flapper
Sign in to saveFlappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore knee-length skirts (considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to 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. As automobiles became more available, flappers gained freedom of movement and privacy.
Article
23 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Influences
- Evolution of image
- Image of youth
- Magazines
- Behavior
- Overturning of Victorian roles
- Petting parties
- Slang
- Appearance
- Apparel
- Lingerie
- Hair and accessories
- Cosmetics
- American banks and "flapper" employees
- Semiotics and gender roles
- End of era
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- External links
Flappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore knee-length skirts (considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to 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. As automobiles became more available, flappers gained freedom of movement and privacy.
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.