The biggest myth about Southern women is that we are frail types—fainting on our sofas…nobody where I grew up ever acted like that.  We were about as fragile as coal trucks.

“Lessons from a Southern Belle” was inspired by the infamous words of several Southern women I have surrounded myself with throughout my life.  From my mother to both of my grandmothers, my sister, aunts, cousins, and friends, I have learned these trade secrets about life.  And while some of the words may be harsh sometimes, the person who spoke them had the best of intentions.

Continuing the traditions of being a Southern Belle has become hard in today’s world.  Being a self-sufficient, successful, and outgoing woman while maintaining grace and elegance is always ridiculed by the American patriarchal society.  They say a woman can’t run a business, know her favorite football team’s latest statistics, raise three kids, keep a house orderly, cook, keep the men in her life in line, get dirty when need be, and be able to clean up for a formal event.  They say it would be too stressful.

Apparently, they have never met the women I know with their “I don’t give hoot what you think of me” attitude and their iron will.  My mama can still put the fear of death in my brother, gossip with my sister, pet the dog, watch her favorite TV show, cook my dad’s favorite meal, talk to her own mother on the phone, and get after me about not picking up my shoes—ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

Now I am not saying that Southern women are the only ones who do this.  Any woman should be proud of the region she is raised in, but this blog is specifically for the celebration of the Southern woman.  She is tough, kind, sweet, hard-working, and vivacious.  She knows no limit to love and can face any obstacle.  She is a mother, a grandmother, a sister, aunt, cousin, and friend.  She is young and wild; she is old and wise. 

And she always finds a way to state her opinion…

…even if you don’t want to hear it.

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Notes about this blog:

Lessons from a Southern Belle by K. Hager is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.