The New Courtship Culture of the 1920's

 

Prohibition and the Victorian protestant values it represented became the perfect place for youth to rebel

The Plastic Age (1925) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Americans have a renewed interest in the 1920’s. It was brought on with a renewed interest in movies like the Great Gatsby. It is one of the first decades many think of as modern. Still, the 1920’s  courtship culture did not change society overnight. It happened slowly in the decades before, when the optimism that occurs at the turn of each century became tempered by the reality of the continuance of less than positive human behavior. The Victorian ideal of women just did not fit with women who had helped end slavery and settled the West. World War I reminded the growing number of college educated women that maybe men alone should not be trusted with the political welfare of the world.

Prosperity and the culture of youth now defined a great deal of American popular life.  A growing young middle class was America’s new consumer and they were interested in being individuals not part of the old static classist Victorian society./
This was the America of Amelia Earhart and the hope of technology to redesign the world. Women were not just going to go from the home of their parents to the home of a husband. Men wanted women with a little spunk and a chance to share youthful fun.

Many historians feel the modern form of courtship started in the 1920’s. The Victorian upper-class had influence growing middle class in the previous century through media. Rituals and regiments that regulated who and how young women considered as a marriage partner ruled the day. The lower classes still enjoyed the freedom of choice when it came to partners from their own social class. Common law marriage was still a great deal more common among the urban and rural poor.  Ceremonies and periods of social acceptable engagement were still rare occupancies even in the 1920’s for girls from poor urban and rural communities.

In the decades leading to the 1920’s church and community still defined dating. Courtship was supervised by the parents and friends of young people from good families. Courtship only took place between couples who genuinely saw each other as acceptable marriage partners. While there may have been some attempt at finding potential compatibility based on personality during the courtship process social class, religion, race, ethnic background, determined who a single person could court.  There was a level of seriousness to unmarried couples spending time together; it was never simply for the fun of it.

 Dating for the first time started to occur outside the women’s home. Young men increasingly had employment outside the family farm and could afford to take the girl out to activities such as movies or dances.

  Young men who had literally seen gay Parie  now saw drinking as a man’s activity that one could do without the Churches approval. The creation of publications geared towards mass audiences crated a growing media defined culture. New York was now defining fashion and cultural attitudes in small Midwestern towns. The Spanish Flu and WWI once again reminded youth that life could be short, and they were unwilling for the older generations to define and control their lives.

The need for typist and other clerical workers meant that a large number of small town and farm girls went to the cities to stay in boarding houses with other young women. They did what all good daughters did and sent money home or saved for marriage.

 Yet, they were free from prying parent’s eyes and free to date. Most dated with friends because a good time girl was fun, but not easy. The young men had pocket money and one in a group might have a car. A respectable date at a local church dance might end up with a stop at a Speakeasy. 

Forbidden dances and music gave these young people the feeling of breaking free from the monotony and restrictions of their parent’s generation. Young men who had seen the horrors of modern war, could celebrate their youth and life before they settled down to there restrictions of married life.

Movies, books, and plays spread the concept of finding romantic love by going out with members of the opposite sex. Parents of flappers were many times blamed for these wild girls trapping unsuspecting young men in marriage. Young girls were urged to avoid the tragedy of being marked women by being associated with Flapper culture.

 Still urban parents were reading Darwin, sending their girls to college, and were becoming consumers who defined popular culture. They wanted their young girls to impact the world and be trend setters. There was a certain pride wealthier parents took in progressive child rearing techniques. They were raising a generation to define a brave new technical world where Science simply matter more than Christ They were much more tolerant of their youth defining their own futures.

Women on the silver screen were clever and campy. 

The real vamp also came to ruin in these films, but her journe

y to ruin had great appeal to girls stuck in one horse towns who only had the movie house to escape the boredom of small town life. If a girl could not become a typist, move in with roommates, and go to jazz filled speak easy, she could cut her hair and sneak some shine in some local boys car after the church dance.

"Syncopating Sue", 1928. "Cheesecake" stereo card view of a scantily clad woman doing "Charleston kick." (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Eventually, respectable society found dating as an acceptable way for young people to meet acceptable spouses. Businesses sought to get the dating dollars of young folks, by encouraging all sorts of outings from miniature golf to bowling. Dates to the park for panics and to the beach for group outings, lead to couples sneaking off to do what raging hormones demanded. 

The best society could do was encourage courtship to become marriage before a young couple was tempted beyond necking. Good girls had to walk that fine line between fun loving girl and loose girl.  The age of courtship became younger, and public schools sponsored events that encourage young people to break up into couples and have active dating lives. The amount of time a young people were suppose to court became longer and longer. By the time depression era hit, putting off marriage until financial stability was established became the ideal, but being social while waiting was expected. 

The double standard of a boy having many girlfriends was encouraged so he would settle down without having wondering eye became the norm.  Still young women had increasing freedom to choose their life mates and have a single life that was somewhat self-defined.

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Flappers: The Fun Feminist

Page from magazine "The Flapper" for November 1922. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Cover of a 1922 edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's book Tales of the Jazz Age, painted by John Held, Jr. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Norma Talmadge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Photo of a girl in "flapper" garb. Taken in Moscow, Idaho in 1922. Donated by Dave Bumgardne. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cover of magazine "The Flapper" for November 1922. Shows actress Billie Dove in football uniform. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Coming of the Jazz Age

Life for young American women was rapidly shaking off the remnants of the prudish Victorian era in the 1920’s. The upper and middle classes were experiencing a rapid growth in wealth after WWI. During World War l many married women were employed for the first time. They worked for wages that were much lower than men would work. Some women stayed in jobs after the boys came home. Modern inventions like the type writer meant that more and more young unmarried women were employed in office pools. It was in this new and exciting world for young women with some financial independence that the flapper girl appeared.

