Dance and Music

DANCE AND MUSIC

            The 1920’s were a very fun and optimistic time.  The dances and the music that evolved during this time reflected this attitude.  The dances and music were very energetic, and formed a way for people to find a release from the stresses of life.  Jazz music made its appearance in the 1920’s and the dances that came about were a response to the upbeat and fun music that jazz and ragtime offered.  With radios and phonographs available to the people, they would often watch the Hollywood stars on T.V. dance these new dances and would follow along while they played music their phonographs.  In the decades shortly before the 1920’s dances like the Tango and Waltz were considered inappropriate because of the close partner contact during the dance.  By 1920 close partner dancing became normal to Americans.   The Lindy Hop, one of the most popular dances in the 20’s and 30’s, was the first partner dance that consisted of swinging the partner in the air.  Other popular dances of this time consisted of the Grizzly Bear, the Shimmy, the Foxtrot, the Toddle, and the most influential dance, the Charleston.  These dance styles consisted of impressively fast footwork, movement of the torso, and tossing their arms and legs in a reckless motion.  The Charleston is still one of the dances today that characterizes and epitomizes the flapper era dance.   Because of the Charleston’s extreme popularity, choreographers and teachers were inspired to create new dance fads to keep up with the public craze for dance novelty.  The attitude and atmosphere of the 20’s felt like the good times and the happiness of this era would never come to an end.  But as history shows, what comes up, must comet down.  In the fall of 1929 the happy-go-lucky atmosphere of the roaring twenties diminished in an instant when the stock market crashed, sending the United States into the Great Depression.[11] So just as fast as the flappers flourished, they diminished as America entered into one of the toughest economical times it has ever seen.

            

Rise of the Flapper

RISE OF THE FLAPPERS  

           As the roaring twenties were in full sway the way the world viewed women and the way women viewed themselves changed rapidly.  This great change resulted in the term ‘flapper’ being used to associate with the women of this time period. When we hear the term flapper, one may initially think of the happy go lucky time of the 1920’s, the dance style, or a variety of things associated with this time period, but where did this term come from, and why would it be used to define the women of this period?  The derivation of the word flapper can be found all the way back to the 17th century.  A few early uses of this word include:

• “A young bird, or wild duck, that’s flapping its wings as it’s learning to fly. (Consider how dancing the Charleston is reminiscent of a bird flapping its wings.)

• A prostitute or immoral woman.

• A wild, flighty young woman.

• A woman who refused to fasten her galoshes and the unfastened buckles flapped as she walked.

While the origin story differs depending on where you look, cumulatively, they all contribute to our perceptions of this independent woman of the 1920s.”[8]  The term ‘flapper’ was introduced in the United States when the movie The Flapper came out in 1920.  This movie was about an erratic girl who mocked the order of society, and went against social norms.[9]  

Did the personalities of these women truly match up to what the term flapper as it is defined?  One flapper from the era, explained a bit about what being a flapper was this way:

If one judge by appearances, I suppose I am a flapper. I am within

the age limit. I wear bobbed hair, the badge of flapperhood. (And,

oh, what a comfort it is!), I powder my nose. I wear fringed skirts

and bright-colored sweaters, and scarfs, and waists with Peter Pan

collars, and low-heeled “finale hopper” shoes. I adore to dance. I

spend a large amount of time in automobiles. I attend hops, and

proms, and ball-games, and crew races, and other affairs at men’s

colleges. But none the less some of the most thoroughbred super

flappers might blush to claim sistership or even remote relationship

with such as I. I don’t use rouge, or lipstick, or pluck my eyebrows.

I don’t smoke (I’ve tried it, and don’t like it), or drink, or tell “peppy

stories.” I don’t pet.

But then—there are many degrees of flapper. There is the semi-

flapper; the flapper; the super flapper. Each of these three main

general divisions has its degrees of variation. I might possibly be

placed somewhere in the middle of the first class.

I want to beg all you parents, and grandparents, and friends, and

teachers, and preachers—you who constitute the “older generation”

—to overlook our shortcomings, at least for the present, and to

appreciate our virtues. I wonder if it ever occurred to any of you

that it required brains to become and remain a successful flapper?

Indeed it does! It requires an enormous amount of cleverness and

energy to keep going at the proper pace. It requires self- knowledge

and self-analysis. We must know our capabilities and limitations.

We must be constantly on the alert. Attainment of flapperhood is

a big and serious undertaking![10]

With women quickly adopting this type of persona, the whole culture of women changed.  Not only did they start looking different, but they began acting different.  Women are now doing things they have never done before.  A new world was evolving.  This change in history affected many aspects of American life.  One aspect worth highlighting is the evolution of dance.

