Jodi Deal

Flapper Seminar Report Outline:

· Define “Flapper” –

- in the late 1800’s, it was used to mean “prostitute,” or to describe immoral teenage girls

- in the very early 20^th century, it was used to describe young girls, women under thirty who couldn’t vote (in England), spunky women golfers, women who wore revealing clothing

- always, in one way or another, seemed to be used to describe unconventional women

- depicted in the cartoons of John Held, Jr., who had a long running flapper cartoon known as “Dixie Dugan,” also did pictures for the cover of Judge, and the dust jacket of Tales of the Jazz Age. His flappers were known as “Held’s Angels.” They were also depicted in the paintings of Vargas, and the photographs of Edward Streichen.

- stereotypical American Flapper was a way of dressing and behaving. Came into existence after the first world war.

- The “flapper” style trend was characterized by short bobbed hair, short skirts, hose rolled down at the thigh, and powdered their knees. Short hair was new and daring, as women’s hair had traditionally been long. Flappers were characterized as wearing a lot of make-up, and often applying it in public. They also wore those little hats, baggy dresses that exposed their arms and legs, and long necklaces, all of which moved in an interesting manner when they danced.

- Characterized as being loud, fast, brazen, exuberant, telling “peppy stories.” Known for smoking, drinking, dancing, listening to jazz music. Said to “radiate ‘it’” by Margaret Reid. Embodied the fast, loose spirit of the jazz age. “Petting parties,” youthful love affairs.

· Fitzgerald Flapper vs. American Flapper:

- Fitzgerald’s Flapper brought about the birth of the American Flapper.

- He based her on Zelda, and (according to Zelda, at least) the first flapper in fiction was Rosalind from This Side of Paradise.

- Most of Fitzgerald’s flappers appeared between Nov. 1919 and Nov. 1921. His flapper was something new and fresh. She defied tradition and the normal expectations of womanhood. By the time all of his stories on her had been published in the Saturday Evening Post, she became the norm, not something fresh and different. Publishing his stories in something as steeped in pop culture as the post made his stories a how-to on being a flapper. She became a fad, thus going against everything a she stood for. This is what prompted Zelda to write her Eulogy.

- I liken this Fitz. Flapper vs. American Flapper thing to what happened to “Alternative” music in the 90’s. When the term first appeared, everyone was sick of the humdrum monotony of the 80’s and wanted something fresh and new. (elaborate as needed)

- See Zelda quote in last section from the Eulogy.

· Fitzgerald’s Flapper Characters –

- Rosalind Conage: This Side of Paradise

- Gloria Gilbert: The Beautiful and Damned

- Myra: “Myra Meets His Family”

- Bernice: “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”

- Lois: “Benediction”

- Marcia: “Head and Shoulders”

- Ardita: “The Offshore Pirate”

- Rags: “Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les”

- Betty: “The Camel’s Back”

- Isabelle: “Babes in the Woods”

- Yanci: “The Popular Girl”

· Fitzgerald and Zelda on the Flapper –

- Fitzgerald in an interview by Margaret Reid, “Flappers Are Just Girls With a Splendid Talent for Life"

By this time, “Flapper ha[d] come to be a generalization, referring to almost any femme between 15 and 25.”

(see highlighted sections)

“It’s rather futile to analyze flappers. They are just girls- all sorts of girls. Their one common trait being that they are young things with a splendid talent for life.”

- From “Eulogy on the Flapper”

“The Flapper is deceased. Her outer accoutrements have been bequeathed to several hundred girls’ schools throughout the country, to several thousand big-town shop-girls, always imitative of the several hundred girls’ schools, and to several million small-town belles always imitative of the big-town shop-girls via the ‘novelty stores’ of their respective small towns. It is a great bereavement to me, thinking as I do that there will never be another product of circumstance to take the place of the dear departed.”

“Now audacity and earrings and one-piece bathing suits have become fashionable and the first Flappers are so secure in their positions that their attitude toward themselves is scarcely distinguishable from that of their debutante sisters of ten years ago toward themselves. They have won their case. They are blasé. And the new Flappers galumping along in unfastened galoshes are striving not to do what is pleasant and what they please, but simply to outdo the founders of the Honorable Order of Flappers; to outdo everything. Flapperdom has become a game; it is no longer a philosophy.”