Flapper Movement the Effect of the Flappers

Flapper Movement

The Effect of the Flappers on Today's Women

The 1920's in the U.S. And UK can be described as a period of great change, both socially and economically. During this period the image of the women completely changed and a "new women" emerged who appears to have impacted social changes occurring in future generations of both men and women. This new symbol of the women was the Flapper. The Flapper was a new type of young woman that was rebellious, fun, bold and outspoken (Zeitz, 2006). This research paper explains the rise and fall of the Flapper in the 1920's, explores its historical and current impact on women in terms of culture, work, gender and social behavior and reflects on its long-term impact of the position of today's women.

Evolution of the Flapper

Flappers, most often characterized as the "New Woman," originally emerged in the 1920s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Flapper movement involved quite a shift in traditional women's values and how women presented themselves. The Flappers wore short skirts that went slightly above the knee, wore "excessive" makeup, bobbed their hair, smoked, drank alcohol, listened the jazz, drove cars instead of being driven by men, treated sex in a casual manner, and embraced other fashions and attitudes that violated what was then considered acceptable behavior for women (Evans, 1981). The origin of the Flappers began prior to the 1920s as a result of the political and social turbulence as well as an increased exchange of culture (which included the export of jazz to Europe and exchanges of fashions between the UK and U.S.) following the First World War. Nonetheless the Flappers did not just appear out of nowhere but represented a trend of separation with traditional values. There were several prior historical amounts that occurred prior to the Flapper movement that set the stage for the emergence of the radical changes that the Flappers embraced.

The Suffrage Movement

In the late 19th century and early part of the 20th century the Suffragettes consisted of members of women's right to vote groups that were opposed to the traditional male -- dominated notion of politics and participation in political matters that had previously been the dominant viewpoint in the UK and U.S. (Crawford, 2002). These activists, particularly the women members of these groups, challenged many of the traditional notions of male and female behavior, and many of the women were imprisoned or in some cases even died for this cause (Crawford, 2002). Women received the right to vote in the certain states in the United States starting in the late 1800s and this right was extended across the United States with the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920, whereas all women over the age of 21 were given the right to vote in 1928 in the UK following earlier legislation that allowed female property owners over the age of 30 to vote (Crawford, 2002). The Suffragettes or Suffrage Movement was a major force in challenging traditional gender roles and notions of "appropriate" gender behavior allowing women to more freely express themselves and be more assertive regarding their wants, needs and desires.

The Gibson Girl

The shift in the traditional notion of femininity can be observed by the drawings of the Charles Dana Gibson and the Gibson Girl prior to the First World War (Mazur, 1986). Gibson's drawings depicted a girl with long hair and long straight skirts with high collars. The Gibson Girl was considered to be the epitome of beauty; however, the drawings also transcended several traditional gender lines such as allowing for her participation in sports that were conventionally considered to be the domain of men in nature such as golf and bicycling. Some historians argue that the Gibson Girl was the first national beauty standard in America and it is this standard that set the tone for both conformity and later rebellion (Mazur, 1986).

World War I

The advent of the First World War resulted in a major attitude shift in younger people. The soldiers participating in combat took on the Shakespearean attitude of "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die" as a result of the large casualties they witnessed in the trenches in Europe. The soldiers also begin to question the values of the older generation and the mindset and ethics of their leaders that led to the horrific conflict in Europe. Women had been indoctrinated into patriotic fever and had been aggressively used as workers to support both the war effort and the economies of the U.S. And UK. Following the war both men and women were expected to return to life as normal; however, given the changes that a conflict of this nature brings they found it very difficult to return to the old ways and settle down to traditional values as if nothing ever happened (Allen, 1957).

The values of the air of the Gibson Girl were such that a woman did not date until the "proper" man formerly expressed an interest in her. However, nearly an entire generation of young men had been wiped out by the war and there were fewer "proper" gentlemen for the taking. The attitude of the younger woman shifted from being one of passivity to one of more assertiveness and experimentation (Allen, 1957). Thus, the war also resulted in a further break from more traditional values in both men and women.

