History Main / TheFlapper

The quintessential modern, emancipated Western woman of TheRoaringTwenties. A young lady even more spirited than the SpiritedYoungLady, coming of age in an era when Victorian morals were loosened at the same time that [[OfCorsetHurts restrictive corsets]] were, thanks to newfound liberty, rising feminist movements, and (in the U.S.) the 19th Amendment.[[note]]Which forbids states from forbidding women from voting. Yes, that's [[ConfusingMultipleNegatives confusing]], but that's UsefulNotes/AmericanFederalism for you.[[/note]] She listened to jazz, [[EverybodySmokes smoked cigarettes]], danced [[DanceSensation the Foxtrot, the Tango, the Shimmy, the Peabody, the Black Bottom, the Baltimore Buzz, and the Charleston]], wore make-up for the first time since the 18th century, drank with the boys (in America, she was as much an opponent of the 18th Amendment[[note]]Which prohibited alcohol[[/note]] as she was a fan of the 19th), peppered her speech with [[JiveTurkey slang]] and [[ClusterFBomb cusses]], and enjoyed the various other delights that the '20s had to offer. Aesthetically, [[TwentiesBobHaircut short hair]], short skirts, [[PimpedOutDress short, loose & low-waisted evening gowns]], [[ZettaiRyouiki turned-up silk stockings]], [[PetitePride boyish figures]], and swanky cloche hats were a must.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E45TheTroubleWithTempleton The Trouble with Templeton]]", Booth Templeton's late wife Laura was one during the 1920s.

* ''Creature Court'' by Tansy Rayner Roberts is a CultureChopSuey of 1920s America and Ancient Rome, and contains a fair few of these. Notable examples include HardDrinkingPartyGirl Delphine, who turns out to be a deconstruction as the novel works into the [[BeneathTheMask insecurities]] [[StepfordSmiler her lifestyle is hiding]], and Livilla for a more murderous variation.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'' started out as this until she married Dagwood Bumstead. Her maiden name was even "Boopadoop", a play on the then popular expression "Boop-oop-a-doop".

The quintessential modern, emancipated Western woman of TheRoaringTwenties. A young lady even more spirited than the SpiritedYoungLady, coming of age in an era when Victorian morals were loosened at the same time that [[OfCorsetHurts restrictive corsets]] were, thanks to newfound liberty, rising feminist movements, and (in the U.S.) the 19th Amendment.[[note]]Which forbids states from forbidding women from voting. Yes, that's [[ConfusingMultipleNegatives confusing]], but that's UsefulNotes/AmericanFederalism for you.[[/note]] She listened to jazz, danced [[DanceSensation the Foxtrot, the Tango, the Shimmy, the Peabody, the Black Bottom, the Baltimore Buzz, and the Charleston]], wore make-up for the first time since the 18th century, drank with the boys (in America, she was as much an opponent of the 18th Amendment[[note]]Which prohibited alcohol[[/note]] as she was a fan of the 19th), peppered her speech with [[JiveTurkey slang]] and [[ClusterFBomb cusses]], and enjoyed the various other delights that the '20s had to offer. Aesthetically, [[TwentiesBobHaircut short hair]], short skirts, [[PimpedOutDress short, loose & low-waisted evening gowns]], [[ZettaiRyouiki turned-up silk stockings]], [[PetitePride boyish figures]], and swanky cloche hats were a must.

* ''Film/HeadInTheClouds'': Though she's introduced in 1933, Gilda has a bob haircut, flapper style dress and hedonistic lifestyle.

The popular image of the flapper we know of actually [[OlderThanTheyThink dates back to at least the 1910s]]. While the word ''flapper'' appeared in dictionaries as early as TheGayNineties, the flapper girl started to evolve during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and the Prohibition era. As the decade progressed, and with the help of prominent women like UsefulNotes/CocoChanel, hats became tighter and narrower, skirts became shorter, and the silhouette more streamlined, like the image you see above. [[https://www.racked.com/2017/5/19/15612000/flappers-fringe-myth Contrary to popular contemporary imagery]], flappers did not always wear sleek bobs, fringed dresses, feathered headbands, and open-toed stiletto heels. These were an invention of filmmakers in TheFifties, who tried to evoke the era fit for Technicolor cameras. [[labelnote:Brief details]]Actual flappers wore fringe sparingly, and viewed long fringes as very impractical for dancing and expensive, being made of silk and nylon was yet to be invented; hemlines at the time were knee length at its peak before dropping in the very later decade; headbands were Edwardian carryovers that persisted through the early 1920s when some women were reluctant to bob their hair before it went out of fashion by the middle of the decade when bobs became commonplace; and shoes were round- and close-toed, and the heels were thick Cuban or Louis. [[/labelnote]]

The popular image of the flapper we know of actually [[OlderThanTheyThink dates back to at least the 1910s]]. While the word ''flapper'' appeared in dictionaries as early as TheGayNineties, the flapper girl started to evolve during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and the Prohibition era. As the decade progressed, and with the help of prominent women like UsefulNotes/CocoChanel, hats became tighter and narrower, skirts became shorter, and the silhouette more streamlined, like the image you see above. [[https://www.racked.com/2017/5/19/15612000/flappers-fringe-myth Contrary to popular contemporary imagery]], flappers did not always wear sleek bobs, fringed dresses, feathered headbands, and open-toed stiletto heels. These were an invention of filmmakers in TheFifties, who tried to evoke the era fit for Technicolor cameras. [[labelnote:Brief details]]Actual flappers view long fringes as expensive and very impractical for dancing; hemlines at the time were knee length at its peak before dropping in the very later decade; headbands were Edwardian carryovers that persisted through the early 1920s when some women were reluctant to bob their hair before it went out of fashion by the middle of the decade when bobs became commonplace; and shoes were round- and close-toed, and the heels were thick Cuban or Louis. [[/labelnote]]

The popular image of the flapper we know of actually [[OlderThanTheyThink dates back to at least the 1910s]]. While the word ''flapper'' appeared in dictionaries as early as TheGayNineties, the flapper girl started to evolve during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and the Prohibition era. [[https://www.racked.com/2017/5/19/15612000/flappers-fringe-myth Contrary to popular contemporary imagery]], flappers did not always wear sleek bobs, fringed dresses, feathered headbands, and open-toed stiletto heels. These were an invention of filmmakers in TheFifties, who tried to evoke the era fit for Technicolor cameras. Actual flappers saw fringe as expensive and very impractical for dancing, hemlines at the time were knee length at its peak before dropping in the very later decade, headbands were Edwardian carryovers that persisted through the early 1920s when some women were reluctant to bob their hair before it went out of fashion by the middle of the decade when bobs became commonplace, and shoes were close-toed and the heels were thick Cuban or Louis. As the decade progressed, and with the help of prominent women like UsefulNotes/CocoChanel, hats became tighter and narrower, skirts became shorter, and the silhouette more streamlined, like the image you see above.