FLAPPERS AND DR MILDRED STANLEY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18545, 20 August 1928, Page 10

FLAPPERS AND DR MILDRED STANLEY.

SOME COMMENTS ON THE HONOLULU TALK.

The reported criticism of the modern young person by Dr Mildred Stanley at the Pan-Pacific Women's Conference caused many an indignant flutter among the ladies who come within the category of “flappers.” Some of them smiled, because they had heard it all before and knew how right or wrong it was. Others thought that the remarks were unkind in the extreme, and that something, with boiling oil in it, should be applied to people who said and thought such hard things. An Exaggeration.

A lady who remembers the old days is still young enough in spirit to defend the modern flapper. “It is to be hoped,” she said, “that the cabled message to the ‘Sydney Sim’ regarding the modern flapper is an exaggeration. That Dr Mildred Stanley should take upon herself to make such a wholesale indictment against the young of her own sex seems most unnatural and uncalled for. The girls of the present day, in all they do and say, are at least open and above-board, and very fine and most capable. Some may think their freedom of speech and action indiscreet. It is probably the natural outcome of the age in which we live. Prudishness has gone and a spirit of camaraderie has taken its place.

“If Dr Stanley bases her odious comparisons on the ‘make-up’ girls use nowadays, what about the days of old, when everyone painted and darkened their eyebrows to go with their powdered hair? ‘Make-up’ is no proof of lax morality, nor carlessness of action or dubious conduct. It would be better to cultivate a broad-minded spirit. One day the pendulum will swing back, and women will keep to their own natural vocations, and not invite harsh criticism by aspiring to fill those natural to man.” All Nonsense. “All nonsense,” was the way in which a city employer characterised the attack reputed to have been made by Dr Stanley at the Women’s Conference. “There is a tendency” he declared, “to regard the flapper nowadays as constituting a new and special problem. She doesn’t. The same problem has always existed.” He said that no greater charge could be brought against the flapper than that she was young and acted accordingly. But to make the sweeping accusation attributed to Dr Stanley was to be quite ridiculous. “There is no ground either for the aspersions cast on girls in business,” he proceeded. “Such a statement might apply to a negligible minority of the flappers in business houses, but it certainly does not do more than that. The average girl who is earning her living in business gives little cause for complaints as to her conduct.” /

Under Suspicion. “ There is just enough truth in Dr Stanley’s remarks to make them sting,” said Another man. “ What she said we do not know precisely, but it is evident that she was critical of the flapper. It must be admitted that a large number of people—it may be that they are old-fashioned—view the flapper with suspicion, more on account of what they hear rather than what they see. The lurid reports of the ‘ goings on ’ at dances are familiar to everyone, and it is a fact that cigarette smoking and cocktail drinking have taken the fine edge off the modesty of the modern young person. The tendency is to lead an extravagant life, and that is the sure road to an immoral life where girls are concerned. I feel sure that Dr Stanley, whatever she said, was speaking with a deep sense of responsibility, and probably with more than the average knowledge of the facts.” “ Better than her Mother.” -

A young man who was asked for his opinion warmly defended his contemporaries of the gentle sex. “ Coming from a woman,” he said, “ these statements are liable to carry a good deal of conviction with people who have no experience of the modern girl. There is no doubt that the modern flapper is an entirely different proposition from her grandmother of the same age, but she is in no way worse. The greater freedom she has these days has made her more a woman of the world. At an early age she knows more of life than her grandmother ever knew. This contact with the world has had the effect of making her far more reliable, more interesting and better able to take care of herself.

“ Modern woman is becoming more and more independent, and is coming more into contact with man in his business and sporting activities. The result is that woman has dropped many of her foolish habits, and has adopted many of the standards admired in men. Taken as a whole, the modern flapper is a good deal more sane and useful than her mother was at the same age. The trouble with these reformers, both male and female, is that they judge all modern flappers by the really bad cases they have seen. THe immoral, cocktail-drinking girl gets no more respect to-day among her own kind or outsiders than she did a hundred years ago.”

Two Kinds of Girls. “ Tell me, what do you call a flapper? ” asked a busniess-man who was interviewed on the subject. “If you call every young woman who has bobbed or shingled or bingled hair a flapper, because of the cut of her hair, then I don't see a great deal wrong with them. If, however, you are referring to the ultra-modern species, with cigarette holders a foot long and a capacity for liquor only equalled by hard drinkers, then I find a great deal wrong with her.”

/Speaking from his own experience, that of managing a firm where a number of girls and women are employed, he said that the modern girl was quite efficient. However! he took care to see that he did not employ a girl of what he termed the “ cigarette smoking, cocktail variety.”

A social worker who was interviewed said that in her opinion the modern flapper was responsible for many of the unhappy marriages that took place. These young women, she said, with practically no sense of responsibility rushed into marriage without a thought and ill-prepared to undertake .the normal duties of housekeeping. They wished to be as free after marriage as before, with the result that their husbands and their homes suffered.

She was asked to prescribe a cure for flappers, and in replv. she said that as there were so many circumstances it was most difficult to say just what was required. She felt, however, that if the majority of young women were not so keen after excitement and sensations, it would better for themselves and the Dominion in general.