Flappers

‘A Flapper’s Appeal to Parents” (The Outlook, 1922)

If one judges by appearances, I suppose I am a flapper. I am within the age limit, I wear bobbed hair, the badge of flapperhood. I powder my nose. I wear fringed skirts and bright colored sweaters, and scarves and waists with Peter Pan collars and low-heeled ‘finale hopper’ shoes. I adore to dance… But then there are many degrees of a flapper. There is the semi-flapper, the flapper, the super-flapper. Each of these three main general divisions has its degrees of variation. I might possibly be placed somewhere in the middle of the first class.

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Ode to Feminine Knees (Flapper Magazine, 1922)

When the skirt hems began to rise in the Twenties, it was widely understood that the vision of a woman’s leg was a rare treat for both man and boy; a spectacle that had not been enjoyed since the days of Adam (married men excluded). The flappers certainly knew this, and they generally believed that suffering the dizzying enthusiasm of the male of the species was a small price to pay in order to secure some element of liberty. The flappers liked their hem-lengths just where they were and, thank you very much, they were not about to drop them. Attached are some verses by an anonymous flapper who expressed her reaction regarding all that undeserved male attention her knees were generating.

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Flappers Altered the Sexual Contract in Society (Coronet Magazine, 1955)

Perhaps the above headline gives a wee-bit too much credit to the flappers for changing the sex codes of North America – but it certainly would never have happened without them. They were one of the necessary elements, in addition to motion pictures, recorded music, automobiles and greater job opportunities for women, that, when mixed together created a new social contract. The attached article spells it all out as to how the flappers of the 1920s had stripped the female body of its Victorian wrappings and proudly displayed it in the sunlight.


You might also want read about sex during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

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The Plot to Restore the Corset (The New Republic, 1922)

A shewed observer of fashion, Mary Alden Hopkins (1856 – 1930) noted how the Victorian dinosaurs who lorded-over the male-dominated, pro-corset fashion industry had attempted (unsuccessfully) to manipulate and coerce the shoppers of the early Twenties to reject the Chanel-inspired revolt that the young flappers were currently enjoying.

How can I sell these styles?…the flappers won’t buy them.

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The Depiction of Mothers in Silent Film (Pathfinder, 1926

This one is from the more things change, the more they stay the same department; it was penned by an outraged woman who was plenty peeved that nascent Hollywood chose to cast geezers to play the rolls of mothers in their movies. In light of the fact that women had babies at far, far younger ages one hundred years ago, she illustrated her point with an anecdote pulled from the annals of the Chicago Police Department.

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The Common Sense of the Flappers (Flapper Magazine, 1922)

Originally writing for the Forrest Park Review, Flapper advocate Myrtle Heilman (1895 – 1973) opined that the Flapper was the one and only topic of the day worth thinking about:

Analyze her dress. It’s the most sensible thing since Eve. She wears rolled socks and why shouldn’t she? They are extremely cool and comfortable. Her toddle pumps are fairly low-heeled and she doesn’t try to squeeze into a Cinderella. Her skirts are short because it’s the fashion. Her bobbed hair is cool, sensible and sanitary. There is a twinkle in her eye and she has a saucy cock-sureness. And why shouldn’t she?

She does respect her parents and she obeys them, just as well as her grandmother did hers, but she has common sense and she knows when it’s time to use her own judgment and exercise her own authority.

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VANITY FAIR Throws a Bobbed Hair Party (Vanity Fair, 1919)

A smattering of cartoons depicting those sweet young things of yore who were partial to bathtub gin, short skirts and
short hair styles.


In 1919 you didn’t have to be plugged-in 24/7 to the youth scene in order to recognize that bobbed hair was where the fickle finger of fashion was pointing. Perhaps the editors of VANITY FAIR presumed that a bobbed hair party was the best social alternative that could have been offered six months after the 1919 passage of the 18th Amendment, which ushered in the Prohibition of alcohol throughout the United States.

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