southern-women

Let__ be very clear about this, asshole: I__e been a woman in Arkansas. I know damn well what it means when a man says to me 'Calm down.' Being raped comes next, and that__ a fact I__ never going to forget.

Perspective and perseverance are carved by time and constructed by wisdom.

It__ the process of being minimized, invalidated, silenced. It__ the process of being subjected to whatever someone else thinks I owe them. It__ the process of being used, examined, explored, and thrown away. It__ the process of being convinced to comply with the orders of someone who does not see me as their equal, someone who sees nothing wrong with the notion that I__ somehow lesser than they are. Rape isn__ about sex; it__ about all those other things. It__ about power.

Hold it right there. The only agreement we ever had was that you intended to make me as miserable as possible, and I intended to courageously make the best of an intolerable situation like valiant Southern women have always done.

What Melanie did was no more than all Southern girls were taught to do: to make those about them feel at ease and pleased with themselves. It was this happy feminine conspiracy which made Southern society so pleasant. Women knew that a land in which men were contented, uncontradicted, and safe in possession of unpunctured vanity was likely to be a very pleasant place for women to live. So from the cradle to the grave, women strove to make men pleased with themselves, and the satisfied men repaid lavishly with gallantry and adoration. In fact, men willingly gave the ladies everything in the world, except credit for having intelligence.Scarlett exercised the same charms as Melanie but with a studied artistry and consummate skill. The difference between the two girls lay in the fact that Melanie spoke kind and flattering words from a desire to make people happy, if only temporarily, and Scarlett never did it except to further her own aims.

Well, honey, it is the south. These debutantes know how to verbally kick anyone__ ass. They learned it from their mamas in the womb.

Well, there are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it like in the Bible with the locusts. Then there are people who stand around and watch them eat it. (Softly) Sometimes I think it ain't right to stand and watch them do it.

Writing is an act of faith. One must believe and see people who are invisible to others and be faithful to tell half formed stories. It__ like being on the trail of an apparition who__ repeatedly just out of reach.K. Youngblood

You don't have to be religious to hear God, you just have to be willing, and there's a big difference between the two.

With time, grief has a way of slipping down in the crevices of your heart. It never really leaves; it just makes room for more.

Now, now. Southern ladies don__ French-kiss and tell.

{Summertime she speaks of winter, she eats ham, but speaks of beef, got a good man but, flirts with another. She might as well go to hell, cause she ain't gonna be happy in heaven either!}

When a Southern woman offers you a homecooked meal, you're only rude if you refuse. That goes for seconds and thirds too, by the way." -Ruby Watts