Essay Sample on The Flapper Counterculture

The difficulties in countercultures in the traditional American values in the larger society have impacted its cultural dynamics throughout is the background. Counterculture underscores an organization rejecting the primary societal norms, prices, and procedures and, instead, exchanges them with the pattern sorts. The 1920s saw the rise in American particular counterculture that challenged the women's original value in a significantly modest society. They were nicknamed the flappers, and it constituted the middle class, metropolitan, northern women, who countered the traditional Victorian roles. The cultural context of that period dictated that women were expected to act with modest and in a conservative way. The social and political context of that period underlined the feminine ideals which underscored women residing at home and not in the workforce, a concept that was defied the flappers who commenced the opposite like voting, dancing smoking and drinking alcohol. The flappers also countered the traditional social ideals of women's conservativeness by putting on makeup, taking risks, and cutting their hair. The flappers' primary aim of defying the social, political, and cultural contexts dictated of women at that period was, therefore, in the quest of their liberation coupled with their elimination of the second friendly criteria, thereby creating their new roles in the society.

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Ideologies of the Flapper Counterculture

Unlike the years before the roaring twenties where women wore floor-length dresses with covered arms and legs coupled with long hair as dictated by Victorian attitudes on dressing, strict morals, and strict etiquette, the flappers had different ideals. Their desires informed Their ideas for freedom. For instance, they championed the Amendment for equal rights, which allowed them to start voting, attending college, go beyond house making by joining the workforce, join dance groups, go behind the wheels of cars, and the quests for beauty. Their ideologies were informed by their experiences from working outside the home, disposable income, technological innovations, and exposure to new ideas, places, and ways of living. The flappers' counterculture's ideologies were prioritized by personal fulfillment, more modern, independence, and a carefree spirit. So while the older generation's views on the flappers were embodied by disgrace, wildness, and boisterous and clucked their tongues, the younger generation women were busy reinventing themselves and creating a flapper lifestyle.

Culture of the Flapper Counterculture

The young women with middle-income brackets were in preference of the flapper look characterized with a short skirt, low waistline. They bobbed hair owing to their liberal ideas that rippled in the society consumed by the post-war materialism and consumer capitalism coupled with the Jazz Age that informed their culture. The modern girls geared the rise for the popular culture, which changed their status in American society and assumed new leadership positions as new forces of culture. They were viewed in the aspects of freewheeling cultural ideals, and an embodiment of materialism coupled with free will indulgence in the dynamic social activities. All those informed the flapper's culture together with fun-seeking and pursuance of worldly pleasures and signified fashions as a widespread cultural phenomenon to obtain cultural clout.

Significance of Flappers' Looks, Clothing, and Style

The fashionable looks were because of the lifestyle they adopted and the short an act of rebellion against the adoration of the older generation of the long feminine looks, and the shorter skirts were to make the dancing easier. Brassieres were preferred to corsets to bound their dresses and make dancing easier. They wore long shapeless dresses as they were easier to make, and they acted as a blur between the rich and everyone else. Their prosperity in postwar allowed them time for leisure, a time that was spent drinking, hanging out with free thinkers, and dancing. The rise of automobiles allowed the flappers to travel anywhere they pleased, including entertainment venues and speakeasy coupled with heavy petting and sex, especially in large vehicles.

Other Characteristics of the Flapper Counterculture Other Than the Style

They freely expressed themselves, something they lacked in all their lives by an upbringing of confinement. Their denials for liberation and erotic gratification throughout their lives informed their quests for freedom. As soon as they received a slight individualism preference coupled with the thrills on the aftermath of World War 1, they could no longer undo themselves, thereby defying the norms of gender and subsequently creating the undoubtedly flamboyant flapper culture. They were also a symbol of empowerment and liberation that modified women's roles in the United States. They were characterized to have broken the molds and notions that women were only meant for housework and instead informed of other women roles in the society like exercising their democratic rates like voting, joining the workforce, and acquisition of education. They achieved that through their carefree attitude and living life to the fullest with courage and excitement coupled with heir rebellion against repression. They also acted as an inspiration to other women from the lumber work who, after that, felt empowered to go to work.

Effects of the Flapper Counterculture on the Society at Large

In spite of their carefree lifestyle that was considered immoral, outrageous, and dangerous, their energetic freedom informed the first generation of independent women in America aimed at pushing the social, economic, political, and sexual freedom for women. The young liberated and scandalous flappers symbolized changes in 1920s Western Society by redefining womanhood through their expressions coupled with voicing their opinions in their quest to change women society. They won in proving that, just like men, they could also be diverse by doing the things that men did and countering the societal behaviors that undermined women. They achieved that by defying the societal norms and adopting their own like wearing makeup, dancing Jazz wearing short skirts, choosing bobbed hair, speaking their language, smoking, and living for the moment coupled with the fashion that underscored lifestyle. They were a symbol of the more substantial societal change through their newfound liberation for women.

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