The Flappers

Some historians trace the etymology of the word "flapper" to the 17th century UK meaning, "a young bird that is flapping its wings as it learns to fly" (which in the current context might represent the struggle of women learning to be more independent and to express themselves; Spivack, 2013). Other older British uses of the word "flapper" or "flap" are noted to designate a prostitute or immoral woman, a flighty rebellious young woman, and even a woman who had refused to fasten her galoshes and the sound that the buckles made as she walked (Spivack, 2013). "Flapper" also appeared in the United Kingdom in print in 1903 to refer to an acrobatic woman (Zeitz, 2006). In the early 1900s a "flapper" referred to a young lady who had not yet wore the long frocks of her hair up as most women of the day did (Zeitz, 2006). However, the United States and Britain prior to the First World War the word appeared to undergo several changes from meaning a girl who is just came out (from being immature) to a term to describe women workers during the war (Zeitz, 2006). By 1920 the term "flapper" had taken on a meaning of a social butterfly or undisciplined type female (Zeitz, 2006).

According to Zeitz (2006) the word in the United States was first popularized in a film called The Flapper and referred to an attitude and fashion style of the rebellious young women who showed their contempt for Prohibition. This new woman smoked, drank gin, wore short skirts, danced the evening away in jazz clubs with a number of different male suitors, and flagrantly disobeyed the traditional values of the female including the previously defined values associated with the Gibson Girl. As expected there was a variety of reactions to this "new woman" ranging from blaming every social ill in America and the UK on this "Flapper" attitude and associating the rise of the Flapper movement with degeneration of "moral" values to embracing the new liberated woman (Bliven, 1925; Hooper, 1922; Zeitz, 2006). Certainly this new woman challenged the conventional expectations of thinking and behaving in both men and women.

The Flappers Challenge Tradition

Quite frankly and even though the behavior of the Flappers was considered to be quite revolutionary and drastic by traditional standards, the Flappers help to redefine fashion and women's roles beginning in the 1920s. In the media they were depicted as being somewhat reckless or unconventional, hedonistic, and promiscuous (Baughm, 1996). Nonetheless, the concept of the Flapper lifestyle endured for the decade of the 1920s and included other cultural developments such as a change in dance styles also considered shocking by traditionalists (e.g., the Charleston or the Bunny Hug), more women entering the workforce, women searching for meaning outside traditional expectations, and of course women acting in a manner frowned upon by many. The behavior of the Flappers was in direct contrast to stated traditional behavior for women. The rise of the Flapper movement/lifestyle can be attributed to the combination of women seeking equal rights with men and the changes in many perceived gender roles as a result of the conditions following the First World War.

An Identifying Language.

The Flappers engaged in many new and often "strange" behaviors for women. For one thing, Flapper behavior was associated with the use of a number of slang terms ranging from "necking" (kissing) and "jazz" (to mean anything" to terms such as "that's the bee's knees" (Baughm, 1996; Zeitz, 2006). This language helped to distinguish the Flappers as a specific group and made them readily identifiable along with their radical appearance (radical for those times). The creation of a specific "hip" and special language is often been observed as a sign of a particular generation or ostracized group searching for its own values and definitions. A sign of a behavioral shift in a group is often associated with that group developing its own lingo or jargon to differentiate itself from the majority (Isaacs, 1975). Nonetheless, despite the use of the new lingo by the Flappers many of the sayings and slang terms that originated during this time continue remain popular and in use even today.

A Shift in Gender Roles.

The Flappers certainly challenged traditional roles expected of women. Traditionally women stayed home and men worked outside the home; however, the Flapper movement saw women more and more working outside the home and challenging the traditional Victorian societal roles for both men and women (Baughm, 1996). As the movement grew in popularity women became more embraced in personal choice, relevance, and consumerism. This movement is consistent with the origins of the Flapper movement in the right to vote issue for women. The Flappers fueled a sort of cultural battle between old standards and new standards. However, despite all the talk about moving away from traditional roles many Flappers did not become directly engaged in politics themselves and it has been noted that many of the extant Suffragettes of the time found them as rather insipid and a direct opposite of the rights and entitlements that they had worked so hard to achieve (Zeitz, 2006). However, it is quite clear that the liberation endorsed by the Flappers was part of a natural progression from more traditional, Victorian limitations assigned to women to more free expression and a movement towards full equality for women.

