Flappers: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Woman Essay

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The 1920's are known as the "roaring twenty's" due to the cultural edge that many big cities around America had during that decade. During this era jazz music became very popular and womanhood has was changed. The woman known as flappers changed how woman were perceived and showed that women should have just as much rights as men. The flappers had a different view on things and differed from other woman and on how they dresses and how they held themselves as if they didn’t have a care for what everyone else should believe they should be doing. In the novel, The Great Gatsby the author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays flappers and the lifestyle people lived through the twenties as well as the change in how women acted and dressed and greatly shows how the culture in America changed during this time period. Therefore during the twenty's the culture and lifestyle lived was portrayed greatly by women who were considered as flappers and what they represented.
A flapper is considered as a woman who is brash, wore excessive amounts of makeup, would drink, smoke, drive automobiles and treated sex in a casual manner. Woman also began to date freely without discrimination. They also showed their great distaste for the lifestyle of women that was considered normal. Flappers also wore short skirts, had shorter hair and listened to jazz music. The fashion of the flappers made them look boyish and young and weren't close fitting or flattering to their figure and often had little or no straps at all. The loose skirts went up or moved every time the women danced and showed their legs. Heels also came into fashion during this time period and were usually two or three inches tall and they also wore many long beaded necklaces and pins, rings and brooches came into style. Flappers were considered as reckless and defiant and tended to do things that weren't what was "normal" for a woman to be acting. They were also known for dancing provocatively and the dances such as the Charleston, the Shimmy, the Bunny Hug and the Black Bottom were all introduced. Flappers unlike the typical woman were very active and rode bikes and even though being pale was considered more beautiful they started to tan to show that they lived a life of leisure and were fit and sporty. Being out of the restrictive dresses that interfered with breathing and a woman's ability to walk, flappers felt free to breathe in the looser dresses they wore and took full advantage of the free feeling they felt. This shows the connection between how someone dresses shows and influences their lifestyle and who they are. With the changes in fashion the feminine ideal of woman changed as well. The short skirts and hair showed a separation from feminist ideas and were more independent. After World War I a woman would enter a speakeasy like it was nothing and they started to publically swear and raise their skirts above their knees.Women began to work outside their homes and challenging traditional societal roles. Woman now competed with men for jobs in the business world and had financial independence as well as other independence from men. These new woman showed sexual and economic freedom and were independent thinkers. In 1920 when women gained the right to vote many women weren't interested in politics especially flappers which were considered a disgrace to the women who fought for women to have the right to vote because they worked so hard to gain the right and flappers didn’t engage in politics. Flappers represented a change in
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