Jes Grew's a-Brewin: The Flapper
As I started reading Mumbo Jumbo and gradually realized what Jes Grew really was, I was constantly reminded of what I learned in Race Class Gender class last semester with Mr. Leff. For one unit, we talked about the Roarin’ Twenties, specifically the cultural conflict of Old vs New. We discussed challenges toward the old, criticisms against the new, and what came out of these perspectives. For this blog post, I wanted to share Mr. Leff’s wise teachings and apply them to what we’ve seen in Mumbo Jumbo thus far. First, modernity - a mixture of the growth in mass production, mass consumption, and urbanization - revealed two ideologies of cultural consumption in the 1920s. The old prevailing ideology glorified thrift, deferred gratitude, and hard work. Now, the new ascendant ideology idealized desire, gratification, and spending. With this new ascendant ideology came challenges toward “the elders’ way of life”, including Freudianism (freeing of sexual desire) and cultural relativism...