|
Main Entry: south•ern belle
Pronunciation: \sŭth′ərn bel\
Function: noun
1 : a female from the Southern United States who generally hails from an upper socioeconomic class
Just as one generates a mental image of Rhett Butler when one
mentions Southern Gentlemen, so
also does the term Southern Belle fills one’s head with visions of
Scarlett O’Hara, his on-screen counterpart in Gone with the Wind.
I
personally picture that immortalized screen of Scarlett, in a hoop
skirts, frills and lace, gloves, wide-brimmed straw hat, surrounded by
her beaus, drinking sweet tea or mint juleps, with the backdrop of an
Antebellum plantation.
But of course not all Belles look like that.
The works of Tennessee Williams feature fading Southern Belles like Blanche DuBoise in A Streetcar Named Desire and Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. Belles in the 40s and 50s are depicted in The Notebook, Friend Green Tomatoes, and Driving Miss Daisy. More modern Belles can be found in Steel Magnolias, Sweet Home Alabama, and Sandra Bullock’s character Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side. TV shows like The Golden Girls and Designing Women also depict the flair and allure Southern Belles have.
What does it mean to be a Southern Belle?
The term originates from the French word belle, which
means beauty, and it came about during the American Civil War. A true
Southern Belle, both then and now, is a mysterious amalgam of both the Bonne Belle (“good beauty”) and Mauvaise Belle (“bad beauty”).
Both
Bonne Belle and Mauvaise Belle are beautiful, charming, graceful,
polite, and hospitable. They have impeccable manners and make perfect
hostesses. They would never mention something as base as needing to use
the restroom in polite conversation, but they are gregarious and
extraverted. They are strong women, smart and witty, but also are
delicate…like fine china. They dress with style, whether it’s in
froufrou flounces or not. They are well-bred ladies, chaste and pure,
but flirtatious.
So what’s the difference? Where the Bonne
Belle is charming and polite, the Mauvaise Belle is vain and selfish,
manipulating her family, friends, and particular men to get what she
wants. It could come in the form of a learned helplessness, one that
forces men to open doors for her and carry things. Or, the Mauvaise
Belle could straight up lie, play confused, or act helpless so that a
man feels needed and useful. A good example is when Scarlett O’Hara
puts a new hat from Rhett on backwards, pretending she didn’t know how
to wear it. Rhett buys the charade, just as many men would do in order
to feel superior and worthy.
Journalist Cintra Wilson said it well in her September 2015 article in Salon about Southern Belles:
“I have always thought of
Southern Belles as a super-elite task force of lethally disciplined
femininity—like the Spartans. In my experience, they were wicked-smart
academics who also amplified and honed their natural beauty, grace, and
charm until they, too, were advanced weaponry.”
The Southern Belle knows her boundaries of fashion (no
white shoes before Easter or after Labor day…unless you’re the bride),
graciousness (thank you notes are required, not a suggestion), and
society (never show anger, smoke, or chew with your mouth open in
public company).
However, her slightly lower socioeconomic subtype, The Steel Magnolia, doesn’t always see things or act the same way.
The Steel Magnolia
The Steel Magnolia, a stereotype which gained widespread
fame in 1989 after a movie by the same name was released, is thought of
as a Southern woman who is independent and strong, unflinching, with
exceptional fortitude (that’s the “steel” part), but who is also still
ultra feminine and beautiful (that’s the “magnolia” part).
These
ladies are often underestimated, which might be a result of having an
accent and a sweet nature that masks feistiness when provoked. They can
be smart and resourceful, which others miscalculate about them,
possibly due to the learned helplessness Southern girls grow up
emulating from their mommas.
Steel Magnolias have a sense
of propriety about them, just as Southern Belles do. But unlike a
Belle, a Magnolia will not hesitate to call someone out for violating
the rules of propriety. Where as Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind tried to smooth over gaffes and blunders, a Steel Magnolia might not (in fact, I’d be surprised it they did).
Dolly Parton in Steel Magnolias
called out a woman dancing in a dress she likely spent $500 on, but
didn’t have the good sense to wear a girdle underneath. Olympia Dukakis
remarks that the poor woman in question “looks like two pigs, fighting
under a blanket.” They do have their sarcasm and tempers, so one is
advised not to cross them or mess with their children.
Savannah-born
and raised songwriter/singer Johnny Mercer wrote about the need to
“accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.” With regards to
appearance, propriety and hospitality, this might well be a mantra for
Southern Belles and Steel Magnolias alike.
|
