Editing Flapper (section)

== Behavior ==
[[File:Strand Theater ad - 15 April 1923, Birmingham, AL.png|thumb|left|upright|Advertisement for ''[[Prodigal Daughters]]'', 1923]]

Flappers' behavior was considered outlandish at the time and redefined women's roles. In the English media, they were stereotyped as pleasure-loving, reckless and prone to defying convention by initiating sexual relationships.<ref>{{cite magazine| magazine = The Weekly Dispatch|date=July 29, 1917|page=7 | title="Sporting" girls and the risks they run. An open letter to "The Flappers" of England | first = Mrs. Alfred | last = Praga | quote = My dear "Flappers" – I wonder if any of you in your gay youthfulness ever realise what a lot of harm you are doing to your future happiness by the way you sometimes cheapen yourselves in the eyes of your men "pals", as you love to call them ...}} The article goes on to describe flappers haunting public venues in order to "get off" with men.</ref> Some<ref name="Graves">{{Cite book | last1 = Graves | first1 = Robert | last2 = Hodge | first2 = Alan | title = The Long Week End: a Social History of Great Britain, 1918–1939 | year = 1994 | pages = 33–34}}.</ref> have suggested that the flapper concept as a stage of life particular to young women was imported to England from Germany, where it originated "as a sexual reaction against the over-fed, under-exercised monumental woman, and as a compromise between [[pederasty]] and normal sex".<ref name="Graves" /> In Germany, teenage girls were called "[[Backfischroman|''Backfisch'']]", which meant a young fish not yet big enough to be sold in the market.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UNBOAwopuZsC&pg=PT14 ''Backfisch'']. In: Sigi Kube: ''Wie kommt die Katze in den Sack und was weiß der Kuckuck davon?: Tierische Redewendungen und ihre Bedeutung''. Heyne, 2011, {{ISBN|978-3-641-05361-1}} (German)</ref><ref>{{Cite news |newspaper=New Brunswick Times|date=February 24, 1910|quote = ...&nbsp;a typical German girl of the well to do class between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. Before she gets to be fifteen she is simply a 'kid' as we say in this country. But for those two years she is a backfisch pure and simple.}}{{full|date=April 2024}} The article implies the girl is so designated to prevent someone no longer a child attempting to assume the airs of an adult woman: "These German ''frauleins'' dare not do so, because they know they are mere ''backfisches''." The article concludes "And over in England, as I learned, they call a girl of about fifteen a 'flapper'. If I were still but fifteen I am sure I would prefer being a backfisch."</ref> Although the concept of "''Backfisch''" was known in England by the late 1880s, the term was understood to mean a very demure social type<ref>{{Cite news | quote = Let us introduce the word 'Backfisch', for we have the Backfisch always with us. She ranges from fifteen to eighteen years of age, keeps a diary, climbs trees secretly, blushes on the smallest provocation, and has no conversation. | newspaper = Pall Mall Gazette | date = August 29, 1891| volume = 3 | issue = 2}}, in the {{Cite encyclopedia | title = Oxford English Dictionary | year = 1989 | edition = 2nd}}{{full citation needed|date=August 2019}}</ref> unlike the flapper, who was typically rebellious and defiant of convention. The evolving image of flappers was of independent young women who went by night to [[jazz club]]s such as those in [[Harlem, New York|Harlem]], which were viewed as erotic and dangerous, where they danced provocatively, smoked cigarettes and dated freely, perhaps indiscriminately. They were active, sporting, [[Bicycles#Female emancipation|rode bicycles]], drove cars, and openly drank alcohol, a defiant act in the American period of [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]].<ref>{{Cite news | author =Mrs William Atherton du Puy | quote = Yes, girls do smoke, and there is no harm if they don't go to excess. It is not like the rush of girls to the cafés to drink which happened twenty years ago. It was that which brought about prohibition. | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = October 15, 1921 | title = Let Girls Smoke, Mrs Dupuy's Plea}}.</ref> With time, came the development of dance styles such as the [[Charleston (dance)|Charleston]], the [[Shimmy]], the [[Bunny Hug]], and the [[Black Bottom (dance)|Black Bottom]], which were considered shocking, but were a symbolic badge of the flapper's rejection of traditional standards.<ref>Dumenil (1995)</ref>

=== Overturning of Victorian roles ===
Flappers also began working outside the home and challenging women's traditional societal roles and the monolithic historical idea of women being powerless throughout social history.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s|last=Latham|first=Angela J.|publisher=University Press of New England|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8195-6401-6|location=Hanover, NH|pages=7–8}}</ref>

They were considered a significant challenge to traditional [[Victorian era|Victorian]] gender roles, devotion to plain-living, hard work and religion. Increasingly, women discarded old, rigid ideas about roles and embraced consumerism and personal choice, and were often described in terms of representing a "culture war" of old versus new. Flappers also advocated voting and women's rights.

