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm | title = Slang of the 1920s | publisher = AACA | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100618074534/http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm | archive-date = June 18, 2010 | df = mdy-all }}.
* {{Cite web | url = http://www.rambova.com/fashion/fash4.html | title = Flappers and fashion | publisher = Rambova | access-date = December 11, 2005 | archive-date = August 21, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100821210850/http://www.rambova.com/fashion/fash4.html | url-status = dead }}
* {{Cite web | url = https://www.facebook.com/LouiseBrooksFanClub | title = Thousands of photos of flappers can be viewed at Louise Brooks Fan Club on Facebook| website = [[Facebook]]}}.

{{1920s media culture|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Flappers| ]]
[[Category:1920s fads and trends|Slang]]
[[Category:1920s fashion]]
[[Category:Culture of the United States]]
[[Category:Fashion aesthetics]]
[[Category:Gender equality]]
[[Category:1920s slang]]
[[Category:Slang terms for women]]
[[Category:Stereotypes of women]]
[[Category:Subcultures]]