Flappers In The 1920s Essay

When a person hears about the “Roaring Twenties”, flappers are one of the first aspects of the era that first comes to mind. Many flappers embodied similar traits to actress Clara Bow who could be considered the “epitome of flappers”. In several of her films such as Black Oxen and It, Bow flaunts both her flapper style which consisted of bobbed hair, shorter dresses, and showing more skin, but also her “sex appeal” and defiance of being “ladylike” and the typical standards of women at the time. Her personal life was also different from other women as she had several love affairs and revealed her terrible childhood to the public. But why did flappers like Clara Bow have such a huge impact in the 1920s and how do they affect the modern world

Flappers in the 1920s were the result of changes in the industrialization and economic culture and consumerism; flappers helped establish new feminine standards that counter against previous standards followed before World War 1 and embodied the current social changes during the 1920s. The background of the flapper era was the poor economic life preceding the Roaring Twenties. In the journal article “The Crisis of 1920 In the United States: A Quantitative Survey” by economist Warren M. Persons, he mentions how the American industries such as the war and railroad industry and the American government being involved in foreign trade were already struggling with the high demand and people were already predicting the collapse of these industries. But in 1920, there was a crisis in the agriculture industry despite prospering during the recent war. One aspect of this crisis involved bank failures as David C. Wheelock highlights in his article “Regulation and Bank Failures: New Evidence from the Agricultural Collapse of the 1920s”.

In the article “A Symbol of Modernity: Attitudes Toward the Automobile in Southern Cities in the 1920s” by Blaine A. Brownell, he explains how the automobile was an important aspect of the 1920s culture and dwells upon the relationship with flappers and automobiles. The automobile became one of the most talked about technological innovations of the time as normal citizens could travel farther and faster whether they were from rural areas or urban cities, and many people began to buy automobiles as car ownership grew exponentially from nine million in 1920 to twenty-three million in 1929 (Brownell). It became a staple of the 1920s along with the flapper. The automobile also allowed flappers and other civilians to travel more freely to places like speakeasies and other parties. Women were no longer bound to their homes or restricted by traveling distances, as car ownership became extremely common. There was also some sexual connotations that the flapper associated with automobiles, as Brownwell highlights in this