Traditionally the habits of consumption of many types of goods were considered to be more appropriate for men than women. While drinking and smoking were not the exclusive purview of men, in proper society it was considered "unladylike" to drink excessively or to smoke in public (Zeitz, 2006). The Flappers embraced these activities and in their drive for freedom of expression allow themselves to engage in the same type of indulgences traditionally reserved for men. As we will see later the result of this is an overall movement towards women's liberation and equality.

Shocking Sexuality.

Drinking and smoking were not the only shocking activities the Flappers engaged in as they expressed their freedoms. This movement towards liberation is also evident in the popularity of "petting parties" where sexual foreplay or "making out" was the common activity. The popularity of these activities by younger women indicated a move towards sexual liberation and freedom from all the restrictions (Zeitz, 2006). While "petting" was not unheard of in the Victoria area it certainly was not nearly as common and is accepted as it became with the Flappers and subsequent generations of women. The more relaxed and uninhibited sexual attitudes of the Flappers represent a forerunner of the sexual revolution that occurred in the 1960's.

Influencing Music.

In addition, one of the most popular activities for the Flappers was dancing and the music of the day was jazz. This resulted in the creation of a number of new dance styles that were considered quite untraditional, revolutionary, and even shocking and immoral to traditionalists.

During the so-called "Jazz Age" that took place during the 1920s and the influence of jazz and jazz -- like music became widely popular, at least in part due to the Flappers' penchant for dancing the night away and jazz clubs. Dance clubs became very popular and even old folk music, operas, and classical music where transformed into popular dance melodies in order to satisfy this new craze for dancing. Clubs also began sponsoring dancing contests across America and new and non-traditional styles of dance were developed. The favorite dances of the Flapper lifestyle such as the Charleston and other dances eventually evolved into Swing.

The Flapper's Specific and Identifying Appearance.

A fashionable Flapper presented with short sleek hair, a shorter than conventional straight shift dress, a flat chest, wore heavy makeup (and even applied it in public), smoked (often using a long cigarette holder), drank alcohol in public, exposed her limbs (a woman's arms and legs were traditionally covered in public so this was quite radical for the time), and embodied the spirit of a reckless revolutionary who danced away the nights in seedy clubs associated with the Jazz Age. This certainly represented quite a departure from the behavior expected for a "proper woman" at this time. It was considered immoral for women to attend events like petting parties and jazz clubs and the Flappers engaged in these activities as if they were normal, everyday, and routine.

Of course one of the most defining aspects of a social movement is the dress associated with a new movement. By engaging in a certain type of dress code or radically changing traditional dress codes and adopting a specific lingo a group can readily identify itself from the conventional and established groups it attempts to separate itself from as well as create its own identity (Polletta & Jasper, 2001). With respect to fashion, World War I had accelerated the trends that made the fashion style of the Flappers appealing. The American, British, and other European women entering the workforce needed more practical styles of clothes. Moreover, wartime rationing facilitated a movement towards simplicity and minimalism resulting in a more slender outline. The garconne look (French for "boy" with a feminine suffix) or the "Flapper Look" as it was called in America and England became a mainstream of women's fashion for over a decade. Pioneered by Coco Chanel it highlighted tubular dresses with dropped waistlines, high hemlines, straight vertical lines, tank tops, decorative beading, all topped off with the bell-shaped hats the Flapper style remained constant during the 1920s.

Coco Chanel, the Epitome of the Flapper.

Coco Chanel's was the innovative fashion stylist in the 1920s and many fashion historians believe that Chanel's designs determined the style of women's fashion in those times (Latham, 2000). Chanel was considered to be the innovator in fashion and many found that other fashion designers styles were old-fashioned compared to Chanel's ideas. Chanel is often credited for defining the fashion style of the Flappers (Latham, 2000; Zeitz, 2006). Chanel primarily worked in neutral tones such as cream, sand, beige, navy, and black. She also opted to use embroidery and beads to decorate her styles and creations rather than just adding more fabric decorations to them. Chanel created her styles for comfort and ease of wear as opposed to the stiff, traditional, Victorian style of feminine dress or the extravagant evening gowns of the rich. This made it Chanel's ideas quite revolutionary and very "modern." Chanel's innovations in fashion caught on quickly in both the U.S. And the UK. Her Flapper look was defined by a masculine influence and it is said that Chanel used several different male motifs such as dungarees that mechanical or the outfits that sailors wore while on deck as inspirations to create her Flapper style. Chanel's influence is forever linked to the style of the Flappers (Latham, 2000).

