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Cover illustration of Harper's Weekly, September 7, 1861 showing a stereotypical "Southern belle"

A southern belle (derived from the French belle, 'beautiful') is an archetype for a young woman of the American Old South's antebellum upper class. During the period, Kentuckian Sallie Ward of Louisville was the most noted belle in the South, and her portrait, which hangs in the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, is often called "The Southern Belle." A Southern Belle 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." Although the image of a Southern belle is often associated with attractive white women, black women who live in the South have also been considered Southern belles. Southern Belle could refer to: Southern belle, a refined woman of the American South Southern Belle (KCS), a passenger train operated by the Kansas City Southern Railway Southern Belle (LBSC), a passenger train operated by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Southern Belle (game), a computer game Southern Belle... Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 512 × 599 pixelsFull resolution‎ (907 × 1,061 pixels, file size: 236 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 512 × 599 pixelsFull resolution‎ (907 × 1,061 pixels, file size: 236 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Teresa Bagioli Sickles confession, 1859 Harpers Weekly (A Journal of Civilization) was an American political magazine based in New York City. ... For other uses, see Archetype (disambiguation). ... Geographically, Old South is a subregion of the American South, differentiated from the Deep South as being the Southern States represented in the original thirteen American colonies, as well as a way of describing the former lifestyle in the Southern United States. ... Antebellum is a Latin word meaning before war(ante means before and bellum is war). ... For the Ludacris single, see Southern Hospitality. ...

To detractors, the southern belle stereotype is a symbol of repressed, "corseted" young women nostalgic for a bygone era.

Use in Popular Culture

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. 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. Gone with the Wind is a 1939 film adapted from Margaret Mitchells 1936 novel of the same name. ... Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), with Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski Blanche DuBois is the principal character in Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. ... A Streetcar Named Desire is an Academy Award-winning 1951 film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. ... Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known as Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards. ... The Glass Menagerie is a play by Tennessee Williams. ... Steel Magnolias, by Robert Harling, is a 1987 off-Broadway play, made into a movie in 1989. ... The Great Gatsby is a 1974 film made by Newdon Productions and Paramount Pictures. ... Louisville redirects here. ...

Rogue of Marvel Comics' X-Men is probably the most well-known "southern belle" in comic books. Rogue (Anna Marie[1]) is a Marvel Comics superheroine, a member of the X-Men. ... This article is about the comic book company. ... The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ...

Although a southern belle can be of any background, traditional symbols in film have often been juxtaposed to the enslaved woman or hired maid servant.

In modern culture

In MTV's show True Life during the 9th season one episode was dedicated to following Southern belle's in modern culture. True Life is a documentary series running on MTV from 1998 to the present. ...

External link

MTV's True Life episode titled "I'm a Southern Belle"