EDITOR: PLEASE CORRECT SPELLING OF CHARACTER'S LAST NAME--SHOULD BE "DEVEREAUX"--SEE SPELLINGS INSIDE TEXT. THANKS!!

Blanche Elizabeth Devereaux (née Hollingsworth) is one of the four main characters on the 1985-1992 NBC sitcom the Golden Girls. She was portrayed by Rue McClanahan, who won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy in 1986 for her performance. 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The National Broadcasting Company or NBC is an American radio and television broadcasting company based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... Getty as Sophia, McClanahan as Blanche, White as Rose, and Arthur as Dorothy The Golden Girls was a popular television sitcom that originally aired Saturday nights on the NBC network from September 14, 1985 to September 7, 1992. ... McClanahan as Blanche on The Golden Girls Rue McClanahan (born Eddi Rue McClanahan on February 21, 1934 in Healdton, Oklahoma) is an American actress, best known for her roles acting alongside Bea Arthur on the television sitcoms Maude and The Golden Girls. ... An Emmy Award. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On the show, Blanche Devereaux is portrayed as a slut. Her entire life is based around pursuing men, and this is a source of both condemnation from and amusement to her roommates. Blanche's seemingly liberated sexuality was a contrast to the sexual climate of the 1980s, when AIDS was beginning to seep into a nation's consciousness. This article is about the sexual slur and slang term, for the German indie rock band, see: Slut Slut is a slang term used to indicate a person who has frequent sexual relationships with different people, especially short-term affairs. ... Human sexuality refers to the expression of sexual sensation and related emotional intimacy between human beings. ... // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 60s and 70s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... The Red Ribbon is the global symbol for solidarity with HIV positive and people living with AIDS. The Red Ribbon was created by singer/songwriter Paul Jabara AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and is defined as a collection of symptoms and infections...

This isn't to say that Blanche's life has been a constant orgy. For most of her life, she was married to high school sweetheart George Devereaux. From the backstory, he died a few years before the start of the series, though in a 1991 episode, Blanche had a dream that George came back from the dead (he said that he faked his death to escape criminal prosecution for fraud). Rue McClanahan has said that George was the love of Blanche's life, and that her perceived promiscuity was in fact a desperate search for the next love of her life. 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Blanche grew up in Atlanta. Her parents were the late Elizabeth and Curtis "Big Daddy" Hollingsworth, the latter a revered man in his neck of the woods. Much to Blanche's dismay, he slept with one of her friends in childhood, and married a young widow named Margaret Spencer years after Elizabeth passed on. After he died, it was revealed that he and Blanche's long-lost mammy had an affair that lasted for fifty years. In addition, Blanche has three siblings: Charmaine, a novelist whose lifestyle mirrored Blanche's much to their chagrin; Virginia, who in one episode asked for Blanche's kidney; and Clayton, whose coming out and subsequent engagement to a cop named Doug would anger Blanche. Atlanta is the capital and largest city of Georgia, a state of the United States of America. ... Mammy is an alternate spelling of mother, used most prominently by African American slaves during the 1800s. ... Coming out of the closet (very often shortened to coming out in winking reference to the public introduction of debutantes) describes the voluntary public announcement of ones sexual orientation, sexual attractions, gender identity, or (less commonly) paraphilia. ...

Blanche's children are a mixture of pride and shame for them. Continuity errors in the show have made it impossible to figure out just exactly who are all the Devereaux children, but two of them have been mentioned in full: Rebecca, who ran away to pursue a modeling career and came back heavier and with an abusive fiance, and who had a baby out of artificial insemination, and Janet, who was never seen but who had a turbulent relationship with her mother.

Blanche acts as co-roommate and landlord to Rose Nylund, Dorothy Zbornak, and Sophia Petrillo. Throughout the series, both she and Rose are involved in the same activity, be it auditioning for a play or doing community service projects. Though she is annoyed at times by Rose's constant storytelling, she sees her as both her best friend and a surrogate sister. Her relationship with Dorothy is mixed with envy and condemnation on both parts: Dorothy envies and condemns Blanche's sexual comfortability, while Blanche envies Dorothy's intelligence and condemns her fashion sense, among other things. Her relationship with Sophia is also interesting: Blanche sees her as a mother figure and as a mean old bitch, and Sophia sees her as one of her daughters and, very vocally, a streetwalker (and that's only a cleaned-up version of what she usually says). The Golden Girls title card. ... Community service refers to service that a person performs for the benefit of his or her local community. ...