Flappers Part II

The conference is done!  My mind is worn out.  I am glad that Amy from school convinced me to take the plunge and do this.  I'm glad I met interesting people, and that I actually had some clarifying and refining answers to questions I've had for a year about how to ask really good questions that take students somewhere.  It feels like life just got a lot more interesting. 

And I am also glad for some time to put all of that new knowledge somewhere and let it rest a little too.



The one thing that rises out of the thousands of words spoken and the numerous texts and the slew of ideas is something I discovered today.  We had to bring our own things to the table, and I brought something from the time of the flappers.  That whole 'We're-done-with-WWI-and-there-is-an-appropriate-way-to-get-on-with-living' conversation was much more radical than I first imagined.  Last year it really did become more alive to me as I talked about it with my students in class. 

I've already written about flappers in this blog.  You can tell that a few months ago I was trying to understand just how extreme these conversations would have been.  It was the appeal of the Younger Generation and the stodgy old relatives who were born before 1900 who, according to young people in the 1920s, really had no clue.

 

It seems not ok to refer to people in the '20s as teenagers since that term didn't emerge until later in the 20th century.  So, as stiff and unyielding as it sounds, I still can't bring myself to do it.  And the word teenager suggests prematurely giving these people the very credit they were looking for.  In the 1920s you just had people who were young and people who were not so young.  Case closed.   At least for a while. 

I was so impressed by the humble appeal to loved people when I read this piece.  And Ellen Welles Page knew she was talking to a hurting generation.  If you have to mine your way through the strategy and tactics of WWI, you must have been tired and longed for nothing more at the end of an ordinary day than to read the paper and smoke a pipe.  That's the sort of image I am picturing here as I read her appeal. 

Best of all....how much of this is so common to our world today?  Students I teach might say the very same thing.  People at any age needing to be heard and seen and understood would say this.  It's these things in history that endear me to the common threads of the human experience, and make wondering about this vast wide world so timeless and intriguing every day.

 


Page describes various degrees of flapper-ism, suggesting that all women can be flappers; she further notes that being a flapper is “hard work” and wishes the public would condemn less and understand more.

"A Flapper's Appeal to Parents"

If one judges 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 superflappers 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. And, most unpardonable infringement of all the rules and regulations of Flapperdom, I haven't a line!

But then--there are many degrees of flapper. There is the semi-flapper; the flapper; the superflapper. 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 think everyone realizes by this time that there has been a marked change in our much-discussed tactics. Jazz has been modified, and probably will continue to be until it has become obsolete. Petting is gradually growing out of fashion through being overworked.

Flapper meeting Victorian Lady on the beach

Yes, undoubtedly our hopeless condition is improving. But it was not for discussing these aspects of the case that I began this article. 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! "Brains?" you repeat, skeptically. "Then why aren't they used to better advantage?" That is exactly it! And do you know who is largely responsible for all this energy being spent in the wrong directions?

You! You parents, and grandparents, and friends, and teachers, and preachers--all of you! "The war!" you cry. "It is the effect of the war!" And then you blame prohibition. Yes! Yet it is you who set the example there! But this is my point: Instead of helping us work out our problems with constructive, sympathetic thinking and acting, you have muddled them for us more hopelessly with destructive public condemnation and denunciation. Think back to the time when you were struggling through the teens. Remember how spontaneous and deep were the joys, how serious and penetrating the sorrows. Most of us, under the present system of modern education, are further advanced and more thoroughly developed mentally, physically, and vocationally than were our parents at our age. We hold the infinite possibilities of the myriads of new inventions within our grasp. We have learned to take for granted conveniences, and many luxuries, which not so many years ago were as yet undreamed of. We are in touch with the whole universe.

We have a tremendous problem on our hands. You must help us. Give us confidence--not distrust. Give us practical aid and advice--not criticism. Praise us when praise is merited. Be patient and understanding when we make mistakes. We are the Younger Generation. The war tore away our spiritual foundations and challenged our faith. We are struggling to regain our equilibrium. The times have made us older and more experienced than you were at our age. It must be so with each succeeding generation if it is to keep pace with the rapidly advancing and mighty tide of civilization. Help us to put our knowledge to the best advantage. Work with us! That is the way! Outlets for this surplus knowledge and energy must be opened. Give us a helping hand. Youth has many disillusionments. Spiritual forces begin to be felt. The emotions are frequently in a state of upheaval, struggling with one another for supremacy. And Youth does not understand. There is no one to turn to--no one but the rest of Youth, which is as perplexed and troubled with its problems as ourselves.

Everywhere we read and hear the criticism and distrust of older people toward us. It forms an insurmountable barrier between us. How can we turn to them? In every person there is a desire, an innate longing, toward some special goal or achievement. Each of us has his place to fill. Each of us has his talent--be it ever so humble. And our hidden longing is usually for that for which nature equipped us. Any one will do best and be happiest doing that which he really likes and for which he is fitted. In this "age of specialists," as it has been called, there is less excuse than ever for persons being shoved into niches in which they do not belong and cannot be made to fit. The lives of such people are great tragedies.

That is why it is up to you who have the supervision of us of less ripe experience to guide us sympathetically, and to help us find, encourage, and develop our special abilities and talents. Study us. Make us realize that you respect us as fellow human beings, that you have confidence in us, and, above all, that you expect us to live up to the highest ideals, and to the best that is in us.

It must begin with individuals. Parents, study your children. Talk to them more intimately. Respect their right to a point of view. Be so understanding and sympathetic that they will turn to you naturally and trustfully with their glowing joys or with their heartaches and tragedies. Youth has many of the latter because Youth takes itself so seriously. And so often the wounds go unconfessed, and, instead of gradually healing, become more and more gnawing through suppression until of necessity relief is sought in some way which is not always for the best.

Mothers, become acquainted with your children. Be the understanding, loving, happy comrade of your daughter. Become her ideal. And strive to live up to the ideal you set for the woman who is to become your son's wife. Be his chum. Be young with him. Oh, what a powerful and wonderful influence you are capable of exerting if you only will!

Fathers, find out what is within the minds and hearts and souls of your children. There is a wonderful, an interesting, and a sacred treasure-house there if you will take the time and pain to explore. The key is yours in return for patient understanding, sympathetic encouragement, and kindly wisdom. Make your daughter realize the depth of your love and make her feel that you have confidence in her ability to live up to your standards of upright womanhood. Be your son's best pal. Make his interests your interests. Encourage him to formulate a workable philosophy of life. And remember this: A little merited praise means so much! A little encouragement goes such a long way!

Oh, parents, parents everywhere, point out to us the ideals of truly glorious and upright living! Believe in us, that we may learn to believe in ourselves, in humanity, in God! Be the living examples of your teachings, that you may inspire us with hope and courage, understanding and truth, love and faith. Remember that we are the parents of the future. Help us to be worthy of the sacred trust that will be ours. Make your lives such an inspiration to us that we in our turn will strive to become an inspiration to our children and to the ages!

Is it too much to ask?

Ellen Welles Page, “A Flapper’s Appeal to Parents,” The Outlook [magazine] (1922).