Changing Of The Times

 What is a flapper? Today we refer to that rounded rubber device in a commode tank that keeps the water from escaping as a flapper. But there is another definition for flapper. I’m pretty sure that my grandchildren don’t know that there was a time when a flapper was a stylish young party girl. These girls shocked their mothers, grandmothers and even society as a whole. Flappers were liberating themselves from the Victorian style that women were accustomed to. Young women becoming flappers was considered an epidemic. 

In the 1920’s a flapper was identified as a woman who smoked in public, drank alcohol, danced at jazz clubs and practiced sexual freedom. They wore dresses so short that they revealed their calves and the necklines were very low. These girls even threw away their corsets in favor of bras and lingerie. They began using cosmedics such as rouge, lipstick and mascara. Some even applied their makeup in public and they smoked  in public as well. Flappers symbolically cut off their hair to let the world know that they were independent women.     

The bob haircut was the last straw. Something had to be done to stop the flappers from ruining the moral fiber of the nation. Doctors published studies to prove that a bob would cause serious back aches and even baldness. Many husbands were so outraged that some divorced their wives if they went to the parlor.  Businesses such as Macy’s and Aetna began firing female workers who dared to come to work with a bob haircut. To make a bad situation even worse, flappers began wearing swimsuits that revealed more of their legs and arms. Then they had the nerve to layout on the beach getting tans thus ruining their beautiful white complexion. No decent woman would ever do that.   

Women’s liberation was born. Today we are not shocked by what in the 1920’s caused so much controversy. A lot of the changes that took place back then are considered no big deal. But think of what we are dealing with today. How many things do we see going on today that are truly tearing our nation apart? Today’s morality has lifted the flapper inside the tank, and it is quickly escaping down the toilet. I just wonder what people will think a hundred years from now when they read about society values of the 2020’s. Perhaps they will say about people like me, “What was the big idea?”