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1924 Newspaper Article on Flapperism

Les Gillis

One of the Regulars
Messages
122
Location
Dallas, Texas
My mother recently gave me my Grandmother's 1924 High School yearbook. The pictures are great. If I can get some of them scanned I will post them. It also has a newspaper article that I thought some of you might enjoy reading. I know it said "no peeking guys" but I wasn't sure where else to post this.

Les



Flapper Graduates? There's None From Port Arthur High


Avow Determination To Go To College And Make Their Own Way.


The term of flapperism being given a rude jolt by the girl members of the 1924 senior class of the Port Arthur high School. "What do you intend to do after you finish high school?" was the question asked each of the each of the girls of the graduating class. The fact that this year's senior class girls are all eligible, technically at least, to flapperdom makes their replies significant.

Port Arthur High School girl seniors have run the gauntlet of the bobbed hair craze, the lip stick and facial color scheme. In short they represent a new type of girl graduate.

Did blind worship at the throne of flapperism make the girl graduate what the Blue Law advocates and dyspepsia sufferers hoped she would be? Did she emerge from high school with nothing in her pretty little head but extravagant ideas and with an over developed capacity for having a good time?

To those who have predicted girls of this age will make poor wives and be generally non compos mentis in most things, a disappointment looms for them. The girl graduates are not flappers.

This year's graduates step forward and say they are ready to make their own living by further preparation for a means of livelihood. Friday at the high school the girls of the senior class were asked to state in writing what they intended to do when they finished high school. The response was a credit to this year's senior class and to the faculty and to the parents of the high school graduates.

The girls, 80 percent of them they were going to fit themselves to be able to make their own living. Quite a number indicated they were going to choose business careers. These signed cards saying they were going to attend Port Arthur college.

Another large group made the College of Industrial Arts its choice of schools. Not select finishing schools and society seminaries, if you please but an industrial school where cooking, sewing, millinery, interior decorating and other vocations are taught, is where the Port Arthur girls, a great number of them said they were planning on going next year.

The third largest group indicated it would choose a school of nursing, preferably the state school in Galveston. Others indicated they would attend the University of Texas or some other denominational school. This can be construed that the idea of making their own living was in the mind of these wanting to take straight academic work as graduation in the regular schools prepare one for teaching and a means of livelihood.

Whether the 40 of the 60 girls, for there were some who marked their cards "undecided" are to be able to carry out their plans of being self supporting is, of course, conjecture. The outstanding point is that now, on the threshold of graduation, a great number of the girl graduates say they want to make their own living.
 

Mojito

One Too Many
Messages
1,371
Location
Sydney
What a great article! Thanks for posting it, Les. Even in the mid-20s there was an effort to counter the stereotypes about female graduates.

I had the giggles at this par:

Did she emerge from high school with nothing in her pretty little head but extravagant ideas and with an over developed capacity for having a good time?
I graduated from high school (and later university) with very high ideals and went on to pursue a career. These days I'm developing my extravagent ideas, and working on enhancing my capacity for having a good time!
 

Amy Jeanne

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,852
Location
Colorado
Fabulous article.
It's funny that they were still scared women might actually make something of themselves besides wives. Must've been an older gent from the Victorian days who wrote that article ;)
 

Paisley

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,439
Location
Indianapolis
Mojito said:
I graduated from high school (and later university) with very high ideals and went on to pursue a career. These days I'm developing my extravagent ideas, and working on enhancing my capacity for having a good time!

Same here; I wasted my youth in engineering school. Now the only classes I take are in dancing. :)
 

Les Gillis

One of the Regulars
Messages
122
Location
Dallas, Texas
Another Article

My Mom just called and told me that she found another article. This one is a little different it's about things women can do to keep themselves entertained so they don't feel like they're just doing house work all the time. I think it may be a little older; there's no date on it.

If no one thinks that's too offensive I'll be glad to post it next week after I make the trip to see my family.

Les
 

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