Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who rebelled against social norms through their fashion and behavior. They cut their hair short, wore short skirts, smoked, drank alcohol, listened to jazz music, and had more casual attitudes towards sex. The media played a role in spreading flapper culture by portraying these fashion trends and lifestyles in films of the 1920s. While some saw flappers as symbols of women's independence, others viewed them negatively for challenging traditional gender roles and seeming overly sexual.

1. Subcultures – ‘Flappers’
Lesson 2 collective identity blog work
Sabiha Rahman

2. What is a subculture?
• Subcultures are groups of people who share
similar likes, dislikes and characteristics who
go against or follow different norms and
values than the rest of society.

3. Flappers – 1920s women
• New breed of young
western women in the
1920s
• First appearance in the
USA: 1920 Frances Marion
film
• Their behaviour was seen
as unacceptable because
they smoked, drank lots of
alcohol, & treated sex in a
casual manner

4. The media
• They had bob cut hair (became popular and all women
started to copy it just because it was in films and all sorts)
• Wore short skirts (changed the norms of media and how
women dress – gave more women confidence to do it too, so
they showed their legs more)
• Listened to jazz music (the media has an influence on music
choice and jazz soon became a popular music genre played
in pubs, clubs and public places)
• Excessive makeup (Different brands, colours and women
start to make it a sort of ‘essential’ – Marilyn Monroe’s red
lipstick)

5. Flappers - lifestyle
• Lots of casual sex
• Drinking alcohol
• Smoking
• Starting to work outside the
home and challenged
women’s traditional roles

6. Flappers – appearance
• Result of French fashions (especially Coco
Chanel)
• Tiny skirts
• Bob hair cuts
• Hats
• Bright white teeth

7. So how were they represented by the
media?
• For women, it became an iconic
symbol to be a flapper because
you worked against the norms of
society which, in some views of
women, is patriarchal (male
dominated)
• Working outside of home,
creating your own fashion trend,
being different & doing what
men mostly do (like smoking)
was being rebellious but also
taking a stand for women
• On the other hand, a lot of
people disagreed with the acts of
flappers because it showed
women to be ‘easy’ or ‘dirty’ and
actually gave a bad reputation
for women in the 1920s

8. Media representation - documents