New Social Norms In Joshua Zeitz's Book Flappers

"The film's plot revolves around Genevieve [The main character] 's boredom with her small-town existence…she moves to New York City and pursues a flapper-like lifestyle of flirting with multiple men, exploring the criminal underworld, and generally getting into trouble." ("Flappers in Film") However, by the end, she reverts to her traditional ways showing Hollywood's true apprehension towards portraying flappers in film. "The Flapper was typical of Hollywood productions of its day, which tended to present flappers in a conservative light that did not fully reflect reality."

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”.

During 1920s, a new era of fashion came in the United States. It was the era when women first abandoned restricting fashions of the past decades and began to wear more comfortable clothes. During this time the new girl was invented - a Flapper, who wore short skirts, bobbed her hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted her disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. This is the background for the 1926 cartoon created by Will B. Johnstone. The cartoon shows a flapper pulling out words from the dictionary, that portray the qualities that flappers got rid of in 1920s, such as modesty, obedience and prudery.

In America, the 1920s saw a lot of societal development, and the emergence of the flapper represented a significant departure from traditional gender roles. Flappers were young women who embraced a new sense of freedom and independence, rejecting the Victorian values that had long governed society (Onion et al.). They were known for their short hair, short skirts, and rebellious attitudes and became symbols of the Jazz Age. While flappers made women feel more independent, flappers were a completely new version of women in the 1920s because they introduced many changes in women, behaved in different ways, changed their appearances, ruled out some lingerie, and made up their own language.

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

As early as in 1905, an actor named Clara Bow had already risen to fame as a flapper, and it didn’t take long before many other women start to imitate her styles. (Encyclopedia.com) Articles which remarked flappers positively also started to appear as of 1919. (Chronicling America) Therefore, it is reasonable to include the cultural changes and the new values represented by the Flappers as an important piece of background information when evaluating Wharton’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

She is such a stereotypical female character in a negative way. Fitzgerald portrays her as such a pure, pretty, proper character, but she does not really have a personality. She is stereotypically a bad driver, obviously, because she is a woman, but when it comes to her personality she’s just another cookie cutter woman in the 1920’s. Males overlook her because she is a celebrity and obviously she can’t use her head, but they trust her for as long as they still find her interesting. Once they decide that she does not have much of a personality, they abandon her and find someone better.

The flapper’s appearance on the scene changed a formerly all-male drinking culture. The new nightclubs and cabarets went out of their way to appeal to women, whether with their decor or by hiring attractive male bartenders to appeal to female customers. Even the drinks of the time were feminised, with sweet and colourful cocktails replacing whiskey shots and beer.

(Sauro 1) Flappers were typically young, urban, middle-classed women. Clara Bow was one of the women who popularized the flapper look, and acts. Clara bow also cultivated the devil-may-care attitude and fashion. Bow was referred to as the scarlet that had “it.”

Breaking Social Boundaries The era of the 1920s was a pinnacle time in American History and the literature that was produced from this era showcases the social change happening. This was the time of social upheaval where the people were challenging social boundaries. The values that had been sought after in the period before this were becoming less and else prevalent in the new society. There are many viewpoints of this time period so the literature of this time was very diverse and many works showed the changing cultures.

The Roaring Twenties, characterized as a progressive era toward changes and advances, it was a start for freedom and independence for women. Women gained political power by gaining the right to vote. They changed their traditional way to be, way to act and dress to gain respect, and the liberty of independence. Society had different ways of ideals and the ways women were willing to do were disapproved of, and it was wrong for lots of different people, including women from the older generation. In the 1920’s women went through a lot of changes that made them a free spirit, changes that made them what they are now and having the liberty of being independent.

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.

Both the novel and the poem show how women acted in order to get attention and to get men to notice them. In fact, early in the novel, Daisy believes that the best thing a woman can do is show off her feminine traits and be beautiful because after her daughter is born she says: “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (Fitzgerald 20). Daisy thinks that the best thing for a woman to be is “stupid” and beautiful because it is a man’s world and that is the only way a woman can make it. The poem also conveys this message when a flapper is dancing with a man and says: “Notice me,” was her

Her dress would not create such a stir nowadays, as most celebrities wear sheer, extremely revealing clothing in public. If the script had been written in 1929, the women would most likely wear simpler more modest clothing and we would probably see more women in suits, yet the portrayal of the “flapper” look was quite accurate. Then again if the action was set later, we would probably notice changes not only in the clothing but also in the behaviour of women. The women in the jazz orchestra showed us a very unique perspective on modern femininity in that era. The act of drinking and smoking in the train was supposed to demonstrate the image of an independent woman opposing the traditional gender norms, which is associated with the suffrage movements that emerged in the 19th century.