Reference no: EM133272971

Read passage answer question Explain how the true purpose of the Southern Belle was to keep women weak and inferior yet make them think they want the Belle lifestyle. Make sure to discuss how race, class, and ultimately, white male dominance are part of this thought. Use specific evidence from the article and really explain your ideas.

The belle was based on the English model of a woman as an angel in house as well as on the small number of upper class women who were, thereby, considered "custodians of culture" of keepers of the proper culture of the South. (Bartlett and Cambor, 11) The stereotype rested on a set of very strict class, race and gender traits. Drawing on this statement, it went without saying that the belle was white and of upper class origin. She was lively, little bit vain, rather naïve and "had few tasks other than to be obedient, to ride, to sew, and perhaps to learn reading and writing" (Seidel, 6). Since courtship, innocent romances, and, consequently, marriage were considered to be the highest aspirations of her life, the belle's energies and skills were mainly directed to finding and marrying real Southern gentleman. The act of marriage gave this stereotype something new - the feeling like it is worth it for the woman; it consequently transformed her into a "hardworking mature woman who was supervisor of the plantation, nurse, and mother" (Seidel, 6) The purpose of this Southern woman stereotype was made upon a bunch of ideas. It was about keeping woman in their place (weak), which began practically with the belle's birth, when her mother 'handed her over' to mammy, and continued during her childhood and youth. This placed the belle in a kind of limbo: where she was forced to accept the cultural role which denied her sexual and maternal identity (because she was not around a "true" womanly figure), so too the belle had to deny her sexuality and, at the same time, perform passion without taking part in it. As one would expect, the construction of Southern bellehood had its racial background which was tied to sexual mistreatment of African American women legalized by the institution of slavery.