Research Paper On Flappers In The 1920s

There was a decade of economic prosperity following the conclusion of World War Ⅰ. This time was called the “Roaring Twenties”, because of the ebullient, unrestrained culture of the decade. Before this era, the Victorian attitudes toward dress and etiquette were still prominent, and were the main influence on women’s clothing. Women’s bodies were fully covered, as floor-length dresses were the norm and waists were cinched, tight due to the corsets that were still an accompaniment to most women’s outfits. When the 1920’s hit, however, dresses got shorter, painful corsets were cast aside, and some women even began wearing sports clothes. All images and preconceptions about what the average American women looked like and wore changed drastically.

In most cases all women are described to have developed the “flapper lifestyle”. It is often ignored that although being a flapper was an ideal for young women in urban areas, it was not the epitome of what life should have been like for everyone. This can be seen by the way the ideal woman is described, “Flappers became the ideal for young women in the 1920s. From the clothes they wore to their attitudes, flappers were youthful, chic, and above all, modern. In the 1920s, American society rejected the Victorian attitudes of the pre–World War I (1914–18) generation. Flappers and their happy-go-lucky lifestyle set the tone for American popular culture. They partied, drank, smoked cigarettes, and danced to wild jazz music. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940), whose writings chronicle the ‘Jazz Age,’ described flappers as ‘the generation that corrupted its elders and eventually over-reached itself—through lack of taste”. This description of the flapper lifestyle contrasts greatly with the life of a woman living in a rural area, who would have described family life on a farm to be very different from life in the city in the 1920s. Life on the farm, there was no electricity or indoor plumbing, and women made their own clothes. Since women were making their own clothing, as opposed to buying the latest fashion trends, women living in rural areas were not experiencing influences from World War I and women’s suffrage in the same way women of urban areas where. Instead, rural women’s clothing remained traditional. Farming was hard work, with long days and little money. These women, who lived and worked in rural areas were easily recognizable by their older, Victorian style dresses, and long hair. They contrasted markedly from flappers, who were generally recognized as young women who “bobbed” their hair, wore short, loose-fitting dresses, and enhanced their faces with