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Southern belle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A southern belle (derived from the French belle, 'beautiful') is an archetype for a young woman of the American South's antebellum upper class. She epitomized southern hospitality, cultivation of beauty and a flirtatious yet chaste demeanor. The stereotype continues to have a powerful aspirational draw for many people, and books like We're Just Like You, Only Prettier, The Southern Belle Primer, and The Southern Belle Handbook are plentiful. Other current terms in popular culture related to "southern belles" include "Ya Ya Sisters," "GRITS (Girls Raised In The South)," "Sweet Potato Queens," and "Bulldozers disguised as powder-puffs."
To detractors, the southern belle stereotype is a symbol of repressed, "corseted" young women nostalgic for a bygone era.
A southern belle can be of any racial/ethnic background.
Gone with the Wind is probably the most famous treatment of the southern belle. The character of Blanche DuBois in the play and film A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a woman who tries desperately to convince others that she is a belle despite contradicting evidence. (Both the roles were played by Vivien Leigh.) The character Amanda in Williams' The Glass Menagerie considers herself to be a southern belle, yet clearly has long since passed her years of youth. The movie Steel Magnolias showcases a variety of southern belles from differing social classes. Daisy in The Great Gatsby also epitomises the characteristics of being a southern belle, having been raised in Louisville, Kentucky.