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Remove the Southern belle from her inglorious perch
Washington Post ^ | August 14, 2015 | Elizabeth Boyd

Posted on 08/19/2015 6:24:59 PM PDT by SJackson

The writer is research associate in American Studies at University of Maryland at College Park, and the author of “Southern Beauty: Race, Ritual, and Memory in the Modern South” (under contract to University of Georgia Press).

When administrators at the University of Georgia declared a ban on hoop skirts in the spring, I could only think, what took you so long?

But in that sense UGA was really no different from other Southern schools. Long after many universities had officially done away with a variety of Old South symbols, the feminine figure most clearly identified with Dixie — the Southern belle — continued to enjoy free rein. College administrators who had long since banned the Confederate battle flag, nixed the singing of “Dixie” and given plantation-owner mascots the boot were still saying yes to the dress.

Wearing hoop skirts to unofficial campus social events such as fraternity-sponsored Old South balls, after all, was just feminine. Just fluff. Just women.

The hoop skirt ban was enacted in response to an ensuing uproar in March at the University of Oklahoma after members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a fraternity with Southern roots, were caught on video chanting a racist song with references to lynching. The ban also came just weeks before University of Mississippi student Graeme Phillip Harris was indicted on federal civil rights charges of leaving a noose and a flag bearing Confederate insignia on a statue of James Meredith, the school’s first black student. Harris has since pleaded guilty. Of the charges, then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. noted, “No one should ever be made to feel threatened or intimidated because of what they look like or who they are.” The Mississippi NAACP branch has called the actions a hate crime.

The crude campus racism would soon pale next to the June tragedy in Charleston, S.C. After the mass murder of nine African American churchgoers, allegedly by a white supremacist who blatantly linked his views with the Confederate banner, the U.S. public engaged in long overdue soul-searching about the true meaning of Confederate symbolism. One result has been the steady removal of its signs from civic life. But related conversations have not necessarily taken place, and the question remains: Will feminine racial symbols — less noticed, highly effective — ever be similarly called to task? Will observers ever recognize what the hoop — and the contemporary belle — have to do with the hate?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: dixie; georgia; purge
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To: SJackson

Liberals are never happy with the way things are, never grateful for what they are granted in “change”, and never satisfied that things have “changed” enough.


21 posted on 08/19/2015 6:40:29 PM PDT by 50sDad (A Liberal prevents me from telling you anything here.)
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To: SJackson

War on White Continues


22 posted on 08/19/2015 6:41:49 PM PDT by GeronL (Cruz is for real, 100%)
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To: SJackson

I have been through Athens, GA. I have been through Clemson S.C. I have been through Statesboro, GA. I have been through Troy, Alabama. I have been through San Marcos, TX.

They all had one thing in common. An unusually large percentage of gorgeous girls. I don’t mean just a lot either. I mean babes everywhere you look.


23 posted on 08/19/2015 6:42:39 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: SJackson; All
Memo To Elizabeth Boyd:

Click the Pic

24 posted on 08/19/2015 6:43:22 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: SJackson
It says more about paranoid, pathetic people like Boyd who waste valuable ink writing incoherent hate (yes, HATE ) screeds like this than people who choose to dress up in clothes from a bygone era like many people of many other cultures do. Boyd is a contemptuous fool.
25 posted on 08/19/2015 6:44:15 PM PDT by driftless2
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To: 50sDad

Young women all over the country wore hoop skirts in the 1950s.

It was a fashion statement,no more,no less.

.


26 posted on 08/19/2015 6:44:39 PM PDT by Mears
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To: SJackson

G.R.I.T.S... Ain’t nothing better.


27 posted on 08/19/2015 6:44:48 PM PDT by roamer_1
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To: 50sDad

John Wayne once said,”If can’t respect your elders,at least respect your betters.”
A concept that liberals can’t grasp.


28 posted on 08/19/2015 6:44:52 PM PDT by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: SJackson

Another homegrown Taliban determined to erase any and all traces of history. So we can make the same mistakes again...and again... and ad nauseum.


29 posted on 08/19/2015 6:45:24 PM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: Farmer Dean

One of many.


30 posted on 08/19/2015 6:45:47 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: SJackson
Elizabeth Boyd.


31 posted on 08/19/2015 6:47:39 PM PDT by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: SJackson

In this Wash. Post article, we have a perfect example of “the Southern Belle” versus “Da Northern Bitch”.

Who would you rather take to the ball, the “Bell of the Ball” or the “Bitch of the Ball”?

The answers seems very simple to me.


32 posted on 08/19/2015 6:50:19 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: roamer_1

Mother fixed grits probably 80% of the time for breakfast.

I love them but not by themself. I would mix a fried egg, and sausage meat in with the grits and eat it all with a buttered piece of toast or 2 or 3 pieces of buttered toast.


33 posted on 08/19/2015 6:50:38 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: GeronL
Eric H. Holder Jr. noted, “No one should ever be made to feel threatened or intimidated because of what they look like or who they are.”

Unless you are white.

34 posted on 08/19/2015 6:50:52 PM PDT by Henry Hnyellar
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To: SJackson

How about Mint Julep and Sweet Tea? Racist beverages!


35 posted on 08/19/2015 6:50:54 PM PDT by Leep (Vote Bush! Join the Bush League! Why? Because we say so!)
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To: Henry Hnyellar

bump


36 posted on 08/19/2015 6:52:26 PM PDT by GeronL (Cruz is for real, 100%)
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To: SJackson

If these women wish to satiate the sick desires of the Left, they have a choice between:

Hemp clothing
Pantyhose
Butch clothing
Burqas
Nothing

All other choices will have you murdered or name-called on the spot by the Left.


37 posted on 08/19/2015 6:53:33 PM PDT by Objective Scrutator (All liberals are criminals, and all criminals are liberals)
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To: RightGeek

Yikes! Forget the hoop skirt, someone put her in a burka posthaste.


38 posted on 08/19/2015 6:54:32 PM PDT by bigredkitty1 (March 5,2010. Rest in peace, sweet boy. I will miss you, Big Red.)
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To: SJackson

Whither celebrating diversity? whither tolerance?


39 posted on 08/19/2015 6:54:44 PM PDT by ctdonath2 (The world map will be quite different come 20 January 2017.)
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To: SJackson
Good. Maybe the South will rise up again when the Yankee comes for their Southern belles.

But then again, maybe not: millions of would-be Southern belles have been aborted already.

40 posted on 08/19/2015 6:54:49 PM PDT by backwoods-engineer (AMERICA IS DONE! When can we start over?)
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