Flapper In The 1920s Essay

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During the 1920’s , a new ideal emerged for few women: the flapper, an emancipated young woman who embraced the new fashion and urban attitudes of the day. Felt hats, bright waistless dresses an inch above the knees, silk stockings, sleek pumps, and strings of beads replaced the dark and prim ankle-length dresses, whalebone corsets, and petticoats of victorian days. Women cut their long silk hair into boyish bobs and colored it jet black.
Many women became more assertive. In their strive for equal status with men, some even began smoking cigarettes, drinking in public, and talked openly about sex-actions that would have ruined their reputation not to many years before. They dance the foxtrot, camel walk, tango, charleston, and shimmy with …show more content…

Although many women donned the new outfits and flouted tradition, the flapper was more an image of rebellious youth than a widespread reality; it didn’t affect the attitudes and values of many young people. During the 1920’s, morals loosened only so far. Traditionalist in churches and schools protested the new casual dances and women’s acceptance of smoking and drinking.
In the years before World War l, when men “courted” women, they pursued only women they intended to marry. In the 1920’s, however, casual dating became extremely excepted. Even so, a double standard-a set of principles granting greater sexual freedom to men than women-required women to observe stricter standards of behavior than men did. As a result, many young women were pulled back and forth between the old and new standards.
The fast-changing world of the 1920’s produced new roles for women in the workplace and new trends in family life. A booming industrial economy opened new work opportunities for women in offices,factories, stores, and professions. The same economy churned out time-saving appliances and products that reshaped the roles of housewives and

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