The American culture in transition: The role of flappers in the early feminist movement

Book Reviewed: Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern

There is an interesting story about the women in 1920s, before the great depression hit the nation, women were loudly making changes in their life styles and demanding equal rights. The very soul and image of the modern American woman was becoming apparent. The flapper was real, the product of compelling social and political forces that converged after WWI. By that time many women were gainfully employed, and the new financial freedom allowed them to live on their own, away from their family and community surveillance. She boldly asserted her rights to date, dance, wear revealing clothes and smoke, which their mothers only dreamed of trying. Several factors catalyzed this social revolution, feminist books, magazines, theater, movies and women's fashion. Women like Coco Chanel, the famous French fashion designer redefined feminine form and silhouette. Lois Long of New York City emerged as one of the most insightful observers of sex and style in Jazz age America. In Hollywood studios, actresses like Clara Bow, Colleen Moore and Louise Brooks were great triumvirate that fired the imagination of millions of film goers with their own distinct style. The performance of sexually oriented scenes and revealing clothes in movies and theater raised troubling questions. For example; the one-piece bathing suit popularized by Annette Kellerman, professional swimmer and vaudeville star was legally banned in many countries, and she was arrested for indecent exposure at Boston Revere Beach in 1908. For the "guardians of moral values" the less restrictive clothes went hand-in-hand with diminishing morals of women. Some sociologists suggested that sexual mores were changing.

This book focusses only on certain aspects of feminist movement and the work of few individuals. It omits the role played by numerous women in Hollywood, theater, Broadway, literature and sports that awakened the women to realize their own potential, demand equal rights and opportunities to enjoy life. In this regard, I very much like the book by Angela J. Latham, "Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and Other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s."

The author concludes that American 1920's represented a high-water mark in female autonomy using fashion and body display and changed the attitudes towards morality. Women presented their fashion and body as a site and not a symbol; feminity is sacred. This focus complicated our perception of what it meant to be a woman in 1920s; even now after almost 100 years, the attitude towards fairer sex has not significantly changed.