On Being "Upptiy"

My NC History professor had focused on the 1920's in his own studies and it is a fascinating period. Much of what we consider distinctly "American" such as professional sports, the young Americans as their own "Youth Culture", cars as part of our popular culture, jazz, blues and so on emerged in the 1920's.

(And of course, we all know that prohibition led to big colorful race cars whipping around a track at 190 mph., now America’s fastest growing sport.)

But many conservative Christian groups railed against the heyday of the Jazz era as a decline of American culture. One of their specific targets were “Uppity women” ie. the “flappers” whom they saw as the sirens of hedonism and sin, rebelling against the “Natural place” of women in the kitchen.

So for Vic, Squirrel, Bellbird, Denise2, Andrea, Robbie, Ywrose, Snowball, Karen, Mom and all the other “uppity women” out there (though Bell and Squirrel are Commonwealth and probably don't have to deal with this), here is a description of a typical “flapper” from a college newspaper of the era that my professor read aloud in class:

“Any real girl that has the vitality of womanhood, who feels puglistically inclined when called “the weaker sex”, who resents being put on a pedestal and worshipped from afar, who wants to get into things, is a flapper.”




Isn't that just the cat's pajama's?

So we’re flappers, who knew?

Be proud, be uppity. :D