These Fabulous Facts About Flappers Prove they Made the 20s Roar

18. They Used Contraceptives

In the 1920s, diaphragm caps and IUDs came into use, and flappers made good use of them so that they could engage in more behavior that was far outside of societal norms. Their method of contraception paved the way for oral contraceptives, which came about in the 1960s and ultimately resulted in families that, on average, were much smaller.

17. Flappers May Have Begun on the Silver Screen

Actresses in the 1920s, like Clara Bow, Norma Talmadge, Louise Brooks, and Olive Thomas frequently pushed boundaries on the silver screen. They may have been the ones behind the whole flapper movement. After all, if people on the silver screen are smoking and wearing short skirts with bobbed hair, everyone else should do the same thing.

16. Flappers Set the Stage for Consumerism

The post-war prosperity of the 1920s expressed itself in many ways, one of the first being the availability of credit. Department stores opened as the middle class could now use credit to obtain upper-class luxuries, leading to the birth of consumerism. With it came the iconic flapper dress, mass-produced for public consumption.

15. They Changed the Fashion Industry

The length of the flappers’ skirts wasn’t the only thing to shake up the fashion industry. Their dresses were boxy, more androgynous than cinch-waist dresses that had previously been the norm. Flappers also wore rolled-up stockings, bras, and lingerie instead of girdles and pantyhose. Additionally, they wore their hair short and bold.

14. They Listened to Jazz

Jazz music originated in African-American communities, and racism was indeed high during the 1920s. Perhaps the fact that jazz was so taboo during the era is the primary reason why flappers flocked to it. They loved that they could do the Charleston, which made it even more fun without constricting girdles and corsets.

13. Their Short Hair Was Licentious

During the Victorian era, the longer a woman’s hair was, the more virtuous she supposedly was. The flappers shunned this norm by intentionally wearing their hair short; doing so immediately dispensed with any societal expectations of what they should be. In addition, short hair was a statement that the women were more than their hair and should be seen as such.

12. Their Short Hairstyles Were Called “Bobs”

The haircut that we now refer to as a “bob,” in which the hair is cut evenly at about the ears, got its name during the Roarin’ Twenties, as the flappers popularized it. Possibly because flappers were more androgynous than Victorian women, the haircuts became known as bobs.

11. F. Scott Fitzgerald Married a Flapper

F. Scott Fitzgerald was the iconic writer of the 1920s, penning such classics as The Great Gatsby and “Bernice Bobs Her Hair.” Much of his inspiration for the glitzy party girls of his stories came from his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, who was a flapper. Through her husband’s writings, Zelda helped to bring the flapper culture into the mainstream.

10. Some People Called Them Vamps

Miley Cyrus wasn’t the first to change her looks to look more vampirish. Flappers were referred to as vamps, short for vampire, but not because they looked like Miley Cyrus. The reason was that they could suck the life out of someone with just one look. They had an electric kind of energy that they were not ashamed of.

9. They Knew That They Only Lived Once

Before World War I, women were expected to grow up, get married, and spend the rest of their lives taking care of their families. During the war, however, many women tasted independence as they had to work outside of the home, and they were not keen to return to the domestic sphere. Flappers wanted to make a bold statement that women could have a life outside of the home. After all, YOLO.

8. The Beginning of the End Came in 1929

The prosperity of the Roarin’ Twenties, built on the post-war economic boom and the widespread availability of credit, came to a crashing halt when the stock market crashed on October 30, 1929. With the crash came the end of the flapper lifestyle, though there were quite a few elite families who were spared the worst effects of the Great Depression and even profited from it.

7. Coco Chanel Was The Quintessential Flapper

The founder of the Chanel beauty empire ‘Coco Chanel‘ was one of the most popular flappers who helped to liberate women from tight corsets and societal images of a “virtuous” woman with long hair and long skirts. Time Magazine listed her as one of the most 100 influential individuals of the twentieth century.

6. The Greatest 1920s Writer May Have Been a Flapper

Remember Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of Scott Fitzgerald? About The Beautiful and the Damned, she wrote:
“It seems to me that on one page I recognized a portion of an old diary of mine which mysteriously disappeared shortly after my marriage, and also scraps of letters which, though considerably edited, sound to me vaguely familiar. In fact, Mr. Fitzgerald—I believe that is how he spells his name—seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home.”

5. Flappers Made Tans Fashionable

In 1923, Coco Chanel went on a cruise to Cannes and stayed out in the sun a bit too long. When she emerged with a golden-brown luster to her skin, tans became fashionable. Previously, women strove to keep their skin as close to an ivory white as possible, fair and delicate.

4. Flappers Weren’t Just American

Being a flapper wasn’t just adhering to a particular fashion trend. It was about rebelling against societal norms and taking advantage of the freedom that women found during World War I. Countries like England and France also saw a rise in flapper culture, much to the chagrin of the established aristocracy and traditional values of the countries.

3. They Flattened Their Chests

Seeing as flappers did away with girdles and corsets and gained the attraction of boys, what may come as a surprise is that they often tied strips of cloth around their chests in order to flatten them, thereby creating a more androgynous appearance. They were feminists, although not very feminine.

2. We Can Thank Them For Modern Feminism

Taking on a more androgynous appearance and rebelling against societal norms were acts of scandal during the 1920s, but consider that this era was before women could wear pants. Flappers helped pave the way for women to free themselves of long dresses and corsets so that they could live productive lives outside, not just stay at home and care for their families.

1. They Showed the Necessity of Change

In the 1920s, the struggle was between Victorian values and post-war prosperity and feminism. Today, it is between baby boomers and millennials. Flappers showed that traditional values may have their place, but society is always in flux and people need to be willing to adapt.

Where Did We Get This Stuff? Here Are Our Sources:

History 101 – Flappers: Today’s Heroes, Yesterday’s Villains

Wise Geek – What Was the Flapper Era?

The Guardian – The 1920s: ‘Young Women Took the Struggle for Freedom into Their Personal Lives’

History – How Flappers of the Roaring Twenties Redefined Womanhood

National Public Radio – When ‘Petting Parties’ Scandalized the Nation

Mental Floss – The Rise of the Flapper

The Vintage News – Flappers Were A “New Breed” Of Young Women In The 1920s Who Wore Short Skirts, Bobbed Their Hair, Flaunted Their Disdain

Collectors Weekly – ‘The Great Gatsby’ Still Gets Flappers Wrong

Smithsonian Magazine – The History of the Flapper, Part 5: Who Was Behind the Fashions?

Bellatory – Women’s Fashions of the 1920s: Flappers and the Jazz Age

Prep Scholar – What Is a Flapper? The Glamorous History of Women in the 1920s

Grunge – What It Was Really Like Being A 1920s Flapper

Wikipedia – Flapper