The Revelation of a Southern Belle

The Revelation of a Southern Belle

Being born into the arms of a black headed, free spirited heroine and a business minded Southern Baptist minister can create a human being of many different sorts. I suppose I could lived a small town life, situated in a clearing of the woods in North Georgia, some call a town, or maybe I could have been a rebel child, sneaking out of the house to run crazy through the midnight mist of summer and eventually ended up in some exotic part of the world, but truth be told I sit directly in the center of each of these people. I am a Southern Belle, full of spunk and happiness, but I am also a woman of strong morals with high hopes and goals that could reach the top of Mount Everest. I will not settle for a Mrs. Degree and I will not be run over by anyone. I am a natural leader, a sore loser, and impatient. I am Korea Black. My life consists of experiences and people that have shaped and molded me into the complex and beautiful person that I am today. You could say that I am a box of confetti. Some pieces are sparkly and bright, while others are dark and grey, but in the end the dark and grey pieces create a brighter and more elusive image of the sparkly and bright pieces of who I am.

Throughout my life I have been called a Southern Belle and to some extent I can agree with this stereotype. I am kind, gentle, and caring. My daddy is my main man and I can always count on my mama, but the image of a ditsy blonde girl with stars in her eyes over a boy whose daddy owns a cotton farm makes me sick. Those are the girls who give true Southern Belles a bad reputation. Traditionally, Southern girls were sat on fluffy, pink cushions, told to look pretty, and to not worry their pretty little heads on things that do not concern them. In an article written by Victoria E. Bynum called Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South, she explains that "Marriage provided the essential means by which white women

fulfilled their societal role, while slavery provided the means for African American women" (Bynum Vii). In this sentence the essential idea of life for southern women of the old south is revealed. Today these ideals have still lived on and unfortunately cling to the new age Southern Belles. Since this Southern Belle image is incredibly tainted with the colors of antebellum south it is hard to hear myself itemized as this stereotype. The people who stamp this mark on me only know my top layers. They know me as the girl who does not mind hopping in the kitchen to cook cookies or the girl who says yes ma'am and no ma'am, but they do not know my deeper layers. If they would take the time and not automatically typecast me they could peel the top layers back and reveal a woman who is strong minded and willing to put everything on the line for what she believes in. It is important that everyone remembers to fully understand someone before they judge. Not only would this create a more open minded society, but it would also create a society of deep understanding and peace.

Many circumstances have reshaped my idea of myself as well. For the first twelve years of my life I thought