Flappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for prevailing codes of decent behavior. Flappers were 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.[1] As automobiles became more available, flappers gained freedom of movement and privacy.[2]
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]
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[3] or garçonne in France or moga in Japan, although the American term "flapper" was the most widespread internationally.[4]
- ^ Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Flappers in the Roaring Twenties". About.com. Archived from the original on August 25, 2004. Retrieved April 4, 2010.
- ^ "Flappers". HISTORY. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
- ^ Tossounian 2020, p. 33.
- ^ Tossounian 2020, p. 36.