An additional departure from the Victorian ideals of fashion was Chanel's introduction of costume (fake) jewelry into her designs. Chanel made it trendy to where such accompaniments as fake pearls and she also made it acceptable to admit that these accompaniments were not the real thing (Latham, 2000).

Merging Fashion with Practicality

In addition to Chanel's influence there were other reasons the fashion of the Flappers caught on. Until the 1920s high fashion had been the purview of the richer women of society. However, the construction of the Flapper's dress style was far less complicated than traditional woman's fashions and this allowed women to be much more successful at the home dressmaking of a Flapper dress because of its straight shift and its minimalist approach (e.g., no sleeves, shorter skirts, etc.). Women found it easier to produce and to keep up-to-date the Flapper fashions quickly using simple Flapper fashion dress patterns (Latham, 2000). The Flapper fashion style flourished among the middle classes contrasting the differences between the Flappers and those truly rich women, but continued to highlight differences between the middle classes and the poor. The super rich still continued to wear their embellished silk evening garments when they went out on the town, but the middle class women were able to revel in their newfound sophistication of highly trendy Flapper clothing. Middle class women were now able to dictate trends in fashion, something that they had not done previously.

The Rise of Androgyny

The Flapper style resulted in women looking a bit younger and quite a bit more boyish, with their short hair and straight waistlines. The androgyny in style redefined sexuality reflecting that the roles of men and women were blending (Zeitz, 2006). Pantaloons and corsets with the traditional lingerie of women but the Flappers rejected these in favor of the "step -- in" panties. The old corsets made a woman's waist appear more slender and accented the hips and bust; however, the Flappers preferred the straight up-and-down appearance. The preferred bust line of the Flappers was a more boyish flat look.

The hairstyles of the Flappers indicated a marked change from the traditional longer hair worn up in a bun that most women wore at the time. The most common hairstyle was called the "bobbed" hairstyle which was generally cut to the bottom of the ears, square on the base of the head, and often parted to one side. Sometimes bangs were worn in this hairstyle, but most often the hair was swept over to one side. The Dutch Boy hairstyle was a square look with bangs just above the eyebrows and sides just above the earlobe. The Shingled hairstyle was very short and at the back of the woman's neck. The Eton Crop was an extremely short hairstyle patterned after the haircuts seen at British boy's prep schools. The Flapper trend was for shorter hair and less conventional presentations resulting in a more androgynous look for the times.

Cosmetic Usage.

The Flappers also embraced another look that traditionalists found quite controversial. Previously the use of heavy makeup and women was only considered to be acceptable in the theater. Outside of theatrical use heavy makeup was considered to be immodest at best and was the sign of a prostitute. However, inventions like the metal lipstick case and other convenience cosmetics led to the Flappers evolving a look that required a heavy makeup by traditional standards. This makeup and the Flapper style of dress was considered to be shameless and extreme by traditionalists but paved the way for an entire business enterprise of cosmetics and beauty products for women as well as the acceptance of the use of makeup, untraditional hairstyles, etc. In women (Baughm, 1996).

