Steel Magnolias

1. Steel Magnolias Civil War Experiences and Southern Gender Conventions

2. Phoebe Pember: A Southern Woman’s Story (1879) "The natural idea that such a life would be injurious to the delicacy and refinement of a lady--that her nature would become deteriorated and her sensibilities blunted, was rather appalling." "In the midst of suffering and death, hoping with those almost beyond hope in this world; praying by the bedside of the lonely and heart stricken; closing the eyes of boys hardly old enough to realize man's sorrows, much less suffer man's fierce hate, a woman must soar beyond the conventional modesty considered correct under different circumstances."

3. Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison (1865) “The 2nd Virginian was the regiment to which my father attached himself. It was armed and equipped by means of a subscription raised by myself and other ladies of the Valley. On the colours were inscribed these words, so full of pathos and inspiration: - ‘Our God, our country, and our women.’”

4. Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison (1865) “Hope, fear, the love of life, and the determination to serve my country to the last, conspired to fill my heart with more than feminine courage, and to lend preternatural strength and swiftness to my limbs. I often marvel and even shudder when I reflect how I cleared the fields and bounded over the fences with the agility of a deer.”

5. The Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, and Travels of Madame Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Otherwise Known as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford, Confederate States Army. In Which Is given full Descriptions of the Numerous Battles in which She Participated as a Confederate Officer; of Her Perilous Performances as a Spy, as a Bearer of Despatches, as a Secret-Service Agent, and as a Blockade Runner[…] (1876)

6. Loreta Velazquez – Harry T. Buford

7. The Woman in Battle “So many men have weak and feminine voices that, provided the clothing is properly constructed and put on right, and the disguise in other respects is well arranged, a woman with even a very high-pitched voice need have very little to fear on that score.” “During the two years and more I had been wearing male attire, I had not only learned the general carriage of a man, but had picked up a good many little masculine traits, which I had practised until I was quite perfect in them. I relied greatly upon these to aid me in maintaining my incognito, for they were eminently characteristic, and well calculated to throw a suspicious person off guard.”

8. The Woman in Battle “Upon this, one of the soldiers, thrusting himself forward, addressed my mother and myself in language as offensive as it is possible to conceive. I could stand it no longer; my indignation was roused beyond control; my blood was literally boiling in my veins; I drew out my pistol and shot him.”(Boyd) “The fiercer the conflict grew the more my courage rose. The example of my commanders, the desire to avenge my slaughtered comrades, the salvation of the cause which I had espoused, all inspired me to do my utmost; and no man on the field that day fought with more energy or determination than the woman who figured as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford.” (Velazquez)

9. Old Times in Dixie Land – A Southern Matron’s Memories (1901) “The antebellum woman of culture and position in the South was a woman of affairs; and in the care of a large family - which most of them had - and of large interests, she was trained to meet responsibilities. So in those days of awful uncertainties, when men's hearts failed them, it was the woman who brought her greater adaptability and elasticity to control circumstances, and to lay the foundations of a new order.”

10. Caroline Merrick “Women have always interested me. I have studied them deeply. They have virtues and foibles which are equally a surprise […] After a long lifetime of comparison, however, I am persuaded that men and women are by nature neither better nor worse the one than the other. […] We are our father's daughters and our mother's sons; and superiority of either - in mind, person or morals - is as it happens and not by reason of sex. Many differences are but the results of education and would disappear should the two sexes be treated under identical influences. Many so-called virtues of women and vices of men are but the fruits of environment and of the tone of the public thought.”