“Why Should We Slam the Flapper?”

What is the opposite of “Flapper”?

What is just the right word to describe the “serious-minded girl”?

Etta Spivak of South Second Street in Brooklyn wanted to know.

So she offered the girls of a Maine summer camp a prize of $50 for the camper who could come up with the right word to describe a proper young lady.

The New York American found this contest quite amusing “The paper for people who think” weighed in on this matter by gallantly riding to the defense of the maligned flapper:

"Having; somewhat of a weakness for flappers we hesitate to try for the prize ourselves lest it seem that we are casting reflections upon the species. We have known flappers to be intensely serious-minded. The business of dressing and lip-sticking and powdering a shiny nose and dancing and conversing with vapid young men is not to be taken too lightly. And on the other hand we have known serious minded college graduates who looked upon bobbed hair with horror and who could bore you to death in a half an hour."

Flappers were in fact, editorially speaking, not as bad as the “serious-minded” species of womanhood. The flapper’s lack of gravitas was actually to be applauded:

"Serious-mindedness, however, is not the outstanding trait of the flapper. And to be perfectly frank, we are rather glad of it. The moment girls become serious-minded they form organizations and try to reform the world. They do much better at dancing and holding hands.

The flapper’s mission in life is to be young and pretty and gay and pleasure-loving—the butterfly of the sex. To become absorbed in politics or the Einstein theory would not only crimp her style but would rub some of the dainty bloom from her wings.

Upon careful consideration, we positively refuse to coin a word or select an epithet for the opposite of this type. We are too gallant. And we like the type so much that we are afraid we might get rough or sarcastic in our selection.

Keep your $50, Etta. We may be foolish but our heart is true to the flapper. Your gold cannot buy us."

[New York American, May 5, 1924, editorial page.]