My friend Cindy over at Big Mama Hollers is going through a lot of angst because of some very negative comments left on her blog. What Hollywood never captures is that to be a real Southern Lady has nothing whatsoever to do with money or class or race. Īlso, Steel Magnolias and Gone With the Wind offer distorted versions of what it means to be Southern. ![]() I have decided not to go and see August Osage County because that matriarch, portrayed by Meryl Streep is supposed to be Southern, and she's a foul-mouthed pill-popping Satanic version of a Big Mama. Sometimes I just despair at ever seeing southern women portrayed fairly. There is so much caricature out of Hollywood. There are so many negative things in the media about us. In a deeper sense, Big Mama implies everything that - to me at least - is good about the South. The first time she met my kids she hugged them. She adored all children, and they knew it instantly. I so wish that before she passed away a few years ago I could've imparted to my children some of the love, awe, and respect that I felt for my aunt. ![]() My aunt Myrtle asked her grandchildren to call her Big Mama. ![]() You are a bible-reading, Sunday-School-going, fried-chicken cooking Epitome of Motherhood. In the South, to be called Big Mama means - at least in my mind - that you are seeing someone who is all about love, and all about being a fierce tiger mama. My best friend Joanne's grandmother was "Big Mama." She wasn't really big, actually. When I was a child, the designation "Big Mama" was one of great respect and affection.
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