I'm finding Joshua Zeitz's Flapper totally fascinating reading. There's so much information I'll never remember it all, and far too much to simply underline or note with little post-it notes, but I would like to share a few things that I've read in the past couple of days. You might well see a few more posts about this book, but I'll try not to go overboard!
Zeitz calls the flapper's behavior a "revolution in morals and manners" and it was brought on in large part by economics. By the late 1920s women, particularly single women, were working and making money. Of course the wages weren't comparable to their male counterparts, but it gave them a new and previously unheard of independence. America by this time had also changed from a primarily agrarian to urban society, which meant more people living in cities where there was more to do and see and places to spend hard earned cash. And this of course changed the dating landscape. Life was far different for young people than it had been for their parents.
"The Victorians were hardly all prudes. In fact, theirs was an intensely romantic culture. Looking back on his boyhood in rural Indiana, the novelist Theodore Dreiser remembered that young men and women were always seen 'walking under trees or rowing on the lakes, holding hands or kissing or whispering sweet nothings.' 'Fiery tales' abounded of 'sweet trysts and doings in unlighted parlors and groves.' Still, those moments were tame by later comparison. For most young lovers in the Victorian era, romance was a closely guarded and circumscribed affair."
First came bicycles in the 1890s, which meant lovers could get away on their on. Then after the turn of the century came telephones, so constant communication kept lovers in touch and up to date. And then came the automobiles. Not only could lovers get away, but cars meant places of privacy. And all this intensity, constantly talking and being alone together meant a certain amount of sexual experimentation.
It seems, however, like Victorian women had the upper hand when it came to courting, as flappers had entirely new situations to contend with. They might be earning money, but often it was just enough to get by. Dating was a way to get out and be social but there was a give and take--if a man was going to "treat" his date, what would she have to give in return?
"This was an entirely new dynamic. In the old days, courting took place at home. There simply wasn't anywhere else to go. In effect, the Victorian system of romance, centered as it was around the front parlor or porch, put women in the driver's seat: They did the inviting, they set the hour and day of the visit, and they called the limits. dating was something completely different. It revolved around a new public leisure culture that cost money; it therefore placed men, who had more money, in greater control. The result was a complex interplay among commerce, sexuality, and love."
That seems like it could have been a messy combination, but an exciting one as well for young people. All of a sudden they had control over their own lives. The modern age seems to have brought an end to innocence in more ways than one. I wish Zeitz would discuss the impact of WWI on American Society more, but he may go more in depth on the subject later, or perhaps that's a topic for a different book.
Next up, Zeitz writes more on F. Scott Fitzgerald and This Side of Paradise, so it's time to switch back and read more of the novel. I must look for more about this era both fiction and nonfiction, and perhaps something by a woman! There are pages and pages of notes at the end of the book; I only wish he had offered a bibliography as well.