"Southern Women"

"To be born a Southern woman is to be made aware of your distinctiveness. And with it, the rules. The expectations...

being Southern [according to my mother] means handwritten thank-you notes, using a rhino horn's worth of salt in every recipe, and spending a minimum of twenty minutes a day in front of her makeup mirror so she can examine her beauty...It means never leaving the house with wet hair. Not even in case of fire. Because wet hair is low-rent.... This is less about vanity than self-respect

... Side note: Southern women do not capitalize on their looks to snag men, though that often results. The reason we Southern women take care of ourselves is because, simple, Southern women are caretakers."

" Southern women see no point in the hard way. Life is hard enough. So we add a little sugar to the sour. Which is not to suggest Southern women are disingenuous cream puffs. Quite the opposite. When you are born into a history as loaded as the South's, when you carry in your bones the incontrovertible knowledge of man's violence and limitations, daring to stay sweet is about the most radical thing you can do."

Allison Glock

Garden & Gun