Beyond Clara Bow.
A. L. Mencken first popularized the word"flapper" in a 1915 essay for The Smart Set. His take: “She is opposed to the double standard of morality… She seldom blushes; it is impossible to shock her… It is a delight to see her sink her pearly teeth into a chocolate, macaroon, even a potato.” When Mencken wrote his piece, American women still did not have the right to vote—but that would soon change.
Of course, it wasn’t long before people began policing flappers’ style. The YMCA distributed this pamphlet, comparing “proper” and “improper” dress in their campaign against “certain modern tendencies.” Disaster, perhaps, seemed imminent. Newspapers widely reported the “first flapper tragedy.” Irene Granstedt, age 14, was known around her Utah town as “the baby vamp,” and shot her 17-year-old boyfriend because he called her “terrible names.” She claimed the gun had gone off accidentally…
In the Chicago Defender, a popular black-owned newspaper, advice columnist Princess Mysteria railed against middle-aged flappers. Her response to one woman: “There is something decidedly wrong with you and before many days you will be forced to account for your deficiencies.”
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