In this manner, flappers were a result of larger social changes – women were able to vote in the United States in 1920, and religious society had been rocked by the [[Scopes trial]].<ref>Zeitz, 2007. "Here was where the modern culture could prove threatening to the Victorians. The ethos of the consumer market glorified not only self-indulgence and satisfaction, but also personal liberty and choice. It invited relativism in all matters ranging from color schemes and bath soap to religion, politics, sex and morality."</ref>

For all the concern about women stepping out of their traditional roles, however, many flappers were not engaged in politics. In fact, older [[suffragette]]s, who fought for the right for women to vote, viewed flappers as vapid and in some ways unworthy of the enfranchisement they had worked so hard to win.<ref>Zeitz, 2007. "Others argued, though, that flappers' laissez-faire attitude was simply a natural progression of feminine liberation, the right having already been won."; p.107: "T[he Jazz Age flapper ... [was] [d]isengaged from politics..."</ref> [[Dorothy Dunbar Bromley]], a noted liberal writer at the time, summed up this dichotomy by describing flappers as "truly modern", "New Style" feminists who "admit that a full life calls for marriage and children" and also "are moved by an inescapable inner compulsion to be individuals in their own right".{{Sfn|Zeitz|2007|p=117}}

=== Petting parties ===
"[[Petting]]" ("[[making out]]" or [[foreplay]] or [[non-penetrative sex]]) became more common than in the [[Victorian era]], for example, with the rise in popularity of "petting parties".<ref>{{cite web |author=Weeks, Linton |title=When 'Petting Parties' Scandalized The Nation | work=[[NPR]] | date=June 26, 2015 | url=https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/05/26/409126557/when-petting-parties-scandalized-the-nation | access-date=December 18, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | title = Mothers Complain that Modern Girls 'Vamp' Their Sons at Petting Parties | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = February 17, 1922}}.<br />An earlier article in the same newspaper rebutted an attack on the behaviour of American girls made recently in the ''Cosmopolitan'' by [[Elinor Glyn]]. It admitted the existence of petting parties but considered the activities were no worse than those which had gone on in earlier times under the guise of "kissing games", adding that tales of what occurred at such events were likely to be exaggerated by an older generation influenced by traditional misogyny<br />{{Cite news | first = Mrs William Atherton | last = Dupuy | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | date = October 15, 1921|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DE2DC133EEE3ABC4D52DFB667838A639EDE&legacy=true|title=Let Girls Smoke, Mrs. Dupuy's Plea; Penwomen's President Rises in Defense of Young Thing Who 'Parks Corsets' Before Dance. MRS.GLYN WRONG, SHE SAYS Declares Short-Skirt Girl of Today Who Goes to "Petting Parties" Is All She Should Be}}.</ref> At these parties, promiscuity became more commonplace, breaking from the traditions of monogamy or courtship with their expectations of eventual marriage.<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = McArthur | first1 = Judith N | last2 = Smith | first2 = Harold L | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_txLjKkckCYC&pg=PA105 | title = Texas Through Women's Eyes: The Twentieth-Century Experience | year = 2010 | pages = 104–05 | publisher = University of Texas Press | quote = The spirit of the petting party is light and frivolous. Its object is not marriage – only a momentary thrill. It completely gives the lie to those sweet, old phrases, "the only man" and "the only girl". For where there used to be only one girl there may be a score of them now.| isbn = 978-0-292-77835-1 }}</ref> This was typical on college campuses, where young people "spent a great deal of unsupervised time in mixed company".<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Drowne | first1 = Kathleen Morgan | last2 = Huber | first2 = Patrick | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CecCHiI95dYC&pg=PA45 | title = The 1920s | page = 45| isbn = 978-0-313-32013-2 | year = 2004 | publisher = Greenwood Publishing }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last = Nelson | first = Lawrence J | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=o0hCZkuwlhAC&pg=PA39 | title = Rumors of Indiscretion | year = 2003 | page = 39| publisher = University of Missouri Press | isbn = 978-0-8262-6290-5 }}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last = Bragdon | first = Claude | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Z12OIL1jIMYC&pg=PA45 | title = Delphic Woman | year = 2007 | pages = 45–46| publisher = Cosimo | isbn = 978-1-59605-430-1 }}.</ref>

[[File:The Enemy Sex poster.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A flapper is featured on the poster for the 1924 film ''[[The Enemy Sex]]'']]

