LEVISH, Thomas. The Flapper.

(Chicago, IL.): The Flapper Pub. Co., 1922. First edition. Octavo. 48 pages. Vol. 1 No. 3. The third issue of this small circulation magazine that celebrated the flapper’s appeal. Flappers represented a new moral order. Although they were the daughters of the middle class, they flouted middle-class values. They shrugged off their chaperones. Worse still, they danced suggestively and openly flirted with boys. Flappers prized style over substance, novelty over tradition, and pleasure over virtue. In other words, flappers embodied the triumphs – and the dangers – of the modern age. During the late 1910s and 1920s, the flapper became a lightning rod for a cultural debate about the changes rocking the United States in the late 1910s and 1920s. For many, the flappers embodied these changes, which ranged from the rise of a mass consumer culture to the changing status of women, represented most dramatically by women’s obtaining the vote in 1920. But, even as the flapper’s embrace of fun, fashion, and sexual liberty raised the ire of many social commentators, many adolescent girls saw the flapper as a role model. This issue is notable for including a Flappers’ dictionary, a list of terms adopted by this spited modern girl. A very good copy in stapled wrappers.