Legacy of The Flappers
The 1920`s is one of the most influential decades in American history. It is the buffer between the Victorian era and the modern America that we know today. Numerous social changes during this period changed American culture forever. In part one of the novel "Flapper," writer Joshua Jeitz captures the beginning of the transformation through some very influential characters, namely F. Scott Fitzgerald, his wife Zelda Fitzgerald and journalist Lois lane.
The novel begins with the story of Zelda Sayre, who later becomes Zelda Fitzgerald. She is from Montgomery, Alabama, America's heartland. She is the resemblance of a free spirit that is unparalleled in the Victorian era. She is nothing like the warm, courteous Victorian girl we read in the books. She lives in the moment. She flees home to join exotic dance parties, drinks all sorts of alcohol, smokes and dates. Her high school yearbook reads,
"Why should life be work, when we all
can borrow.
Let's only think of today, and not worry about
tomorrow."1
F. Scott Fitzgerald, the celebrated author who
created so many character throughout his career, becomes a character himself in
this novel. In the beginning, he is a young army officer who falls head over
heels for Zelda Sayre. Although Zelda is not the sort of girl who settles for
one guy, he succeeds and manages to get her heart. After a brief period of
romance they get married in St. Patrick's Cathedral
in New York. The writer regards him as the
"Flapper King."2
 |
| F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald. |
The couple resembles the sort of
celebrity couple that we see today. Everything they did was news. They
also did their part in doing extravagant antics to feed the magazines and
gossip columns. Nationwide people followed this couple and they showed them how
to enjoy life. They used to throw legendary parties. Although Scott was making
considerable amount of money, they were having hard times maintaining the
lifestyle. The couple was always short of cash.Once Zelda even had to borrow
money from her parents to go out, "Zelda
borrowed $20 from her mother-incredibly, but typically, she and Scott were dead
broke-and husband and wifeballyhooed out for a night on the town."3 They even had to move to France,
"they hoped to profit from France's
deep postwar economic slump. Since the franc had plummeted to an all-time low
against the dollar, a good meal with wine could be bought for less than 20
cents."4
Another strong female character
in the first part of the novel is Lois Long, The New Yorker`s "resident flapper journalist."5 She is the embodiment of a strong
single woman who earns her own living and depends on no one. She goes out every
night and reports it in her weekly column. She is not the typical "working women in the 1920s toiled at less glamorous and
remunerative jobs-nearly a third as domestic servants, the rest as clerical
workers, factory workers, store clerks, and fanners."6 She's is what every single woman
aspired to become.
 |
| Lois Long at Vassar College |
These carefree individuals shaped the future of the flappers and ultimately the course of freedom for women. It wasn't too easy; they got backlash form all sorts of
people. To the people who were worried about the unraveling of the age
old Victorian customs, flappers were nothing more than spoiled girls, "introduction into this country of a new and devastating
type of girl whose movements, thoughts and actions-to say nothing of deeds-have
become matters of international importance."7
They also got reactions from the feminists, "1920s-women like Lois Long and Zelda Fitzgerald-struck
many veteran feminists as an apolitical creature interested only in romantic
and sexual frivolities."8
Some religious leaders also condemned these kind of behavior. The rise of the
Ku Klux Klan in the 1920`s was also influenced by the flapper movement..
With all these social changes,
the dating scene was also changing. Young girls were unhappy with their lives. Young
people become more materialistic. The traditional courtship was challenged and
single women were going out with guys without the watchful eyes of their
parents. More and more people were indulging in premarital sexual escapades. Sex
was the theme of the era indeed. The younger generation was fascinated by Freud
and wanted to satisfy their sexual desires.In fact,"14 percent of women born before 1900 engaged in premarital sex by the
age of twenty-five, somewhere between 36 percent and 39 percent of women who
came of age in the 1910s and 1920s lost
their virginity before marriage."9
This is a total paradigm shift which is very similar to today`s society.
 | |
| Flappers |
Flappers had great effects on
mass media. One of the most celebrated authors in American history, F.
Scott Fitzgerald was truly shaped by it; "I sometimes wonder whether the flapper made me or I
made her."10 It also changed the landscapes of American print
and entertainment media and centered it around New York; "it had just recently displaced Boston as the capital of American publishing and was home to every major literary
house from Doubleday, Harper, and Scribner's to Knopf and Viking. By the end of
the decade, it would also surface as the hub of American radio
broadcasting."11 The
emergence of "The New Yorker", one of the most
circulated magazines even today can be attributed to the changing social
landscapes caused by the flappers.
The pioneer women of the 1920`s
changed the outlook of American society that eventually lead to a better life
for American girls. The foundation they laid almost a century ago is still the
framework of today's modern society. The flappers changed the dating scene and
sexual expression, and instilled the notion that women are as good as men and
deserve same respect at work.
References
1) Zeitz, Joshua. Flapper: A
Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern.
New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. 67.
2)Zeitz, Flapper, 41.
3)Zeitz, Flapper, 57.
4)Zeitz, Flapper, 96.
5)Zeitz, Flapper, 89.
6)Zeitz, Flapper, 92.
7)Zeitz, Flapper, 47.
8)Zeitz, Flapper, 55.
9)Zeitz, Flapper, 21.
10)Zeitz, Flapper, 48.
11)Zeitz, Flapper, 84.
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