Saptarishi Paneru
Flappers were supposed to be fashionable young women who intended on enjoying and disregarding the then conventional standards of behaviors during the massive changes brought by cultural and political shifts after the First World War in the USA. They were certain type of women known for their unconventional style and behavior primarily in their own short hairstyles and ways of dressing in short skirts. They liked to listen jazz and enjoy pubs embracing freedom from social mores. They engaged their behaviors in smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and dancing in pubs which were traditionally associated with men. Despite these some unfamiliar and unhealthy changes, those women are now considered America’s first generation to reduce the barriers in economic, political and sexual freedom for women. Further, by such behaviors they anticipated a new culture; Flapper Culture which later spread all over the world via Europe to Africa and Asia.
Notable writers, musicians, intellectuals and artists have incorporated themes of this culture in their creations. Among them F. Scot Fitzgerald, through the characterization of female characters Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Myrtle Wilson in his novel The Great Gatsby, and Isabelle Connage, Isabelle Borges and Clara Page in This Side of Paradise, has classically presented this new woman culture. Daisy Buchanan, the major female character in the novel The Great Gatsby falls in love with Gatsby and promises to wait for him. However, when powerful, wealthy and young Tom Buchanan proposes her to marry she no longer waits Gatsby. She seems cynical and sardonic in the novel. Similar character portrayal seems in This Side of Paradise through the character roles of Rosalind Connage. She also breaks the relationship with Amory and opts to marry the wealthy Dawson Ryder. Here, in these both novels Fitzgerald has tried to represent the American new women who broke the convention of marriage in those days along with their obsession of personal freedom and materialistic life.
Did the Nepalese women follow this culture in that era when American women initiated it? If we ask this question, it would be obviously ridiculous because Nepal was not prosperous and developed as it is now in that period and neither the socio-political situation was liberal. There were always intra-Rana conflicts for the successor of Rana prime minister and leadership which had been actively autocratic in governance system. Equally, there was conflict between monarchism and Rana rulers. Though Nepal was a monarchy at that time, the entire power of governance was in Rana’s hand instead of the then king. The facilities of health, provision of education, economic independence, political rights, fundamental human rights, social equality and equity on the basis of gender, age, religion and ethnicity etc. were even unimaginable. There was vast difference between general public and feudal along with very few elites. But the political movement or we can say the revolution of 1951 against the direct rule by Rana dynasty of Nepal which ruled over 104 years was abolished. This political change marked the beginning of the political awakening and democratic movements in Nepal. The study of political history shows that the political system has been changing time and again since the revolution. Despite this fact, this revolution introduced and planted the seed of democracy against the autocratic Rana rule and commenced the development plan and policies, started formal and informal educational programs. Along with the several minor changes, the major political changes of Nepal like the suspension of parliament by king Mahendra in 1960, 1980’s referendum, 1990’s democratic movement, and the public movement of 2006/7 have directly or indirectly changed the women right and their life styles.
Now, the status of women in Nepal seems much more progressive and modern since two decades. Especially modern girls have emerged as an ideal representing the ideal femininity. They are in well fashionable dresses and colored short hairstyles, hospitable, independent and majority of them are university students. Unlike the earlier girls who used to wear long skirts, lungis or saris, modern Nepali girls wear short skirts/ pants, simple T- Shirts instead of blouse or cholo. Leaving apart the traditional values regarding hair and wearing, marriage and love, these Nepalese girls now actively participate in games and sports, politics, their own business and occupations. The number of female university students has remarkably increased. New women have learned to take pleasure in the joy of life through a variety of activities while leaving in urban and suburbs far from their homes. They have satisfied their desires of learning, and have developed the ability to think. Their modern dresses compared to that of traditional women, economic independency, political activeness, and participation in sport activities, university enrollment, and an attachment to the parties, smoking, drinking and dancing in live concerts, pubs and dohori sanjha, social exposure and socialization through the education they have gained clearly show that women have began to escape the suppression of the family-oriented, submissive and traditional roles and image of women inherited from the cultural and religious features.
This new women culture/flapper culture in Nepal is fostered mainly after the emergence of democracy in 1990 and is strengthened more after the public movement of 2006/7 when these movements set the freedom of women constitutionally by the provision of equality and inclusiveness. Its rise has signaled the emergence of an entirely new generation. Nepali history has so far been led by men but these flappers are armed with a liberal, individualistic, and practical mind sets. They have become young heroines of the Nepali society. The older generation still makes bitter criticism to the changes the flappers have brought. But the new women have proactively welcomed and embraced the changes that transpired during their times and have created their own culture. They have also created the new realm of feminism by departing from the traditional ideal of women as the inheritor of morality and as mothers at home. They have changed the way of life of women while participating in the society. This culture has produced remarkable female activist, solicitors, politicians, actress, singers and intellectuals in the history of Nepal. However some of the flappers who have more inclination to smoking and drinking, parties and pubs have been perverted culturally and ruined personal life, violated the family relations eventually leading the high divorce rate than the earlier decades.
[Author is currently teaching at Lincoln College Samakhusi.]