The Effect of Mass Exposure

The Flappers had a major impact on women's fashions and on breaking down traditional gender roles. The Flapper culture also leaked over into other aspects of American life. Hollywood filmmakers, always eager to keep up with current trends in order to sell more tickets, filled their films with the slim and flirtatious Flappers. Famous Flappers such as Clara Bow, Coco Chanel, Zelda Fitzgerald and many others were visible in film, fashion, and literature. These films and other media spread outside of the U.S. As people abroad begin to view the flirtatious, happy -- go -- lucky youth depicted in American films many of the younger people overseas begin to identify with the Flapper movement (Melman, 1988), whereas like in America the older generation found this expression of new feminine sexuality threatening (Melman, 1988). As the youth of Western Europe began to dress in Flapper attire the films that influenced these young European ladies were also spreading to the Soviet Union. In addition, fashion magazines from Western Europe and America depicted the Flapper look is the desirable look and the youth of the working class began to defy the Communists and tradition by adopting the Flapper fashions of America and Western Europe (Gorsuch, 1994). The Charleston was introduced in Moscow in 1926 and "American" dance and jazz bands became a symbol of modernity and the Soviet Union along with the actresses that these young people saw on screen. The conservative communists saw a youth culture as rebellious and certainly much more of a threat than the status quo in America envisioned. The influence of the Flapper movement was felt around the world, something previously never experienced.

The Reaction to Flappers

It is well-known that in science a paradigm shift is often met with resistance by adherence to the present paradigm by more conservative parties (Kuhn, 2012) and as might be expected traditionalists and conservatives found the Flapper movement dangerous and shameless. Other observers such as ex-Flapper Ruth Hooper (1922) were more objective in their assessment (Hooper, 1922, p. 7):

A Flapper is proud of her nerve -- she is not even afraid of calling it by its right name. She is shameless, selfish and honest, but at the same time she considers these three attributes virtues. Why not? She takes a man's point-of-view as her mother never could, and when she loses she is not afraid to admit defeat, whether it be a prime lover or $20 at auction. She can take a man -- the man of the hour -- at his face value...with no foolish promises that will need a disturbing and disagreeable breaking.

Hooper includes androgyny (in terms of taking a man's point-of-view) and a willingness to experiment with different partners as a move towards gender equality and not as an unladylike attribute. This honesty and openness of the Flapper movement is the driving force behind all the fashion changes and other lifestyle and behavioral changes that the Flappers engaged in. Likewise New Republic editor Bruce Bliven offered an honest assessment in his profile of "Jane," an exemplary Flapper who might have been a real person or could have represented his made-up model of a Flapper (Bliven, 1925, p. 65):

She is, for one thing, a very pretty girl. Beauty is the fashion in 1925. She is frankly, heavily made up, not to imitate nature, but for an altogether artificial effect -- pallor mortis, poisonously scarlet lips, richly ringed eyes -- the latter looking not so much debauched (which is the intention) as diabetic. Her walk duplicates the swagger supposed by innocent America to go with the female half of a Paris Apache dance. And there are, finally, her clothes. These were estimated the other day by some statistician to weigh two pounds. Probably a libel; I doubt they come within half a pound of such bulk. Jane isn't wearing much, this summer.

Bliven and Hooper highlight the impression of the flapper's personality and presentation: opinionated, flirtatious, short-haired, scantly clothed (by the standards of the times), and definitely outrageous by the standards of the 1920s.

The critics of the Flapper movement were many. There were many conservatives and traditionalists who objected to the fashion changes, attitudes, and lifestyle of the Flappers based on their own ingrained beliefs of right and wrong (Zeitz, 2006). However, there were also more objective criticisms of the Flapper movement. In general this critique saw Flappers as a detriment to society because they presented as indolent hedonists who were primarily interested in partying, getting drunk, and having promiscuous sex.

Perhaps novelist F. market and knowing that here Scott Fitzgerald expressed the reaction of many to the Flapper movement when he noted in 1923 that the Flapper movement was going stronger than ever and in speaking of his wife's Flapper activities he said: "She gets wilder all the time. She still is looking for new conventions to break -- for new thrills, for sensations to add zest to life, and she is growing more and more terrible." (Fitzgerald, 2004, pp. 48).

Many people saw the Flappers as neglecting bettering themselves through education and refusing to make important commitments such as the raising of a family and marriage. They also criticized Flappers for their materialism as evidenced by their insatiable drive to spend large amounts of money in order to remain fashionable and keep up with current fashion trends. In this respect these critics maintained that Flappers who claimed to be liberated and independent were in the eyes of many in fact simply conformists who were motivated by fashion trends and popular trendy behavioral modes of the time, but have no identity of their own. Thus, in their search for identity the Flappers became the ultimate conformists. In essence this group saw the Flappers as a detriment to feminism due to their overindulgence in their newfound freedoms and their tendency to engage in the worst and most excessive and damaging habits such as drinking and smoking that were traditionally designated to be the rights of men and denied to women and children (see Zeitz, 2006).

