The Blank Pages

7 Pages 1678 Words

Throughout the texts that have been read, southern white women have been portrayed in a number of different lights. Although the manners in which these women are described aren’t the same, the end result hasn’t changed. The southern white woman has been expected to display numerous personality traits, some of which she embodied naturally, and others that were just societal constructions. Initially, these women just accepted the conflicting expectations thrust upon them. But as time went on and they realized that they did not have to live these contradictions, the southern white woman began to construct her own personality, discarding any expectations she did not see fit to exemplify. This essay will address the evolution of the southern white woman in context to her relationship to African Americans. More specifically, she is a woman who has had inconsistent personality traits forced on her. This conflict of character was pivotal in her relationship to blacks because it is the source of her eventual acceptance of the people. When they realized that their relationship to black was shaped by the hypocritical opinions of white males, they were able to reject them and form opinions of their own.
“Like a blank page, the Confederate Woman is an unfilled space, ‘pure’ so that the ideology of the plantation South may be inscribed on her: she is represented as being what men are not and what blacks are not - soul, not flesh” (Roberts, pg. 2). This view of the southern white woman has resonated in just about every text we have read and it encompasses every description that has been given to her. The first part of this quote should be most troubling. Calling her a blank slate reduces her to a being who is unable to produce her own thought; making her primed and ready to accept any roles or beliefs that are to be given to her. Also, it is just plain insulting. Children have often been equated to blank slates. Because of their lack of ...