 A young single working girl sharing a room with other girls her age out to have a good time, before she settled for domestic tranquil try that marriage brought. She was a girl who cut her hair, wore cosmetics smoke danced and drank in speak easy. Not too long after the flapper decade started she voted as well.  She was also more in control of her courting life then any generation of girls before her. She was probably more sexually advent us as her time with the boys was not chaperoned by anyone. She deliberately ignored all the previous conventions of acceptable nice girl behavior.

Giving Credit to the Gibson Girls

The girls, who would throw off the last vestiges of ideal Victorian womanhood, could in fact give a little credit to their mothers a few generations before. The Gibson girl was a gay 1890’s version of a more indecent less fragile Victorian girl. These girls were first portrayed in the in drawings of Charles Dana Gibson; a Boston artist .The Gibson girl had slightly shorter hair, was likely to attend college, and engaged in sports. They still had angelic faces surrounded by lavish curls, but they could ice skate, ride bikes, and in general keep up with the boys. They did not take to the fainting couches because their corsets were too tight

The ‘Flappers’ Get Noticed

The name ‘flapper ‘ was first used in Britain to describe independent working girls living in London and enjoying full   non chaperoned social lives. The phrase was referring to the girls who, like young birds, were trying their wings in a big urban modern city.

Popular authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and artist such as John Held Jr. coined the term:” flapper’ in the United States and provided written and artistic presentations of what this trend among young women meant. Fitzgerald described flappers, as ”lovely, expensive, and about nineteen", making flappers the object of affection to many American young men. Held portrayed the flapper girl in all her finery wearing unbuckled goulashes that made a flapping noise when she walked.

Flappers Redefine Fashion

The flapper style with its short simple dresses and short hair brought the whole concept of style to middle class young women. Fashion had been only in the realm of upper class women before this time. The whole idea that women would wear a dress just for certain social occasions was something the ordinary women could not fathom. The flapper look was simplistic enough that now girls could afford that special dress to go out for a night on the down.

Flappers on the Silver Screen

Some very early film stars spread the flapper fashion craze by appearing on the silver screen donning short hair and short dresses. These were the starlets of the Jazz Age. They promoted a culture; where urban living, jazz music, and  the speak easy were very appealing to young men returning from war and young women who were anxious to enjoy their youth.

It was not that the flapper girl was totally carefree. Society worried about the girls who appeared to have loose morals. Screen Flapper starlet Anita Page did a film called, “Our Dancing Daughters” who portrayed a gold digger flapper who tricked a sugar daddy in to marriages. The fallen girl literally met her early demise by falling down the stairs in as a result of drinking too much.

Flappers Redefine Fashion

The flapper style with its short simple dresses and short hair brought the whole concept of style to middle class young women. Fashion had been only in the realm of upper class women before this time. The whole idea that women would wear a dress just for certain social occasions was something the ordinary women could not fathom. The flapper look was simplistic enough that now girls could afford that special dress to go out for a night on the down

 For wealthier young girls looking for the ideal flapper dress there was the designs of Coco Chanel. Chanel used fabrics that traditionally been used for men’s clothes. This meant the dresses were durable and easy to move in. Chanel shunned the elaborate laces used on the dresses of upper class Victorian women. The dresses also were more basic in their coloring. Beige, cream, navy blue, and black were common colors for these shorter shapeless dresses. Chanel’s poplar “Garonne Look” was most associated with young flapper girls.

With the new look everything the flapper wore was different than what her mother wore. Gone were corsets and the less restrictive girdle came on the scene. Gone were bodices, replaced by less restrictive bras and camisoles with netting for support. Heavy black hosiery which most women wore up till the end of World War I was replaced by flesh and pastel colors stockings that were rolled pass the knee. Underwear was lighter too. No more bloomers hidden under layers of petticoats. Short knickers and simple slips helped the flapper achieve her stream lined look.

Does She Dare Bob Her Hair

Women had started bobbing their hair during World War I. It was probably just seen as a practical move from girls who went from being in the home to being in the factory to replace the boys who had gone over seas. Many men of the period noted that when young girls cut their hair they seem to become more outspoken.

Flappers as Fun Loving Feminist

Soon girls who cut their hair were wearing short skirts, rolled stockings, and long beads and calling themselves, “flappers”. Of course the simple bob would soon become waved bobs, as perking and coloring hair soon became acceptable for young women.

The fun of the jazz age ended with the coming of the Great Depression. Frivolous behavior was blamed for the fall of the stock market and society became much more stoic.

Still women did not return to long hair and restrictive corsets. Women had the vote and were now in the working world. Even lower class women made an effort to follow fashion trends that very few people could afford to buy off the rack. Women were now present in offices, classrooms, and factories working along side men.

A girl getting a college education or participation in sports was not seen as a usual thing. Dating for purely social reasons was acceptable. The age that most women married had increased and the number of children she would have decreased. The flapper girls had set the stage for the emergence of the modern American women who would have an identity that was more than wife and mother.

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