By today's standards the controversy produced by the Flappers seems minor; however, during those times the topic was considered quite a controversial and a serious topic. The Flapper culture significantly polarized the country. New York Times columnist Margaret O'Leary (1922, p.49) stated impact that the overall effect the Flapper movement had on society quite clearly:

Concern -- and consternation -- about the Flapper are general. Roughly, the world is divided into those who delight in her, those who fear her and those who try pathetically to take her as a matter of course. Optimists have called her the hope of the new era, pessimists point to her as ultimate evidence of the decadence of the old.

As is the case with any shift in attitudes and values that is suddenly embraced by a large number of people these criticisms do contain a certain amount of validity to them. The Flappers certainly did indulge in many bad habits at the expense of an underlying philosophy and the Flappers certainly did get caught up in keeping up with the latest trendy innovations in fashion, dance, slang, etc. However, it is also important to note that the Flappers were not as concerned with the bigger issues as they were with freeing themselves from the restrictions of tradition and opening themselves up to a more equitable sense of opportunity with men. In the bigger picture of shifting attitudes and values regarding equal rights there is probably quite a bit of validity to both sides of the argument initially; however, as a group begins to experience equality it also begins to cast off the excesses associated with being intoxicated by its new freedom and begins to concentrate on deeper more meaningful issues. This can be observed by the later impact of the Flapper movement. But the Flapper movement/lifestyle itself was short-lived due to a number of reasons.

The Fall of the Flappers

In the early 1920s the Flapper culture was gaining in popularity and continue to violate tradition and break new ground in violating the previously accepted social norms of female behavior. The dancing, partying, and petting became more frequent and more public and the fashions became more visible. However, by the close of the decade the colorful and controversial Flappers had practically vanished following their brief reign as the queens of cosmopolitanism. Historians have referred to a number of factors that led to the demise of the Flapper culture:

The Great Depression

First, the most often cited reason for the disappearance of the Flapper culture is the devastating crash of the stock market in October 1929 that marked the beginning of the Great Depression (Zeitz, 2006). This led to the stifling of many creative American enterprises and overall had a serious sobering effect on the changes that occurred in American society during the 1920s. The rather extravagant and carefree attitude of the Flappers suddenly became a liability that had no functional value in an era of economic decline and hardship. Liberalism and the lush, excessive attitude and lifestyle of the Flappers suddenly became overdone, wasteful, and flighty (Zeitz, 2006).

A Return to the Traditional

There was also a resurgence of traditional moral values in the United States at the end of the 1920s that was brought about in part by the Great Depression but also manifested by a conservative trend in the motion picture industry. The motion picture code of 1930 attempted to control and clean up some of the extravagances of the previous decade and monitor potentially offensive film content. One of these major changes was that the code specifically barred explicit depictions of sexuality in films and this resulted in a barring of many of the flirtatious aspects of the Flappers (Bernstein, 2000). Since Americans had come to look at the media, especially the motion picture industry, as a guideline for acceptable behavior and as a cultural barometer this event effectively repressed many of the liberal attitudes and behaviors of the Flapper culture.

Overexposure

Historians also state that the Flapper culture receive so much exposure by the media that Flappers rapidly became part of the mainstream culture and eventually lost much of their originality by becoming overexposed. As more and younger women began to imitate the Flapper lifestyle as depicted by the media the Flappers, originally an exotic breed of rebellious women, became very "common" and much less exciting resulting in a slowing of their influence and impact on society (Zeitz, 2006).

Providence Gives and Providence Takes Away

In the end it was the changing trends in both economic and social conditions that ultimately led to the undoing of the Flapper lifestyle. Rather ironically, it was also changing trends in economic and social conditions that resulted in the creation of the Flapper lifestyle and in its popularity to begin with. The excesses of the 1920s were essentially wiped out by the Great Depression, changes in the standards of the motion picture industry and media, and by a loss of freshness or originality that often is associated with any new trend after it is been around for a while.

