Was there a Sexual Revolution in the 1920s?

1. How do you define the "New Morality" that the younger generation had created in the 1920s?

The “New Morality” was result of a burgeoning economy where young women were becoming more financially independent, better educated and had more disposable income.  They were influenced by leaders of various movements to discard the mores of their parents and lead a more self-determined (and some would say more self-indulgent) life.  This was particularly illustrated in the behavior of young women known as “Flappers” who rebelled against the standards of the older generation, particularly with regard to public behavior and sexual activity. Suddenly images of “Flappers” with rouged knees that drank at speakeasies and were free to do as they pleased, flouting the “double-standard” of sexual conduct, appeared in movies, books and magazines.  Like many cultural “fads”, the “Flappers” as icons of the “New Morality” were small in number but were idealized in the popular culture of the time.  I disagree with the statement that the younger generation created the “New Morality.”  The individuals who influenced this line of thought were actually of the older generation. The term “New Morality” was promoted by Margaret Sanger in her book “Woman and the New Race”, published in 1920.  Ms. Sanger was forty-one at the time of publication.  High profile activists like Ms. Sanger promoted the idea that birth control would allow women to “improve the quality of their sexual experiences” (Kennedy, David, Birth Control in America, Yale University Press, 1970, p. 127).  Sanger had adopted the beliefs of psychologist Havlock Ellis; that sex was a liberating force.  The younger generation was coming of age after the conclusion of a world war.  The economy was booming and entertainment in the form of radios, movies and mass market magazines was affordable and readily accessible.  When American intelligentsia started following the theories of Sigmund Freud and sexual repression, together with the frank publications by Sanger and Ellis about birth control and sexual freedom, media picked up on the trend, unfortunately only presenting the enticing form, not the substance. 

2. Do you think that there really was a sexual revolution? And if so, what was the cause of it? [proceed to next to questions if you think so]

If there was a sexual revolution, there was also a counter-revolution.  Margaret Sanger’s explicit sexual advice to women was indicative of the split in the women’s movements of the 1920s.  The more conservative movements, like the League of Women Voters, would not support the Equal Rights Amendment because they believed that laws that protected women should remain in place.  These conservatives were also repelled by radical feminist beliefs that women should not only have the same legal rights as men, but should be sexually active as men.  In other words, the conservatives believed the message from the “New Women” was that women had the right to behave as badly as men.  The more radical wing of the women’s movement, the National Women’s Party, pushed for equal rights, period.  There was not a revolution so much as a heated debate as to how women should exercise their new found freedoms.  The conservative contingent was interested in expanding the lives of American women and the radical contingent wanted to toss out the old rules completely.

i.              Why would most people think that a women's new found freedom was the cause for this revolution?

The mere fact that women could vote sent a psychological jolt throughout American society.  However, while it was a major step, many women did not exercise their legal right to vote; particularly recently arrived immigrants, and black women (and men) in the south, where they were actively discouraged from voting, through literacy tests, poll taxes and intimidation.  Women, for the most part, were not active in political campaigns either.  The machinations of the political machine were new to women and still dominated by men.  However, gaining suffrage leveraged women into the position of pushing for stronger laws to protect women and children.  When a class of individuals does not have the right to vote they are at the mercy of others.  In the case of marriage where the man held all the rights, he also held all the responsibilities.  But if he did not meet his obligations or abused his rights as a husband, a woman would have no recourse outside of social ostracism of the offender through religious or family intervention (as is seen in cultures with close kinship ties).  When women gained the right to vote, they climbed another rung up the ladder of independence and equality under the law, but the potential freedoms suffrage afforded were not realized for many decades. 

The driving force behind “new found freedom” was economic independence.  During World War I women stepped into the jobs that were traditionally held by men.  After the conclusion of the war, an economic boom created a consumer-oriented economy.  More, better educated women entered the job market and were able to support themselves.  With this new independence, women were freer to make decisions about sex, contraception, marriage and divorce.  The women of the 1920s were exploring new roles in life as demanding as any the pioneers faced in the previous century.  Psychologically, the vote may have seemed liberating, but it took cold hard cash to purchase that freedom.

      ii. What role did men play in the sex revolution?

