After much lamentation about the end of the world, the flapper finally came to be accepted as the symbol of the “modern woman”. When masculine, she proceeded to shock. But when feminine, she was seductive. Fashionable, with bobbed hair, a cloche hat and a tailored suit, not daring to don a pair of trousers, wore make-up, voluminous costume jewellery and didn’t hesitate to show off her legs, perched on pumps.

While daytime fashion struck the public with its “masculine” allure, nightwear exalted “feminine” refinement. It partially revealed the body, preferably tanned, shifting the boundaries of modesty. Feminists did not appreciate this and saw it as an invitation to rape (see text by Madeleine Vernet).

Everyone had their own vision of the flapper. For the cartoonist Fabiano, she resembled the “môme Progrès” (the “child of Progress”) featured in the “gay magazine”, Fantasio. In 1926, men, especially the older ones, were still taken aback by her. Freedom of movement: she travelled alone. Cigarette in between her fingers, like women of ill repute... Skirt resting above the knee. A peculiar prediction circulated: legend has it that women would make babies on their own!

The disapproval of a feminist, Madeleine Vernet

Madeleine Vernet (1878-1949), teacher, lecturer, novelist, feminist, and pacifist, was initially a libertarian apostle of free love, and ran a workers’ orphanage in Epône. Over time, she evolved towards absolute pacifism based on the duty of mothers to protest against the war. In May 1921, in her monthly newspaper dedicated to “the unknown mother of the unknown soldier”, La Mère éducatrice, she attacked new fashions, which she felt exposed women to male concupiscence and the violence that could accompany it.

La Mère éducatrice, March 1921 issue, p. 71 (available at the BMD):

 

“In the metro. One evening, between 7 and 8 o'clock.

I'm standing up, as is customary in the underground. Next to me, a workman in his work clothes is also standing. He must be a joiner. His toolbox is on the floor by his feet.

I notice that my neighbour’s eyes are stubbornly focused on the same side and that they are strangely bright, animated by a flame of sensual desire that extends to the man’s lips. And, instinctively, I look at what he's looking at.

Opposite us sits a woman. Her hair is curly and powdered, her lips are red, and her eyes are outlined with black. An open coat and a very low-cut bodice reveal the swell of her breasts.

Legs are crossed above the knee. The dress is short, as befits this hour of women’s emancipation which the short dress heralded. But really, here, I wonder if there is only one dress. Legs, under extremely thin, flesh-coloured stockings, give the impression of being naked, and naked above the knees.

This woman is more undressed than if she were naked.

And again, I return to my neighbour’s eyes. Oh, those eyes! I read in them the over-excitement of the senses brought to a climax. And I think that there, in the metro, before our very eyes, this man is possessing this woman.

But the woman gets off. As far as he can, the man follows her with his eyes, then, his face tense, loses himself in inner contemplation.

And I’m thinking: now what woman is going to pay for the one who’s just been there? Yes, indeed, women’s costumes are becoming simpler, and the short skirt is a real step forward."