From Jezebel to the Southern Belle: (Mis)Representations of the Female in Classic Hollywood Film: Jezebel and Gone With the Wind
In: Illuminating the Dark Side: Evil, Women and the FeminineSearch for other papers by Patricia Fra-Lopéz in
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In the context of the Southern society and culture of the twentieth century, issues such as race, gender and class appear in a central position, especially in texts written by women. In this paper, we intend to revise the common interpretation of the Southern belle type, as it has proved to be one of the archetypes that has remained more resilient to disappear, and that has most influenced the treatment of women characters in the South, to the point of appearing as the central theme in an episode broadcast by MTV in April 2008, titled ‘I’m a Southern belle: Three Girls Come of Age in the South’. The Southern belle, and its main features, will provide the setting point for the panel we propose, entitled ‘The True Blood of the South: Portrayals of Evil Women in American Drama, Film and Television’. We will discuss how the southern belle has been portrayed in classical Hollywood films such as Jezebel or Gone with the Wind, and we will also make reference to its later depiction in TV series like North and South, or in Anthony Minghella’s 2003 film Cold Mountain, which, in my opinion, proves the permanence of the stereotype of the Old South. If, as Bettina Entzminger affirms in ‘The Belle gone bad’, the bad belle’s worst qualities ‘her deceitfulness, shrewdness, manipulativeness and superficiality’ are the traits that enable her to survive, we will examine how and why the southern belle is still ‘alive and kicking’ as the complex symbol of the fallen South.