The Legacy of the Flappers

Before discussing the legacy of the Flapper movement a very specific caveat is in order. A very popular phrase in statistics and in science is the saying that "correlation does not imply causation." What this phrase actually means is that because two things demonstrate an association (a correlation) this does not automatically imply that one thing causes the other to occur (Gnanadesikan, 2011). The belief that correlation implies or proves causation is a logical fallacy that occurs when two events co-occur, or in the case of the legacy of the Flappers where one occurs before the other and the first event is considered to cause the second event (this is called the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy; Gnanadesikan, 2011). It is quite common, even for sophisticated researchers, to make this logical error.

For instance, in a much published example, there were numerous studies that showed that women who were taking a combined hormone replacement therapy also had a lower than average rate of coronary heart disease. This led many researchers to propose that combined hormone replacement therapy was actually a protective factor against coronary heart disease; that the combined hormone replacement therapy caused a reduction in coronary heart disease of those people who received it. However, actual randomized controlled clinical trials showed that combined hormone replacement therapy actually caused a very small but statistically significant increase in the risk of coronary heart disease in those who received it (randomized controlled clinical trials are the preferred method to establishing cause-and-effect in medicine and science due to their ability to statistically control for other intervening variables that could contribute to the outcome; Gnanadesikan, 2011). When the original studies were reviewed it was found that the women who typically got the hormone replacement therapy were more likely to come from higher socio- -- economic groups who typically have better and more healthy dietary habits and engage in more regular physical exercise programs than lower socio- -- economic groups. The decreased incidence of coronary heart disease in the original studies was related to this factor and not to the hormone replacement therapy as had been originally concluded (Lawlor, Smith, & Ebrahim, 2004).

How does this apply to the legacy of the Flappers? It is quite common for individuals to assign a cause-and-effect relationship between patterns of behavior that occurred in earlier times to current patterns of behavior. In fact, there are so many incidents and events that occur between major historical trends that is impossible to determine whether some earlier attitude or movement caused a particular change of attitude or social movement later on. In fact, when discussing the current status of women in society one could easily correlate any past event of a multitude of events occurring around the same time as the popularity of the Flapper movement such as the appointment of J. Edgar Hoover as head of the FBI in 1924 or the publication of Mein Kampf in 1925 and get the same correlation and outcome as one would get by correlating the Flapper movement with the current status of women's rights, fashion, a decline in morality, or any number of later events occurring in the UK and America. "Correlation does not imply causation."

Nonetheless, there are several reasons to believe that the Flapper movement did indeed have an influence on later developments in culture, politics, and civil rights; however, it would be wrong to attribute this influence as a causal one for reasons stated above.

Opening the Door for Change

The similarities between the social strife that occurred in the 1960s and the Flapper movement that occurred in the 1920s are quite interesting. In essence both the Flapper movement of the 1920s and the social changes that occurred in the 1960s basically represented what appears to be a repeating pattern of a type of culture war where there is a battle of the old vs. The new. Both movements were also followed by a brief return to periods of more moderate values and attitudes (but not as conservative as the values/attitudes existing prior to the movement). Thus, despite a kind of stepping back after the 1920s and 1960s the impact of the movements still remained.

One might be tempted to point to the Flappers and other instances of intense cultural and societal changes as evidence of the Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence (Trompf, 1979). This theoretical principle postulates that the overall history of the world conforms to repetitive patterns as confirmed by the occurrence of many repetitive historical events which bear a striking similarity such as Napoleon and Hitler both being defeated by the harsh Russian winter, the similarities between the rise and fall of Rome and other civilizations such as the U.S., the similarities between the appearance and evolution of social change in many societies and within a specific culture, and many other events. For example, the 1960s is often considered to be a decade of major social revolution. During this decade there were many challenges to tradition and the established order. While the changes that occurred in the 1920s occurred following a major war, the changes that occurred during the 1960s occurred during an unpopular war. Despite this minor difference (or perhaps this is a similarity) there are some interesting parallels between the social change and the rise of more liberal attitudes in the 1960s and the Flapper movement in the 1920s.