Ah, men!  Revolutionary ideas about sexuality and the psychology behind it were put forth by psychologists like Sigmund Freud and Havlock Ellis.  In spite of the spike in economic growth, there was a growing cynicism and loss of idealism that inspired Progressives of an earlier generation.  Writers like Ernest Hemingway were traumatized by the war and presented a bleak view of the world.  The promotion of sex as a “liberating force” as an anodyne to the despair of disillusioned cynics added to the acceptance of “free love” as a positive social behavior.  While the resurgence of “free love” was not a new movement, it represented a further move from Christian teachings toward a more permissive society.  It is interesting to note that male doctors supported Margaret Sanger’s views on birth control.  This clinical approach fit in nicely with the Progressive ideal of efficiency and management of a social problem by experts.  Efficiency, and ultimately, racism, led some of these medical professionals, together with Margaret Sanger, and later, the Nazis, to support the dehumanized practice of eugenics. 

If the “New Woman” was rebelling, it was not only against her parent’s strong belief system, it was against men as well.  If one reads Margaret Sanger, men were the architect of women’s evils.  They forced their wives to have sex (rape), made them bear too many children, drank in saloons and came home and beat their wives, then gave them venereal diseases.  As in many movements, the excesses of bad behavior became a cause célèbre, even though this behavior was not typical of most men.  Outrage against the suffering of mistreated women fueled the American suffragette movement that eventually led to the “sex revolution.”  We see in this attitude the seeds of the radical feminist movement of the 70s that demonized men.  How did men come out on this one?  More young women were willing to have sex outside of marriage and use birth control, therefore weakening the sanctity of marriage and made both men and women less culpable for the consequences of their actions.  Maybe it was a good thing for young men and women for the enjoyment of the moment, but the long-term disadvantages of permissiveness were dissipation and lack of direction. 

3. How did the rise of the “flapper” change behavior and fashion of the new generation? What role did movies and peer groups play in these changes?

The glamorous “Flapper” started to appear on magazines that almost every housewife in America read.  The 1924 cover of Redbook featured a “Flapper” with a story of about “girls gone wild.”  Flappers bobbed their hair, smoked, dressed revealingly, rolled down their stockings and rouged their knees.  They drank all night, danced to wild jazz music and had casual sex.  Mothers and fathers were terrified.  Young men and women were secretly and no-so-secretly captivated by the mystique.  Ever-eager to capitalize on this image, movie makers jumped on the bandwagon to exploit the popularity of the Flapper in movies.   “The Flapper,” starring Olive Thomas, was a hit.  Other actresses like Clara Bow (the “It Girl”) and Joan Crawford made their careers as Flappers.  The clothing style, as epitomized by French icon Coco Chanel, was called garçonne (French for “boy” with a feminine suffix), as it presented a young, boyish look.  The short hair, flattened bust line and straight waistlines typified the look.  Writers like F. Scot Fitzgerald presented Flappers as reckless and independent.  Men generally saw Flappers as “easy” and while they enjoyed their company, tended to objectivize them, and disrespect them.  As to peer-pressure, while popular culture and media glorified the Flapper, unless younger people were independent, it seems unlikely that “Flapper” behavior would be tolerated at home.  Dorothy Parker had the final word in her poem, “The Flapper,” which reads, in part:

“All spotlights focus on her pranks.
All tongues her prowess herald.
For which she well may render thanks
To God and Scott Fitzgerald.”

4. How was the debate on jazz and dancing (and all the themes from above) not simply about sexuality but also about race?  

The migration of black Americans from the south to urban centers like Detroit and New York City during and after World War I created “cities within cities.”  The influx of black Americans into the Harlem district of New York sparked a Renaissance of African-American culture that produced artists like Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, and Nora Neale Hurston.  The explosion of musical creativity in the jazz of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Jelly Roll Morton, Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway (of “Minnie the Moocher” and “St. James Infirmary Blues”) and the venerable Louis Armstrong (the list is so long, it is impossible to include them all) brought whites to the Cotton Club in Renaissance Harlem to experience “real” jazz.  Music was where the social circles of blacks and whites intersected but barely.  In other ways, society was still as integrated as before.  Jazz, as well as Dixieland and blues, spread across the country though the medium of radio and phonographs.  Music and dance were important forms of entertainment in the 1920s and the influence of jazz was everywhere.  Many critics did not feel that jazz was a musical art form, but others who understood the creativity and depth it had to offer, embraced it wholeheartedly.  With jazz came dances like the Charleston and the Bunny Hop.  These dances imitated dance moves that originated in the south, mostly in black communities.  This caused a shocked reaction in people who had not been exposed to the music and dance of black American culture.  The younger generation embraced jazz music and dance not only for its virtues, but to rebel against their parents.  But when the medium of radio brought jazz across America, it became a part of mainstream culture, making black artists household names.