Newark post., 1922-04-12
WHAT'S A FLAPPER?
EXPERTS DISAGREE
So You Can Just Look Her
Over and Write Your
Own Definition
What is a f1apper?

nation. Professors, writers, profess
sional humorists, amateur wits, "men-
about-town," psychologists, inventors
of kissometers and energy-testing ma
cines have written volumes about her.
The dictionary is non-committal.
1t says fapper is zone who flaps"
Getting down to cases, it adds that a
fapper is:
IA young bird, able to rise in
flight, especially young wild duck.
2-Anything used to arouse atten-
ton or to jog memory.
Having got this far the dictionary
throws up its hands and family calls
for help.
In England, where the term origi-
mated, a "fapper" is a young girl not
yet "in society,"" The English GUS
tom of allowing sub-debs to wear
their hair in braids or curls down
their backs gave rise to the word. A
fapper was always running or jump
ing and her hair constantly tapped.
But when the phrase was trans
planted to America it came to have a
varied meaning. For instance Alder
man "Bathhouse" John Coughlan, of
Chicago, offers this definition:
ga fapper is a youthful female,
beauteous, externally, blase internal
ly, specifically intelligent, initiative
to a high degree Her natural habitat
is the cabaret, the bathrooms and the
boulevard, the fast motorcar. She
browses about the trough of learning,
picking at its tidbits, smart phrases,
which she glibly repeats without
fully sensing their meanings. She
comes from all walks of life and has
for her main requirement nerve, a
face and figure, either actually beau
tifully or susceptible to artistic eff
fort"
Ellis Parker Butler, author, was
presented with "Bathhouse" Johns
conclusions, which brought from him
this reaction:
81 am so sad to learn the fapper
is to be defined as an internally blase,
cabaret haunter. Isn't that merely
what the lounge lizard thinks she is?
Isn't the fapper-bless her hearth
the young female of 16, twittering,
trying her undeveloped womanly
graces, as a young bird tries its
wings, and making very pretty pic
| ture as she does so?"
Mary Ida Bentley, former secretary
of the San Francisco Y. w. c. A. who
has spent much of her life among
young women, observes:
"We are tempted to think of her as
living in a spirit of masquerade, so
rapidly and completely can she as
sumo different and difficult roles Of
accomplishment.
"She tantalizes us by the simple
ness of her artfulness and yet unreal
ness. We find her light-hearted,
which is the privilege of youth. She
believes with Stevenson that to have
missed the joy is to have missed it
ALL We find her harboring secrets
and imbedded emotions which are her
hidden treasure in the mysterious dis
covery of herself as a private individ-
ual. If we do not understand these
symptoms we call it temperament and
try to dispose of the girl as difficult
or as needing discipline"
The fapper was brought to the at
tention of Professor Herman Horne,
of New York.
Everybody knows that a fiapper is
young GIRL" he said, "but there are
innumerable views as to just what
kind of young girl flapper is. A
fapper is person who prefers ignor-
ance to truth. Who has a conscience
| which does not bother her. Who can
dictate to her parents at home. Who
prefers to learn the seamy side of life
from experience"
Professor Rudolph M. Binder, of
the Sociology Department of New
York University, offers this:
"a fapper is a girl who has emerg-
ed from childhood, but has not yet at
tanned full womanhood. Physically she
may be a woman, but she is still in a
transition stage. She has assumed re-
sponsibility for her own actions and
claims liberty for them, but doesn't
know how to discharge her RESPONSE
bility or use her liberty. She may
be coy and aggressive in turn; she
may have lofty ideas or indulge in
puerilities." 4
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