The Misunderstood 20s

Am I the only one who feels like pop culture highly misunderstands the roaring 20s?

Let me start with SOCIETY. The 1920s, especially in Western Europe, the newly formed USSR and the USA, were times of social progress fueled by the economic prosperity of the American stock exchange or in the case of the USSR, fueled by politics of total equality between men. In fact, regarding Queer history, the 20s were a decade of tiny but at the same time huge steps towards the social acceptance of homosexual relationships, especially in the big cities of the USA, Paris, Berlin or to some extent London. In the USSR, Vladimir Lenin went as far as to legalise homosexuality in 1917. Women gained the right to vote in many countries and all in all, western culture abandoned many of the traits and characteristics left by the Victorian Era. 

But this was short lived and confined mostly to Western countries or big metropoles. In truth, society was still very conservative in many ways. Women did gain the right to vote, but at the time (as opposed as is today) women were predominantly conservative. In Spain, for example, when women first partook in elections in 1933, the conservative christians won, and would do so in the next election, with women overall being definitedly more conservative than males. Yes, some homosexuals and transexuals could express their sexuality and/or gender freely, but ONLY in some cities and scences, society was still firmly homophobic. Jimmy Haines, one of the greatest figures of american silent cinema was an openly homosexual, and though some people did seem to be ok with it at the time, he was still very much forced to abandon the film industry by 1935, yes, in the 30s but an event that came from far back into his career.

Moving on to ART DECO: Art deco is highly misrepresented in media these days, I belive things have gotten better over time but to this day we keep falling on tropes of the era started in the 60s, like the short dresses, the modern style of art, etc. To some extent, The Great Gatsby doesn't help at all, as most interiors and decor are shown to be mostly white, very much a modern fashion sense. 

Art deco was in essence, a transitional art style that mixed the old curves of Art Nouveau with the radical new "minimalist" styles of the avantgarde. You had vibrant colours, gorgeous lines and intricate designs that extended from the most grandiose art piece to the most quaint chair or toaster. This is a factor that current minimalist interpretations of the era fail to include, as I feel that depictions of the 1920s are overly monocromatic or just boring. 

Fashion is also affected, as the craze for the 1920s in women's fashion for us today is odd at best. 1920s dresses were rectangular in shape, they didn't try to show curves or body parts, rather they tried to hide them. Women wore hairstyles resembling "men's haircuts" (a la garçon) with short & functional bob's. Jewelry was big & shiny, often hand made.

Finally, on the gerenal VIBE: the 1920s were drastically different from country to country. The decade was FULL of wars caused by the remnants of WW1. Poland, Russia, Turkiye, Germany, etc. Other countries fell under dictatorial regimes that restricted significantly freedom of expression, such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Japan, etc; & where there wasn't direct conflict or authoritarianism there was instability, like in France & the UK, who saw constant civil unrest as a result of unemployment, inflation and political instability. 

The idea of the "Roaring 20s" is only applicable to the biggest cities in the western world from about 1926 to 1929, & mainly only to the wealthier demographics. And even in the US, where economic growth was fast and quality of lifequickly improved, remained increasingly violent as a result of Mafias becoming more & more powerful due to the alcohol trade. 

Overall, the 1920s were a complicated decade that accomplished many things while at the same time failing to acknowledge the changes it was going through. The historical factors born in this decade would later on the next decade take shape & plunge the world down a dark spiral of war & death, concluding with the beggining of World War II.

Ofc this is a very amateur writing and in NO WAY should be used for sources. I suggest you make your own research, learn what was happening at the time in your local place.

Thanks for reading