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In the 1920s there were bold, venturesome, dauntless young women who broke society's idea of women standards to change the whole American culture. The book, Flapper, by Joshua Zeitz discusses the effects that books, movies, and celebrities of this time, had on the average women, which caused this era of flappers. These young women known as flappers weren’t the only change that the post World War One era brought. Throughout the book, these changes are brought up from religion to morals, to other changes, and these changes are what would completely develop new social norms in America.
Traditional values were questioned by modern beliefs, with African Americans gaining confidence throughout the Harlem Renaissance, in addition to women finding new ground in American culture, marking their image forever, embracing their new form: flappers. Throughout the 1920’s events such as the Great Migration, with new roles of women shook the American region, as the conflict of tradition, versus modernization, began. To begin,
According to Helen Lawrenson, “If a woman is sufficiently ambitious, determined and gifted - there is practically nothing she can't do.” Women in history have been limited and bound in different aspects of their lives in the past. They are confined to meet certain and precise standards for marriage, to raise a family, and also in the work field. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson, all women living during the flapper 1920’s style that embodied the real women of the time which F. Scott Fitzgerald (got?) his characteristics from.
With the right to vote, consumer based culture, leisure time, and modernism, women who followed these new practices and ideals created the flapper image of the roaring twenties we know today. In Fitzgerald’s story he describes the girls almost wanting to be flappers to me it seems as if in almost all of Fitzgerald’s books he has a girl who is the opposite of what her society wants her to be like and is leaning towards the lifestyle of a flapper girl it's like they are all the same person or have many of the same characteristic in “ The Great Gatsby” which is one of my favorite books, Jordan Baker is a golfer who represents what the new woman is which is cynical,boyish, and self centered. She kinda reminds me of how Beatrice and Marjorie are at the end. They had almost every iconic element of a flapper besides the bobbed hair,but they loved to party at the end , they dance to jazz music, was cut-in every few feet on the dance floor, was always wearing the latest fashions, and was all over casual dating. With this new flashy and flirtatious attitude and charm that young women
Since early ages, mothers have always criticized the ways their daughters acted. In the 1920s criticisms were taken a step further by the flappers, who completely revolutionized the view on females. Flappers in the 1920s had an impact on women for the future. Who they were, what they wore, and what their morals were was how their impacts changed the future for all the females. “The term "flapper" originated in the 1920s and refers to the fashion trend for unfastened rubber galoshes that "flapped" when walking, an attribution reinforced by the image of the free-wheeling flapper in popular culture.”
Commonly referred to as the “roaring twenties”, the 1920s was a crucial period in the changing role of women. No longer a dainty housewife, the Jazz Age woman was independent and ambitious. In “Bernice Bobs her Hair”, F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces two young women, Bernice and Marjorie, who represent two contrasting personalities in 1920s society: a meek “girly-girl” with dated values and an audacious young lady who appears to not care what others think. Ironically, they both share a concrete definition of femininity. With their questions and concerns on what a woman should and should not do, both characters represent the role confusion shared by many 1920s women.
After the release of “The Flapper” the character, Ginger and her mysterious behavior became a hit and thus the age of the flapper was born. Movie star and fashion icons who became committed to this way of life started popping up everywhere. A short time before the twenties Zelda Fitzgerald was seen as an “It” girl. She was from a town in Alabama, her father was part of the supreme court and her family was well known. That being said she would often find ways to push people's buttons, whether that being wearing a tight nude bathing suit just to trick people into thinking she swam naked or just generally be unconventional.
The flapper’s party life consisted of late night at jazz clubs, parties, and most significantly the acclaimed and glamourous Broadway. While at these events, the flappers were perceived as, “The notorious character type who bobbed her hair, smoked cigarettes, drank gin, sported short skirts, and passed her evenings in steamy jazz clubs, where she danced in a shockingly immodest fashion with a revolving cast of male suitors (Zeits, 6).” Many people were distraught by these provocative actions and late nights considering that only men were the people who were out late having fun. Women were often reprimanded and looked down upon similar to the character Eugenia in Joshua Weitz Flapper: “Eugenia is not innately bad.
In Strictly Ballroom a character that undergoes a great deal of development is Scott Hastings. He progresses from an angry, ambitious and defiant character to a really successful dancer and person. This will be discussed with reference to filmic techniques used in Strictly Ballroom and how they reflect the changes in Scott. In the beginning of the film Scott is seen as an arrogant, self-centred and angry character which is evident in his dancing and his attitude towards others.
The 1920s is a time of technological, economical, and social exploration. Myrtle, Daisy, and Jordan display the full image of what it is like to be a women in New York during the 1920s. They each have a personal struggle with society and the fight between what they want and what is expected of them. Each of these women wants to experience the glamor of the 1920s but has to maintain some of the traditional elegance of a woman. If the neglect to do so, they are treated harshly by society.
Joshua Zeitz’s history of the flapper reminds us that “The New Woman of the 1920s boldly asserted her right to dance, drink, smoke, and date—to work her own property, to live free of the strictures that governed her mother’s generation. […] She flouted Victorian-era conventions and scandalized her parents. In many ways, she controlled her own destiny” (8). Although some twenty years too soon, the image evoked here equally describes Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin’s
The image of the flapper was used in magazines and advertising and lead to the influence of mass consumer culture and media. This new image of the flapper “encouraged both the consumption of new products and new patterns of consumption and provided women with accessible routes to engage with modernity.” Since women started to gain rights such as voting and opportunity to gain jobs, women started to gain a sense of freedom and started to mix in with the new modern world they were entering in. As stated before, technology started to rise, and companies wanted to sell these new products. So, companies started to aim towards women in
Self-labeled “sex-positive feminists” generally believe there shouldn’t be some universal, cookie cutter guideline for all women’s sexuality. As one sex worker and activist, Teri Goodson, said, “Some non-sex worker feminists seem to understand that the stigma and oppression of female prostitutes is used to uphold the double standard and is limiting to all women’s sexual freedom.” Those thoughts capture the essence of the liberalized women of the 1920s who shattered several cultural boundaries. In fact, these women were reverently labelled as “flappers,” a term popularized by F. Scott Fitzgerald in reference to those women. Mind you, the term “flapper” had previously been primarily associated with prostitutes.
Despite this, women were able to make a huge impact on America through social reforms. Many young women went against the beliefs of their parents. Prior to the Roaring Twenties, America was in a Victorian era. Women wore dresses that were floor-length, their hair was long and premarital sex was almost non-existent. During the 1920’s however, some women became what are known as “flappers”.
For Chamber Orchestra I have chosen the pieces Waltz by Claude Debussy/arr. Matthew Moreno, Symphony #104 F.J. Haydn/arr. Jan Farrar-Royce, and The Bells of St. Genevieve by Marin Marais/arr. Smolensky. These three pieces represent composers across three eras of Western classical music, and I picked these to ensure that students could become familiar with what it is like to play different music from different periods.