Editing Flapper (section)

{{Short description|1920's women's subculture}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2014}}
{{use American English|date=May 2017}}
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 | image1    = Louise Brooks ggbain 32453u crop.jpg
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 | caption1  = Actress [[Louise Brooks]] (1927)
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 | caption2  = A flapper on board a ship (1929)
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'''Flappers''' were a [[subculture]] of young [[Western world|Western]] women prominent after the [[World War I|First World War]] and through the [[1920s]] who wore short skirts (knee length was considered short during that period), [[Bob cut|bobbed]] their hair, listened to [[Jazz#1920s and 1930s|jazz]], and flaunted their disdain for prevailing codes of decent behavior. Flappers have been seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes in public, driving automobiles, treating sex in a casual manner, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers.htm|title=Flappers in the Roaring Twenties|first=Jennifer|last=Rosenberg|access-date=April 4, 2010|publisher=[[About.com]]|archive-date=August 25, 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040825114116/http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/flappers.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> As automobiles became more available, flappers gained freedom of movement and privacy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/flappers|title=Flappers|website=HISTORY|date=March 6, 2018 |language=en|access-date=2020-04-20}}</ref>

Flappers are icons of the [[Roaring Twenties]], a period of postwar social and political turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange, as well as of the export of American jazz culture to Europe. More conservative people, who belonged mostly to older generations, reacted with claims that the flappers' dresses were "near nakedness" and that flappers were "flippant", "reckless", and unintelligent.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024|reason=These quotes are unsourced.}}

While primarily associated with the United States, this "modern girl" [[archetype]] was a worldwide phenomenon that had other names depending on the country, such as ''joven moderna'' in Argentina{{Sfn|Tossounian|2020|p=33}} or ''garçonne'' in France or ''[[Modern girl|moga]]'' in Japan, although the American term "flapper" was the most widespread internationally.{{Sfn|Tossounian|2020|p=36}}