Quote:
Originally Posted by DrPhil
Historically, however, southern belle was not used in reference to nonwhite and nonupper class women. In the average southern setting, people will still only use southern belle in reference to white women of a higher social class. An example is the posting of southern debunantes and the NPC sorority memberships.
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Even now, "Southern Belle" is code for wealthy white woman, whether or not we want to admit it. "The Southern Belle Primer" is meant to be satire, and can be a good one or two-time read, but it's very thinly veiled classism.
By limiting femininity to wealth and race, the "Southern Belle" label leaves out those women who don't know what to do at a white tie event. (I'm thinking of Celia Foote from "The Help," who would have known what to wear at a hog killing). It's allowed women to pass judgement on other women who don't come from the same privileged backgrounds, all in the name of "being proper." It was bestowed on white women who had the fortune to be born into a wealthy family and the means to marry into another wealthy one--a woman who's always had the means to volunteer without working, to be part of a sorority when even college was nearly impossible for most women, and a woman who didn't have to take care of their own home.
No more, no less.
I've often wondered if the obsession with SEC rush I see here on GC is an outgrowth of that. They're concerned with the women whom a very small part of society deems properly feminine.
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I am a Native Floridian (6 generations on one side!), and where I grew up is certainly the South: for better and for worse.
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