This following is a letter sent to the Editor of "Flapper" and published in the "Should Flappers Be Spanked" column, March, 1923
SHOULD FLAPPERS BE SPANKED
YES
To the Editor:
I am 21 years of age-my sisters are 17 and 20. My mother punished us because we were out until 3am at dances and answered her disrespectfully and impudently when she chided us for our late hours and bad conduct.
After an evening at a cabaret and dance we arrived home at 3am. When mother chided us I answered defiantly and said, "I would do as I liked, as I am of age" Mother said, "oh, is that so! well, young lady, when your father comes home I will find out", I said, "I don't care".
Then mother took me by the arm, marched me to her room, picked up a hairbrush and put me down over her knees, raised my clothes, and spanked me as hard as she could with her hairbrush and hand despite my tears and kicking. Mother certainly spanked me soundly and I was very sore for a week after. The spanking was the soundest I had ever recieved, because my mother said I was getting too impudent and flighty and I was so easy to handle she would not give up the fashion of applying the hairbrush or palm of the hand when we deserve such discipline.
We planned to leave home on account of the punishment for our conduct. But we gave up the idea when mother said she would give us a much harder spanking with the strap when we returned home.
Before that night we girls were not afraid of our mother. We acted and did as we pleased at home. We girls now love and respect our mother and father becasue she advised us for our own welfare.
I believe any mother is justified in spanking a daughter even if she is over 20, if that daughter disregards her good advice and misbehaves herself in a unladylike manner by answering insolently at home. If more girls in our American homes got spanked soundly by their mothers for being snappy and flighty there would be less need for disciplinary institutions.