FlappersWhen you think of flappers, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of a woman dressed very similarly to Julie Andrews in Thoroughly Modern Millie, bob hair, low-waisted dress with fringes, flat chest and heavily made up face. This, although a stereotype, is close to the truth. In the 1920s, after the First World War, the role of women in society began to change, mainly because they began to become more independent, both in the way they dressed and in their actions. They began to challenge what was considered appropriate female behavior, and along with those actions came new fashions. The sleek, boyish look became popular, and women began wearing lower waistlines, higher hemlines, sleeveless dresses that showed off their arms, long strands of pearls, and pantyhose rolled up to show off their knees. Women who had larger breasts even tied them to fit the flat-chested beauty ideal. The "in" look now was boyish, in stark contrast to the full-skirted, blouse-waisted feminine dresses of their mothers' age. Women began to gain the independence and social freedoms that men had always possessed and wanted to physically display their newly acquired freedoms. Short hair, first in a bob, then as a smooth "shingle" that curled over the ears, emphasized the new androgynous look that women were trying to achieve. These “modern” women asserted their independence by going out dancing, moving to the city alone, drinking even during Prohibition, flirting, and having affairs. After gaining so much independence during World War I when men were across the ocean, many women resisted the idea that they should now return to the kitchen, the rise of the flapper was born out of this new concept of feminism and. ..... middle of paper ...... elf sufficient, sexy and powerful were all so appealing to women who had been oppressed for years in the past that society had to completely change to accommodate them. Sources http://home.earthlink.net/~rbotti/ Flapper Station, information on flapper culture, links to sites with images of vintage flapper clothing http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/ Flapper Culture, first-person articles on era, literary connections in the era, and many details about the decade of decadence. http://home.earthlink.net/~dlarkins /slang-pg.htm The Internet Guide to Jazz Age Slang, jazz dictionary for terms like "applesauce" and "petting party"Mowry, George Edwin, The Twenties: Fords, Flappers, and Fanatics, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1963Melman, Billie, Women and the Popular Imagination in the Twenties: Flappers and Nymphs, Macmillan Press, 1988