“Flappers” On the ascent

March is Women’s History Month. NY1920s always centers women’s history; this month we’ll do so a bit more emphatically.

One hundred years ago today… The word “flapper” was all over the NYC newspapers, especially in contributions by readers.

According to Google’s Ngram, 1922 ranks as the eighth-highest year for printed use of the flapper–topped by all the subsequent years of the 1920s. The blog Silentology recently posited that 1922 should in fact be considered “the year of the Flapper.” Today’s post contains a sampling of uses of the word in the NYC newspapers on or around March 29, 1922:

Readers sent in poems: 

One Nelson Harding’s poem lampooned flappers and the fad for the language Esperanto.

One woman responded to public criticism of flappers and “shifters,” signing off as, “A Flapper and Not Ashamed of It.”

Newspaper humorists (male) cracked jokes, such as Neal R. O’Hara in his “Live Wire” column.

But the papers took serious flapper news seriously:

The clergy took it seriously too:

More tolerant voices responded:

The word was used to sell women’s clothing, such as in National’s Outlet Store on West 24th Street.

And this advertisement for Bedell Department store in Herald Square:

– Jonathan Goldman, March 29, 2022

TAGS: women, gender, style, fashion, clothing, morality, religious, church, feminism, media, language, slang