Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Screening The Modern Girl: Intermediality In The Adaptation Of Flaming Youth, Sara Ross

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

In November 1923, First National Pictures released a film adaptation of a scandalous bestselling novel, Flaming Youth, in which three upper-class sisters flout the conventions of proper courtship and girlish chastity held dear by the previous generation. The novel presents the sisters as examples of the revolution in sexual behavior of the modern girl happening in the United States and around the world. Record crowds flocked to the theater to see the wild partying, nudity, and sex of the book brought to life on screen.

Of course, texts such as these were under close scrutiny for the effect that …