Raising a Southern Belle: Race, Gender, and Socialization in the South

Erynn Price

While every family is different, and everyone has their own ideas about the best way to raise a child, there are several recurring themes in the way that many southern white girls have been raised throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. These trends have ties to the iconic image of the “Southern Belle” and white supremacy. They shape the way that southern women view themselves and the way that they interact with the world. From cotillion classes to singing “Dixie,” this paper examines issues of race and gender in the childhoods of southern white women and how the ideal of the Southern Belle perpetuates white supremacy in the South.

• Erynn Price is a senior public history major from Ninety Six, South Carolina. She will be attending the University of South Carolina as a Ph.D. student in the history department in the fall.