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# 2025-03-21 - Flappers, Flippers, Masculine Women, and Feminine Men
From an article about flappers in the Smithsonian Magazine:
> Unlike their mothers and grandmothers, flappers tended to go to
> high school and even college, and they devoured new books featuring
> confident, fun-loving adolescent heroines who hiked and camped and
> solved mysteries. Flappers biked, played golf and tennis, and
> strove to emulate the flat-chested and hipless physiques of the
> adolescent boys whose freedom and lack of domestic responsibilities
> they envied.
> ... a number of impressively talented women were flappers,
> including the novelist and screenwriter Anita Loos, the satirist
> Dorothy Parker and the entertainer Josephine Baker, who went on to
> become a leading civil rights activist.
HTML From: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/flappers-took-country-storm-ever-go-away-180964412/
Fascinating! I read the wikipedia article on flappers, and queried
mainstream search engines. I found zilch, nothing, nada about
flapper reading habits, reading lists, authors, etc. I love finding
whole new categories of literature that the Internet doesn't seem to
know about yet. Expanding my search to "Jazz Age", "tomboy", and
1920s, i got a few hits, listed below.
DIR Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald
DIR Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
DIR The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
DIR The Plastic Age by Percy Marks
DIR Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The same article had an excerpt from a song about gender.
## Masculine Women, Feminine Men (1926)
by Edgar Leslie & James V. Monaco
Hey Hey women are going mad, today
Hey Hey fellers are just as bad, I'll say
Go anywhere, just stand and stare
You'll say they're bugs when you look at the clothes they wear
Masculine Women Feminine Men
which is the rooster which is the hen
It's hard to tell 'em apart today
And SAY...
Sister is busy learning to shave
Brother just loves his permanent wave
It's hard to tell 'em apart today
HEY HEY
Girls were girls and boys were boys when i was a tot,
Now we don't know who is who or even what's what
Knickers and trousers baggy and wide,
Nobody knows who's walking inside
Those Masculine Women Feminine Men
Masculine Women Feminine Men
Which is the rooster which is the hen
It's hard to tell 'em apart today
And SAY...
Auntie is smoking, rolling her own,
Uncle is always buying cologne
It's hard to tell 'em apart today
HEY HEY
You go and give your girl a kiss in the hall
But instead you find you're kissing her brother Paul
Mama's got a sweater up to her chin,
Papa's got a girtle holding him in
Those Masculine Women Feminine Men
Stop, Look, Listen and you'll agree... with me
Things are not what they used to be... you'll see
You say hello to Uncle Joe,
Then look again and you find it's your Aunti Flo
Masculine Women Feminine Men
Which is the rooster which is the hen
It's hard to tell 'em apart today
And SAY...
Wifey is playing billiards and pool,
Hubby is dressing kiddies for school
It's hard to tell 'em apart today
HEY HEY
Ever since the Prince of Wales in dresses was seen,
What does he intend to be the King or the Queen
Grandmother buys those tailor-made clothes
Grandfather tries to smell like a rose
Those Masculine Women Feminine Men
DIR Listen on archive.org
HTML Queer Music Heritage has sheet music and other recordings
See also:
HTML Lost Girls: The Invention of the Flapper by Linda Simon
HTML Where All Good Flappers Go: Essential Stories of the Jazz Age
tags: article,gender,history,song
# Tags
DIR article
DIR gender
DIR history
DIR song