Feminism and Flapperdom: Sexual Liberation, Ownership of Body and Sexuality, & Constructions of Femininity in the Roaring 20’s

Abstract

Center of Social Science Research Student Paper Award Winners (2019), (Long Paper Winner) The 1920s were known as a decade of exponential social, political, and cultural transformation and growth. This was extremely evident in the fight for and eventual achievement of women’s suffrage and the creation of the “flapper” image. These new instances of women demanding equal rights and opportunities led to shifts in cultural norms and expectations, including society’s perceptions of femininity and sexuality. The flapper movement granted women of all status that may have been denied representation and rights elsewhere the freedom in expressing their sexuality, femininity, and presentation of their bodies how they pleased despite the pressures and expectations being exerted upon them by a patriarchal society. While the flapper was a result of the expanding consumer culture in America, this does not go to cheapen what the flapper stood for in the eyes of so many women: sexual liberation, ownership of one’s body and sex, and the right to express the feminine self in ways unimaginable.