They wore fashions that broadcast the fact that they were much sturdier and more mature than the little flapper. (If they were going to carry the world on their shoulders, those shoulders had better be padded ones.) They could take care of themselves at a time when men couldn't be counted on. The ultimate heroine of the decade, Scarlett O'Hara, could do anything except pick the right man--she was, as one critic pointed out, a flapper in reverse, a woman who broke all the rules except the ones about sex.