The Change

THE CHANGE

So what were some of the motives for this grand, historic change?  As we have taken a look at history, it is clear that women's long held role was to be the keeper or the “queen” of the home.[5]  During the early 1900’s many men and husbands were away at war.  Women without their husbands had very few rights.  They were not able to be active in the community without being escorted by their husbands or an older woman.  It was difficult for women to receive education or be active in the work force.  A woman’s sole dominion was her home.  The world outside was thriving with new innovations and inventions; all the while the women were still confined to their ever-standing responsibilities in their homes.  It is hard to imagine one not becoming restless and wishing to fully engage with the ever-changing world.  Of this subject, Gertrude Atherton, a California novelist agreed eight of ten women, she claimed, were “possessed with an eager, restless, desire to be somebody, rise above the masses.”  “women...are writing, painting, journalizing, creeping into public offices, and flocking to the stage.”  Women without any particular talent had the desire “to be independent, to strike out for themselves, to be something more than domestic nonentities.”[6]  The Women’s Suffrage movement during this time was rapidly growing and emerging, and by 1920 women were granted the right to vote, and just a few years later an amendment was proposed to the Equal Rights Law.  Women began gaining access to education, and they were finding their way into the workforce.  Women wanted to be independent.  They no longer wanted to feel like they needed to rely on a man for support.  Women desired to support themselves, they wanted to be active in the community, and wanted to be educated and working.  And above all they wanted to govern their own lives.       

This restlessness grew into one of the most drastic changes America has ever seen when it comes to Women.  Women changed on nearly every front.  Their once vital roles as wife and mother became less prevalent.  Some women no longer felt the need to get married, or have children.  The style of clothing changed from tight corsets and extremely modest dresses where the whole body was covered, to short, free flowing dresses where much of the body was exposed.  The hairstyles also changed drastically during this time period.  Women who used to commonly wear their hair long and braided as was common in the late 1800’s, cut it short as the flapper era arose during the 1920’s.  Women began wearing makeup and jewelry.  Many women began to smoke.  Even the types of shoes changed.  These changes were drastic as well as shocking to many American citizens.  

One hundred year old Roy Latham, born in 1896, lived through magnificent changes in American history.  Ray was alive through through two world wars.  He witnessed the invention of television, radio, airplanes, cars, and computers.  When Latham was questioned about specific things and events that intrigued him in his long life, he responded that it was when women began to cut their hair short.  He reported being taken aback by this new trend in hairstyles.  He said “When I was a boy, all the girls had long braids… They had hair clear down to their waist.  When they started to cut their hair, I said. ‘Why that’s plum crazy’”.[7]  With a man who witnessed some of America’s greatest innovations, doesn’t it seem interesting that a point that stood out to him so much was when women cut their hair?  It becomes clear that Ray’s response is a reflection of quite possibly many responses of people during this momentous time in history.

Preceding History

PRECEDING HISTORY

When one looks back at the history of the 1920’s, they may initially see the happy, liberating freedom that was associated with this time.  World War One ended and as a result people responded with enthusiasm and joy as families reunited and the lives of Americans were changing.  This time was an exceptional turnaround in regards to women and their rights.  This freedom, however, did not come without a great deal of controversy.  For humans, change can bring about a certain level of uneasiness or anxiety.  The drastic changes that occurred in regards to women during the end of the 19th century into the turn of the 20th century, left many people, especially the older generation, disconcerted.  It is important to take a step back in time before this about-face in American history took place to recognize and understand the magnitude of this women’s evolution.   

            Going back to the early 1800’s and the Civil War era, the rise of businesses, new industries and professions created a new American middle class. What once were rural communities, now flourished into thriving cities.  Middle class families consisted of husbands who worked in offices, as teachers, lawyers, physicians, factory managers and others.  A middle class man in the nineteenth century did not have to earn financially what he needed to be able to survive.  The men could work to obtain various services or goods while the women and children stayed in the home.  The common view of men was to be the sole support of the family.  The work world was seen as rough and full of violence and temptation.  Women were seen as delicate and fraile creatures.  It was a fear that if women ventured out in the work world they would fall into the dangers that were prevalent there; therefore men and women had their separate spheres in which they lived and operated.  The common perception was that women were to stay protected in their own private realm that was their home.  These views and connotations for what women should be and do became what is called “The Cult of Domesticity” or “True Womanhood”.  This system outlined four basic qualities or virtues that women should hold.  These virtues were piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity.

