Feminism
The “Flapper” was a symbol of women’s liberation from the shackles of the past and the very term itself derived from a rebellion again the conventions the past. Flappers got their name from the scandalous fashion in which they strode down sidewalks of the city with buckles on their shoes left unclasped. The Flapper—which Millie aches to be above else when she first arrives in NYC—cut their hair short and hemlines short, dared to flout Prohibition, drove cars, wore more makeup than their mothers and weren’t afraid to demand either the right to vote or work . Although they may not look it to modern audiences, Flappers were at the vanguard of the 20th century feminist demand for equality and every element of that fight seems to get touched upon in either plot or song lyric.
Love and Marriage
As a proper and thoroughly modern woman of the 1920’s, Millie arrives in the big city with no illusions about marriage. It is a business transaction pure and simple and the woman who is best at doing the job will be rewarded with a husband capable of taking care of her every financial need. That’s the plan, anyway, but the true extent of Millie’s modernism is tested almost immediately upon arrival when she begins to fall for a man who just doesn’t fit into the economic theory of marriage.
The Objectification of Women
Thoroughly Modern Millie has definitely got one of the darkest subplots for a frothy, upbeat crowd-pleasing musical. Of course, the most disturbing thing about the human trafficking element of the show is not that it introduces sexual slavery into what is at heart a love story, but that the problems of objectification and security women when they come to strange cities still exists a century later.
