Controversy Surrounding The Flappers In The 1920's

Although no one really knows how or when the term flapper came to America, the term is said to have come from prewar England. With the onset of World War I, the sexual behavior of young women in England spiraled out of control as more and more women began to flock to army camps. There, they basically became like wartime prostitutes since they became addicted to engaging in sexual intercourse with soldiers, which became known as “khaki fever.” Eventually, the flapper was deemed to be a social problem, and all types of groups intervened to try to save these girls’ reputations and the lives of the young men.
Nevertheless, everyone was familiar with the flapper and had their own associations with the word. Among these associations were a bird trying to fly, the German Backfisch, tomboyishness, and pigtails, which were the common hairstyle for young girls. But almost everyone connected the word with energy, jazz, and the Charleston, ignoring that the word had actually been, in fact, slang for a 19th
Dorothy Dunbar Bromley, a liberal writer who defended the flapper, put all the blame on the old-fashioned ways of feminism. She said that flappers were actually the ones causing changes because they acknowledged that their future held marriage and children, but they didn’t let that stop them from living their lives and shaping their destinies. Another fan was Bruce Bliven who wrote a piece in The New Republic about his character, “Flapper Jane.” Flapper Jane received much criticism from the town because they saw her as reckless and without morals. When she was asked why she acted the way she did, she responded that women were just embracing their basic rights and that they want to be loved equally for being themselves. Using this, Bliven argued that flappers weren’t really losing their morals; they were just changing old, constricting