During the early part of the twentieth century, there was a great deal of revolutions and advancements within society. Starting with women in many western countries gaining the right to vote during this time. This was also the start of what would become known as “The Roaring Twenties''. This was a time where there were massive changes particularly for women. Women stopped growing their hair out and instead many women cut their hair into a shoulder or ear length bob. Another change was that the dresses they wore had much higher hemlines, something that by many more traditional people was seen as scandalous and overly sexual. During the previous Victorian era, women were always supposed to be pure and innocent. Sexuality of any kind, and especially women’s sexuality was never something that was supposed to be discussed at all. However, these were things that were beginning to happen in the nineteen- twenties, we see this in F. Scott Fitzgerlad’s The Great Gatsby with people having a more realistic view that extramarital affairs due happen with men and with women. It is also present In the story of Ulysses by James Joyce in the character of Molly. Both of these novels have female characters who seem to represent a part of the female dynamic in the nineteen twenties known as “flappers''. These were mostly upper-class young women who cut or wore their hair very short, wore short loose dresses, drank, smoked, and generally had “looser” morals then women from the previous era would have. The “flappers” often would frequent underground “speakeasies” where they would dance to jazz and drink liquor. The “flappers” belonged to the younger generation, many of the men of this generation had recently returned from fighting in the First World War. This was a generation who longed to forget and was not interested in going back to the ways that their parents had lived before the war. Readjusting to peacetime was not easy for anyone. Many of these men had both physical and psychological war wounds. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or as it was then known shell-shock, was not yet really recognized as a disease. Often times its symptoms were attributed to a lacking of moral character, even being seen by some as a sign of cowardice. Without the ability to seek out mental health treatment many men turned to this new “flapper” made culture to try and heal their psychological scars. The same can most likely be said for many of the flappers themselves. This was the first war where there had been truly staggering amounts of civilian casualties. Exact number are not known, however experts estimate that around ten million civilians had been killed over the course of the war and millions more had seen their homes demolished by enemy bombs. This meant that not only did this war leave psychological scars on soldiers but civilians as well. Many of these flappers had most likely lost friends and or family either on the front lines or in the bombing raids. This left an entire generation of young people who only wanted to forget about everything that they had lost and only focus on the future ahead of them. https://www.thoughtco.com/flappers-in-the-roaring-twenties-1779240- more about “flappers” https://theconversation.com/what-world-war-i-taught-us-about-ptsd-105613- more on the treatment of PTSD during the First World War. http://www.centre-robert-schuman.org/userfiles/files/REPERES%20%E2%80%93%20module%201-1-1%20-%20explanatory%20notes%20%E2%80%93%20World%20War%20I%20casualties%20%E2%80%93%20EN.pdf- more on civilian deaths during the First World War
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