He wrought with the crimson that swoons in the rose’s ruby heart, and the snow that gleams on the lily’s petal. He wrought with the golden gleam of the stars, with the changing colors of the rainbow’s hues and the pallid silver of the moon. When God made the Southern woman, He summoned His angel messengers and He commanded them to go through all the star-strewn vicissitudes of space and gather all there was of beauty, of brightness and sweetness, of enchantment and glamour, and when they returned and laid the golden harvest at His feet, He began in their wondering presence the work of fashioning the Southern girl. I suppose it came from the Daughters’ magazine since she never read anything else. On the day in 1948 that I got my first period, my grandmother gave me a clipping. We call it “rearing.” If the rearing is successful, it results in that perfection of femininity known as a lady. The sweetening process that feminists call “socialization” is simply a less intense version of what goes on in every Southern family. If you wish to understand the American woman, study the Southern woman.
There is most assuredly a California girl, but if anyone spoke of a California lady, even Phil Donahue and Alan Alda would laugh. There is a Midwestern farm wife but not a Midwestern lady. There is a New England old maid but not a New England lady. THERE are ladies everywhere, but they enjoy generic recognition only in the South.
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