Carolyn Van Wyck wrote a column for ''[[Photoplay (magazine)|Photoplay]]'', an upmarket magazine that featured articles on pop culture, advice on fashion, and even articles on helping readers channel their inner celebrity. In March 1926, an anonymous young woman wrote in describing petting as a problem, explaining, "The boys all seem to do it and don't seem to come back if you don't do it also. We girls are at our wits' end to know what to do. ... I'm sure that I don't want to marry anyone who is too slow to want to pet. But I want to discover what is right. Please help me." Van Wyck sympathized with the problem the writer faced and added, "It seems to me much better to be known as a flat tire and keep romance in one's mind than to be called a hot date and have fear in one's heart."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dubois|first1=Ellen Carol|last2=Dumenil|first2=Lynn|title=Through Women's Eyes|date=2012|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|location=Boston, MA|page=561|edition=Third}}</ref>

In the 1950s, ''Life'' magazine depicted petting parties as "that famed and shocking institution of the '20s", and, commenting on the [[Kinsey Report]], said that they have been "very much with us ever since".<ref>Havemann, Ernest. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EkgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA45 "The Kinsey Report on Women"] [[Life (magazine)|''Life'' magazine]] (August 24, 1953)</ref> In the Kinsey Report of 1950, there was an indicated increase in premarital intercourse for the generation of the 1920s. Kinsey found that of women born before 1900, 14 percent acknowledged premarital sex before the age of 25, while those born after 1900 were two and a half times more likely (36 percent) to have premarital intercourse and experience an orgasm.<ref>{{cite book|last=Duenil|first=Lynn|title=The Modern Temper:American Culture and Society in the 1920s|date=1995|publisher=Hill and Wang|location=New York, NY|page=136}}</ref>

=== Slang ===
Flappers were associated with the use of a number of slang words, including "junk", "necker", "heavy petting", and "necking parties",<ref>{{Cite news | title = Shifters No Longer Appeal to Slackers | newspaper = The New York Times | date = March 26, 1922 | quote = The epithets she has evolved from her own lexicon are "junk", "necker" and "heavy necker". "Junk" is anything she considers unimportant or unworthy of consideration. A "necker" is a "petter" who puts her arms around a boy's neck. A "heavy necker" is a "petter" who hangs heavily on said neck. "Necking parties" have superseded "petting parties.}}.</ref> although these words existed before the 1920s.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', online ed., March 2012.</ref> Flappers also used the word "jazz" in the sense of anything exciting or fun.<!-- This needs a citation. --> Their language sometimes reflected their feelings about dating, marriage and drinking habits: "I have to [[see a man about a dog]]" at this period often meant going to buy whiskey, and a "handcuff" or "manacle" was an engagement or wedding ring. Moreover, flappers invented slang terms like "hush money", which meant the allowance from a father or "dropping the pilot", which meant getting a divorce.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 5, 2019|title=Flapper Slang: Talk the 1920s talk|url=https://www.kcts9.org/article/flapper-slang-talk-1920s-talk|access-date=2020-10-13|website=KCTS 9|language=en}}</ref> Also reflective of their preoccupations were phrases to express approval, such as "That's so Jake"{{Efn | First occurring as American criminal slang before 1914.<ref>{{Cite book | first1 = Louis E | last1 = Jackson | first2 = CR | last2 = Hellyer | title = A dictionary of criminal slang | year = 1914}} in {{Cite encyclopedia | title = Oxford English Dictionary | edition = online | date = March 2012}}.{{full citation needed|date=August 2019}}</ref>}} (okay), "She/he's the [[wikt:bee's knees|bee's knees]]" (a superb person), "Cake-eater" (a ladies' man), and the popular "the [[wikt:cat's meow|cat's meow]]" (anything wonderful).<ref>{{Cite book |title=The jazz age: the 20s |date=1998 |publisher=Time-Life Books |isbn=0-7835-5509-1 |location=Alexandria, VA |pages=32–33 |oclc=39706802}}</ref>

There were two more slang terms that reflected flappers' behaviors or lifestyles, which were "[[treating (dating)|treating]]" and "charity girls". In the social context of [[dating]], treating was the practice of providing companionship and intimate activity in exchange for entertainment outings, gifts, and other items of monetary value.<ref> Clement, Elizabeth Alice. ''Love for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City, 1900–1945'' (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006), pp. 1, 3.</ref> The activity was prevalent in the large urban areas of the [[United States]] from the 1890s to the 1940s and was most commonly engaged in by young [[working class|working-class women]]. As treating became more widespread, the activity acquired the label "charity," and the young women who engaged in the more risqué aspects of the practice were often called charity girls.<ref name="sale"> Clement, Elizabeth Alice. ''Love for Sale: Courting, Treating, and Prostitution in New York City, 1900–1945'' (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006), pp. 1, 48–49.</ref>