Flappers in the 1920s

1. Subcultures – ‘Flappers’
Lesson 2 collective identity blog work
Sabiha Rahman

2. What is a subculture?
• Subcultures are groups of people who share
similar likes, dislikes and characteristics who
go against or follow different norms and
values than the rest of society.

3. Flappers – 1920s women
• New breed of young
western women in the
1920s
• First appearance in the
USA: 1920 Frances Marion
film
• Their behaviour was seen
as unacceptable because
they smoked, drank lots of
alcohol, & treated sex in a
casual manner

4. The media
• They had bob cut hair (became popular and all women
started to copy it just because it was in films and all sorts)
• Wore short skirts (changed the norms of media and how
women dress – gave more women confidence to do it too, so
they showed their legs more)
• Listened to jazz music (the media has an influence on music
choice and jazz soon became a popular music genre played
in pubs, clubs and public places)
• Excessive makeup (Different brands, colours and women
start to make it a sort of ‘essential’ – Marilyn Monroe’s red
lipstick)

5. Flappers - lifestyle
• Lots of casual sex
• Drinking alcohol
• Smoking
• Starting to work outside the
home and challenged
women’s traditional roles

6. Flappers – appearance
• Result of French fashions (especially Coco
Chanel)
• Tiny skirts
• Bob hair cuts
• Hats
• Bright white teeth

7. So how were they represented by the
media?
• For women, it became an iconic
symbol to be a flapper because
you worked against the norms of
society which, in some views of
women, is patriarchal (male
dominated)
• Working outside of home,
creating your own fashion trend,
being different & doing what
men mostly do (like smoking)
was being rebellious but also
taking a stand for women
• On the other hand, a lot of
people disagreed with the acts of
flappers because it showed
women to be ‘easy’ or ‘dirty’ and
actually gave a bad reputation
for women in the 1920s

8. Media representation - documents