Revolutions

The sexual revolution of the 1960s and the overt experimentation with drugs by many of the young people in the 1960s is quite similar to the perceived promiscuity and engagement in immoral behaviors such as smoking and drinking by the Flappers. Likewise, the Flappers began to challenge the traditional societal roles for women and advocated women's rights by exercising their voting privileges and working; the social activists in the 60s challenged the status quo and advocated for civil rights for women and other disenfranchised groups such as African-Americans. The Flappers were considered a significant challenge to the traditional accepted Victorian gender roles, whereas the hippie culture and the actions of the youth in the 1960s was considered to be a significant challenge to the more conservative expectations placed on young people at that time. The Flappers were devoted to work, ridding themselves of rigid ideas about gender roles, and embraced themselves in personal choice and consumerism, whereas the social activists of the 60s were devoted to social change, personal freedom, and were in opposition to consumerism, big business, big government, and all of the corruption that comes with bureaucracy. The Flappers lost themselves in jazz music, petting parties, and dancing, whereas the social activists favored nontraditional rock music, advocated for very liberal sexual practices, the acceptance of sexuality, and attended massive rock concerts and get-togethers.

The Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence aside it is clear that the Flapper movement is one of significant social changes that reflect both the changing values of society and the innate need of people to express themselves and find meaning in their existence. A major difference between the Flappers and the social change that occurred in the 1960s is that the Flappers did not engage in massive demonstrations against the institutions that they were in conflict with. Instead, the Flapper movement is one of action, a devil may care attitude, and personal expression as opposed to an overt protest against cultural and societal restrictions. The Flappers simply went out and did what they did as opposed to protesting and advocating too be able to what they wanted to do. By violating many accepted cultural standards and societal norms the Flappers set the stage for future changes in woman's rights, civil rights, and other social change. Perhaps this occurs by means of an inoculation effect where groups like the Flappers originally shocked the traditional Victorian mindset and by doing so made it easier for even more radical social change to occur in the future.

Serendipity?

One major advantage that the Flapper movement had is that it occurred just at the right time to be exposed to an entire society as mass media, news delivery services, advertising, radio, and the motion picture industry were all in their initial stages of development and beginning to make a significant impact on Western culture. This also meant that the Flapper movement could receive fairly quick exposure worldwide without having to wait weeks or even months to be recognized. People received exposure to the trend as it occurred allowing it to gain momentum.

If there is one aspect that was the driving force behind the Flapper movement it was the radical changes that the Flappers made to women's fashions. These changes initiated the other changes that the Flappers embraced by assigning the Flappers a significant identity that separated them from other groups.

The Effects on Fashion

The obvious legacy left by the Flappers is their contributions to modern-day fashion. The Flappers radically changed acceptable woman's dress codes in the 1920s leading to more revealing fashions, more comfortable fashions, and some radical changes regarding what constituted acceptable use of accompaniments and use of other products such as makeup and costume jewelry. The Flappers ' contributions to the fashion resulted in a dramatic leveling of the social playing field such that it was not just a blurring of the distinction between different skirt lengths, hairstyles, qualities of clothing or jewelry, but really was a blurring of the distinction between different qualities of people or different social -- economic groups of people. Being fashionable no longer was the purview of the richer well-to-do, but became accessible to the middle class. Of course the radical changes in women's fashion that were embraced by the Flappers in the 1920s had a significant influence on women's fashions since the 1920s if for no other reason than the breaking down of "traditional" women's dress codes and inoculating future generations to more and more extreme departures from traditional and previous styles of clothing. Eventually what was once radical becomes the norm, thus paving the way for even more radical changes.

Consumerism

Prior to the 1920s most women did not have the right to be property holders, file for a divorce, sit on a jury, or vote. Women certainly were not the targets of major advertising campaigns and were not considered to have considerable consumer value (Zeitz, 2006). These restrictions were reinforced by the way women presented themselves as well as their traditional mode of restrictive dress and appearance. However, a revolution in fashion led by innovators like Coco Chanel helped change this. Chanel eliminated the excesses of women's clothing and in its place evoked exciting modern trends very much in the spirit of Paris, France. These trends needed a medium to present them to the mainstream.