Sunday Funday Monday Leftover Knowledge Drip

SFM

Jan 15

Every Monday at 7pm central, TipsyRoo and I host (except when we don't) a live community event where, collectively, we solve a NY Times Sunday crossword puzzle (without using the internet!). Each week following the episode either I, or the community, will select a clue/answer from that puzzle and I will delve further into the history & look for fun facts.

Drip #2: Flapper

Puzzle Date: January 11th, 2009
Puzzle Theme: Making History
Episode: 42, recorded live on January 11th, 2021
Clue: Jazz Age figure
Answer: flapper

Intro

This week's clue had me thinking the answer was going to be a prominent musician or someone that was integral to the whole period known as The Jazz Age.

Wrong! Sort of. The answer wasn't a musician, or even a singular figure but rather, a term referring to people (specifically, women) that WERE integral to the time period and arguably, where we're at now as a society.

Through the process of elimination we figured out the answer and TipsyRoo explained it as "women dancers with tassels". The answer, was a term I had never heard in this context (or if so, it had been previously purged from the old memory container) and thanks to Tipsy's explanation, I had a vague picture in my mind; mainly images from old movies & TV shows.

What I share here is meant to be an overview, and highlight some of the tidbits I found the most interesting while, hopefully, sparking a bit of curiosity for you, the reader, to learn more. This term has a vast trove of information online available throughout numerous sites. If you want to learn more, I encourage you to start with the links provided throughout and at the bottom of the post.

A Bit of Flapstory (history)

As early as 1631 "flap" was used as a slang word for a young prostitute and in 1890s Britain "flapper" described a very young prostitute or lively teenage girl.

At the turn of the century (1900ish) it referred to prepubescent girls whose long braids "flapped in the wind" and also to dancers whom danced like a bird, flapping their arms.

In his lecture in February 1920 on Britain's surplus of young women caused by the loss of young men in war, Dr. R. Murray-Leslie criticized "the social butterfly type... the frivolous, scantily-clad, jazzing flapper, irresponsible and undisciplined, to whom a dance, a new hat, or a man with a car, were of more importance than the fate of nations". (link)

Later on, a flapper was any girl or woman who defied convention or those "expert in the arts of allurement". (link)

Numerous articles mention that women's behavior was likely being influenced by a feeling of life is short and could end at any time, due to the recent loses of WWI and the Spanish Flu. "Young women wanted to spend their youth enjoying their life and freedom rather than just staying at home and waiting for a man to marry them".

Young people in the 1920s used the influence of jazz to rebel against the traditional culture of previous generations. This youth rebellion of the 1920s went hand-in-hand with fads like bold fashion statements (flappers), women that smoked cigarettes, a willingness to talk about sex freely, and new radio concerts. (link)

Flappers also advocated voting and women's rights and helped pave the way for women to be able to vote.

According to a report in 1922, some banks across the United States started to regulate the dress and deportment of young female employees who were considered to be "flappers". It began with a complaint of a mother in New Jersey who felt dissatisfied because her son did business only with a young female employee, whom she considered illegally attractive.

The flapper era came to an end after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The sudden serious tone of The Great Depression made it less acceptable to seek pleasure.

Flappers & Millennials

A Smithsonian article draws some interesting comparisons between flappers and millennials.. Scroll down to the bottom of the article where the graphical comparisons are displayed (clickable images, seriously, check these out!).

Flappers in Media

There were movies, books, and numerous newspaper articles about flappers. The following is one newspaper article in its entirety (any typos are mine) and a snippet from another newspaper article.

This article was from the Tombstone Epitaph (a local Tombstone, Arizona newspaper), dated April 30th, 1922:

The word "flapper" in American slang, has had a curious history. Not one person in a hundred who casually uses the term knows its origin.
In England, for many years the young school girl in her teens has been called the "flapper". Her long hair flaps down her back, and she is of an age when she is disposed to try her half-grown wings. The wild duck or partridge is called a flapper at a similar age - immature, but with the first stirrings of life and adventure urging on to experiment. In Germany the young girl of equal age is called a "backfisch"*.
It is quite likely that the modern usage can be traced to the story of "Bunker Bean" in which the heroine, being young, yet adventurous, is referred to as "the flapper". Definitely American in being perfectly sure of herself and of what she wanted and in going after it with a wholly American directness, she was, perhaps, the half-way point between the English flapper with her hair down her back and the amazing young American with no skin of her own, apparently, except some kind of foundation for powder, rouge, lip stick and eyebrow pencil.
The difference is that the modern young woman does not know exactly what she wants. She knows what she thinks she wants and goes after that. But that the artificial gayety, the mushy petting, the wild nights are not what she really wants is proved by her desertion of the ranks when anything better offers.
Youth has always been foolish and frivolous. If it were not, it would not be young. It ages soon enough, matures, settles. What form the frivolity of this year takes is of little consequence.
Where are the flappers of yesteryear! Entering theirs in the Better Babies contests, making the left-overs attractive and working the bank home economics bureaus overtime. They flap no longer. Their wings have grown!

*backfisch is a German word for a young fish not big enough to be sold in the market

In a February 3rd, 1922 edition of The Evening World, Prof. Herman Horne of New York University addressed the graduates of Washington Irving High School and said this, “A flapper is a person who prefers ignorance to the truth. A flapper has a conscience which does not bother her.”

That “her” in his quote speaks volumes.

A Thought-Provoking Discovery

Reading the Tombstone Epitaph article about flappers left me curious why the book, “Bunker Bean” would have been such an influence on these women, so I went looking for a bit more information.

Bunker Bean was written by Harry Leon Wilson and published in 1913.

The following is likely to be a spoiler.

This is a summary of what I read here: Bunker Bean visits a spiritual medium who tells him about who he was in past lives and with that information…

He soon began to act nobler. He viewed things the way a king would view them and his life flourished. As his confidence grew, his success, his relationships, and everything in his life increased

Eventually he discovers that the spiritual medium is a fake, but…

He realized he had now developed the habits of the noble and great ones. And therefore he had become such, whether he lived before or not. He found purpose and confidence and that could not be taken away from him.

And then, finally…

The story closes when Bunker Bean visits the grave of Napoleon Bonaparte. Filled with emotion, he contemplates some profound truths: “Every man is born to be a king.” “Every man is born to riches.” “To believe is all that matters.”

I’ve been on a journey to discover my own solutions for a happy and meaningful life so the “thought-provoking” discovery here was the connection made between confidence and well-being. But make no mistake, the history of flappers is not only fascinating but provides a glimpse at the inequality women have had to endure.