Southern Belle's Influence On American Women

Women during the Antebellum Period we held to high expectations of how they were to behave. They had virtues that they adhered to. After the war broke out, the lives of women changed, and the roles they played significantly impacted the way women were viewed following the war. The Civil War was the result of decades worth of tensions amongst the northern and southern states that had ultimately ended with a war. The states had been feuding over many issues including expansion, slavery, and state’s rights (History.com Staff “American Civil War History”). The Civil war broke out in 1861 and continued until 1865. Prior to the war women stayed home and kept up things at the house, but after the war broke out, women felt they needed to help the

Flannery O’Connor: Southern Stereotypes People in the south often get stereotyped based off their appearances or the way they act. Most southerners have rituals they follow, but some are just living life. The way Flannery O'Connor deals with the traditional social structure in the South in her fiction shows that it was of major concern to her and was the source of much of her power and humor. O'Connor's exposition of a southern society which values a good, moral person yet struggles to identify Three of her short stories deal with the relationship between Christianity and society in the South: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "Good Country People," and "Revelation.”

O’Connor also poses the contrast between the old and new South in her short story “Good Country People”. Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman represent the old South because of the way in which they carry themselves and their traditional beliefs and values. Mrs. Freeman works for Mrs. Hopewell who states “the reason for her keepin her so long was that they were not trash. They were good country people”(O’Connor 272). Mrs. Hopewell describes Mrs. Freeman and her two daughters as “two of the finest girls she knew and Mrs. Freeman was a lady and that she was never ashamed to take her anywhere or introduce her to anybody they might mett”(O’Connor

The 1920s was a major turning point in American history. Known as “the roaring twenties”, the citizens of the United States enjoyed the new found wealth from the economic turnaround. The United States’ wealth more than doubled as the nation turned into a consumer society. Not all Americans were fond of the changes in society, and not all of the changes were good.

In this short paper, we will speak about the role women had in society in the antebellum south and how it was affected.

I see some truth in the stereotype of the South as the land of beautiful southern belles but it’s not entirely true. The south is very diverse, and not all women in the south are pretty southern belles. There might have been a large population of them, but they all

The Antebellum south was a very paternalistic society believing strongly in a social hierarchy that attempted to emulated the aristocracy of Europe. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 316) At the top of the hierarchy were the wealthy planters that believed in being treated with deference by those below them in the class hierarchy and were to care for those that were “inferior” like a father. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 316) The wives of these wealthy men were often “placed on a pedestal and expected to uphold genteel values of sexual purity, spiritual piety, and submissive patience,” as she managed the household and dealt with the hyper-masculine culture that surrounded her. (Nash, et al., 2007., p. 316) Below these planters were yeoman farmers that strived to achieve the wealth of higher class, but owned smaller farms and a few number of slaves.

I interviewed a good friend of mine, Mackenzie Huneycutt, a native of North Carolina. I asked her, “Do you consider yourself a Southerner?” She responded without hesitation, “No, not at all.” I asked her why she felt this way. She said, “I don’t really know, I just don’t like to

In the article "The Selfish Grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find," the critic writes, “The grandmother has just been lecturing her grandchildren concerning ‘respect’, respect for ‘native states’, for ‘parents’, and for ‘everything else’, then she immediately reveals her essential self by calling the boy a ‘cute little pick ninny’” (Maing-Alston). She tries to tell her grandchildren to be good people when she isn’t a good person herself. As a grandmother, she is supposed to lead by example for her grandchildren. Another example of how she represents the characteristics of the Old South is her drive in considering herself a "lady." According to the grandmother, being a "lady" is in matter of appearances, such as looking nice and respectable. It is obvious that this characteristic of herself is very important because "Her collars and

Belle, a direct translation from French would give the word the meaning beautiful, and with such has been used to describe women in America that come from the antebellum South which adds to the essence of the Southern region’s desire to be known as beautiful. After the Civil War between the North and South of the United States, many changes befell the Southern United States, such as a more industrialized economy, rejection of slavery, and more liberal ideas to be spread into the South. Including these changes, the role of Southern women became more flexible with education, employment, and political rights giving women much more equal opportunities amongst fellow Southerners. Despite all these changes the North considered beneficiary for women in the American South, many stereotypes about Southern women have remained. These stereotypes include, women being kind, family-oriented, and maintaining a certain reputation within their community as some of the most basic roles woman must meet to fulfill the expectations of not only men but society. Moreover, these stereotypes continue to be present in the contemporary Southern culture, which raises the question; where have these stereotypes come from? The source of these stereotypes is most likely to be based on the South’s most recognized and glorified period, the antebellum South. The antebellum South has played a major role in shaping the standards for South by setting standards of reputation, appearance, and portrayal of womanly

The South is a culture all of its own. Known for its fried food, college football, and country music, one cannot help but fall in love with this distinct culture. Residing within the already unique South is a group of even more unique college-aged girls. These girls are often referred

Slavery defined white women’s place in society and gave them the belief that it could lead to social hierarchy for them. Affluent white southern women, or southern mistresses, supported the institution of slavery because of the idea that slave ownership provided meant you were a part of the elite of the South. Southern plantation mistresses were the epitome of the ultimate housewives because they were free of the manual labor associated with their domestic duties and were able to enjoy leisure time to focus on their children and husbands. However, this picture perfect image was not the reality of the Southern plantation mistress.

Harper Lee might have wanted her famous book To Kill a Mockingbird to be a “simple love story” but it has become a staple of American literature with over 40 million copies sold. It contains references to many different ideas and beliefs, but Southern courtesy is a prominent theme

The female in Carters story is almost a polar opposite of Beauty in Beaumont’s story. Carter’s main character is an independent girl who takes matters into her own hands and rather than giving into the demands of others, she responds to them with somewhat of an attitude. For example, when the Tiger asks the woman to take off her clothes, she refuses to remove them all, she only removes her skirt and insists on leaving a sheet over her head, not allowing the tiger to see her face. The time that passed between when the stories were written shows how society’s view on the archetype of women has changed. They are no longer expected to stay quiet and are even allowed to have a voice in society. This is true in “The Tiger’s Bride” because the main female is now making her own decisions on how she wants to live her life. Comparable to “Beauty and the Beast”, where Beauty has absolutely no voice of her own in

The original “Dixie” is a song written in the nineteenth century about the magnificence of the southern United States. The poem itself is about a woman’s lover being hung and the protagonist grieving over the ordeal, all while taking place in Dixie. Hughes usage of the word “Dixie” so often in the poem might imply that the protagonist blames the south for the death of her lover; if they were somewhere else, such as the north, the death probably would not have happened. These contrasting meanings has a huge effect on the reader, if, that is, the reader is familiar with the original