1.Piety:  Women were expected to be spiritual up keepers in their homes.  They were believed to have a certain spiritual disposition.  “The modern young woman of the 1820’s and 1830’s was thought of as a new Eve working with God to bring the world out of sin through her suffering, through her pure, and passionless love.”[2]

2.Purity: a very highly revered virtue.  Women without purity were not considered women at all, but were considered to be a lower form of being.  Sexual purity was of highest priority.  Women were to be proper in all their associations with the opposite sex.  Preceding the 20th century, America went into a purity craze.  “This is when Americans began to talk about limbs for legs (even when referring to the legs of chairs) and white meat instead of breast meat (in fowl)--this is the language of repression.”[3]

3.Submissiveness: Women were not to be independant or unruly.  Women

were to rely on their husbands for all their support.  They were to submit to their husbands will and the social customs of society.  Women were to be obedient in every aspect, and especially to their husbands.  They were believed to be inferior in intelligence, strength and wisdom, therefore placing their role as passive bystanders.

4.Domesticity: A woman's sacred place was the home.  The home is

where the women would engage in housekeeping responsibilities.  Women were to stay away from tasks or activities that would challenge or distract them intellectually.  A woman’s work is to create a peaceful, loving environment where children could be reared and husbands could come home to find refuge from a hard working world.[4]

The History of The Flapper Era

INTRODUCTION

"Take two bare knees, two rolled stockings, two flapping goloshes, one short skirt, one lipstick, one powder puff, 33 cigarettes, and a boy friend with flask. Season with a pinch of salt and dash of pep, and cover all with some spicy sauce, and you have the old-time flapper."[1]

The roaring twenties, a very accurate name attributed to the decade during the 1920’s.   Life and culture during this time changed forever, especially for women.  The early decades in the twentieth century were an upbeat and flourishing time.  World War One was over and a light and life was illuminated in the people.  The restlessness of women was at its peak and was quickly approaching what would become a revolutionary shift from the social norms that had held them captive from freely expressing themselves and being able to rule their own lives.   This was a time that the role of women changed, never to be the same again.  The traditional styles of modesty and women’s conservative nature changed drastically.   Women were no longer confined to the home; they became active in the community and emancipated themselves from their long held social roles.  Their skirt lengths began to rise, they bobbed their hair, and an alarmingly new sexual expression and freedom emerged.  A complete moral, economical, and social shift occurred that changed the world.  This was the rise of the Flappers.

            

      CONCLUSION

            Although this grand period of change was short, it in no way was small.  Great changed occurred in history that freed women from a bondage that had held them captive for years.  A new culture evolved.  The coming forth of new dances and new music will always set apart this very special and peculiar time in history.  May we ever remember what a Flapper truly is.

                              VIDEOS     

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[1] Robert Scott, “The Flapper,” 1920-30.com, 2012, http://www.1920-30.com/fashion/flapper.html

[2] Catherine J. Lavender, ʺNotes on The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood,ʺ Prepared for Students in HST 386: Women in the City, Department of History, The College of Staten Island/CUNY (1998), https://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/history/files/lavender/386/truewoman.pdf

[3] Catherine J. Lavender, ʺNotes on The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood,ʺ Prepared for Students in HST 386: Women in the City, Department of History, The College of Staten Island/CUNY (1998), https://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/history/files/lavender/386/truewoman.pdf

[4] Lucinda MacKethan, “The Cult of Domesticity An Online Professional Development Seminar,” National Humanities Center, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/ows/seminars/expansion/domesticity.pdf

[5] Jean Matthews, The Rise of the New Woman: The Women's Movement in America, 1875-1930. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2003, 5.

[6] Jean Matthews, The Rise of the New Woman: The Women's Movement in America, 1875-1930. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2003, 3.

[7] Angela Latham, Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and Other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s. Hanover, NH: Published by University Press of New England [for] Wesleyan University Press, 2000, 1.

[8] Ellen Page, “The History of the Flapper: Part 1 A Call for Freedom,” Smithsonian, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-history-of-the-flapper-part-1-a-call-for-freedom-11957978/?no-ist

[9] Miss Cellania, “The Rise of the Flapper,” Mental Floss, http://mentalfloss.com/article/22604/rise-flapper

[10] Ellen Page, “The History of the Flapper: Part 1 A Call for Freedom,” Smithsonian, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-history-of-the-flapper-part-1-a-call-for-freedom-11957978/?no-ist

[11] Robert Scott, “The Flapper,” 1920-30.com, 2012, http://www.1920-30.com/fashion/flapper.html