Azalea Trail Maids represent slavery??!! Rant

[disneyjunkie]

Heaven help the group that doesn't play the "right" music or doesn't dance/march "appropriately".

Looks like I should have add sing the "right" song.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2059479

 

[Oreo Cookie]

Someone's being too sensitive. Let the girls march in the parade.

 

[jackemail]

Thanks for reminding me of many trips to lovely Mobile (kid went to Spring Hill College there), running the Azalea Trail, and seeing the young ladies along the way. Nice times....rant away, I'm on your side!

 

[My sister's princess]

I think that looks like a lovely tradition! I am glad from the looks of the last news article the girls will get to go

 

[stashbin]

Ok so this morning I got up and watched the news while I was getting ready for work and it seems that the NAACP leader who made the rude comments has offered a half apology for SOME of his comments....but then goes on to say that HE should get some credit for bringing attention to the Maids!
Isn't it funny how some people can suddenly change their tune when the reaction isn't what they wanted?

Check out his arogant comments at the end of this article from the local news channel:

http://www.wkrg.com/politics/article/trail_maids_get_partial_apology/22668/

 

[bookgirl]

Are you including southern families of all races in that statement?

I'm including any girl in that type but the original question was in reference to Scarlett O'Hara so it could technically only apply to the white girls of that time frame...all though tecnically and depending on where you lived there were native american, french, spanish, german and south american decent families living in various southern states who were part of society. Heck in LA the Creole population had it's own society and those girls were dressed in the regalea....even in my home state which is not technically southern we had a native american population that had adopted that society, the cherokees had the whole cotillian, coming out, girls in hoops, and plantation society going for most of that time period. There were even slaves, though they were freed and adopted into the tribe and they intermarried, so in that society it was nothing to see an african american girl in hoop skirts taking part in afternoon teas and other typical society stuff.


Gee that was more confusing than the original statement.....um yes I was including everyone but depending on where there was there were some discrepencies

 

[CPT Tripss]

Looks like I should have add sing the "right" song.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2059479

ITA . . .

 

[daisax]

I think it's kind of amusing because even if you DID buy the stereotype of these gals that the complaining guy had, that would make it doubly delicious that they were marching in the parade for an African American president, wouldn't it?

 

[Magic Mom]

Isn't it funny how some people can suddenly change their tune when the reaction isn't what they wanted?

Check out his arogant comments at the end of this article from the local news channel:

http://www.wkrg.com/politics/article/trail_maids_get_partial_apology/22668/

What a raving dipwad.....

 

[disneyjunkie]

B]but then goes on to say that HE should get some credit for bringing attention to the Maids[/B]!
Isn't it funny how some people can suddenly change their tune when the reaction isn't what they wanted?

[/url]

He's right about that.

I'm sure most of us here never heard of this group until you posted your rant.
As a result I went searching and out about a group I've never heard of.

What's wrong with "changing your tune" when people point out that your opinions are flawed? Isn’t that a good thing?

 

[jonestavern]

What a raving dipwad.....

This just made me snort Pepsi!
thanks I needed a lift!

Agreeing w/ bookgirl
Hoop skirts were a popular fashion worn by women on both sides of the antebellum Mason-Dixon line. Also popular in other parts of the world. So to associate hoop skirted girls solely with slave owners is pretty much a stretch.


Jean

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

OMG those dresses are hideous. Sorry, but they look like spewed froth.

I have to say that having never heard of this group before, the first thing that came to mind was a time when slavery was the norm. Is it part of our history? Yes. No sense in denying it or trying to dissociate the period clothing from the events of the same period.

 

[Ember]

I had no idea such a thing existed! I just don't understand why they have to wear ugly hoop dresses... They could wear beautiful hoop dresses, yet instead they look like they got attacked by taffeta. Why the need for so many ruffles?

Also, is this like a beauty pageant? The site said they interview 100 girls and 50 are chosen, including the queen and her two ladies in waiting. None of the young ladies in the pictures were over weight or even non-conventionally pretty so I was left wondering.

 

[disneyjunkie]

Also, is this like a beauty pageant? The site said they interview 100 girls and 50 are chosen, including the queen and her two ladies in waiting. None of the young ladies in the pictures were over weight or even non-conventionally pretty so I was left wondering.

I was wondering about that as well.

The video I saw yesterday mentioned the girls showing off their talent while in DC. What talent was the reporter referring to? I thought they were just marching in the parade.

 

[Magic Mom]

OMG those dresses are hideous. Sorry, but they look like spewed froth.

I have to say that having never heard of this group before, the first thing that came to mind was a time when slavery was the norm. Is it part of our history? Yes. No sense in denying it or trying to dissociate the period clothing from the events of the same period.

I do agree, they are period dresses. However, I also think its possible to be proud (for want of a better word) of some aspects of that period and still condemn the ugly parts of that period. I think its great that they can look back and focus on the kinder/happier things. Those girls in the Maids never owned a slave, and probably many of them don't have any relatives that owned slaves. They have every right to look for things about their family's/community's past that they can celebrate and be proud of.

BTW, I just used your post as a jumping off point, I wasn't really directing my comments at you.

 

[Magic Mom]

This just made me snort Pepsi!
thanks I needed a lift!


Jean

oh snorting Pepsi hurts!

 

[DisneyMomOK]

I saw these young ladies at the half-time show at the GMAC Bowl last year in Mobile. While I would never envision my own college-age daughter in one of these dresses, I guess it is "to each your own". When I saw them, I did not think anything, but how cold they must have been.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Also, is this like a beauty pageant? The site said they interview 100 girls and 50 are chosen, including the queen and her two ladies in waiting. None of the young ladies in the pictures were over weight or even non-conventionally pretty so I was left wondering.

In dresses like those you can be more than a few pounds overweight, but after you're corsetted in, you look just fine.

I, ahem, might own a few corsets.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

S'okay Magic Mom. No offense taken!

There are always good points to any period in history, eh?

I find the dresses themselves (those and the historical ones they represent) to be problematic in and of themselves, devoid of implication of the era. They were horrid things which required corsets that deformed women's bodies and interfered with breathing (running, moving, bending...). Not something I like to see glorified. We don't glorify the mutilation of Chinese women's feet in a bygone era, and to do the same with these dresses is as inappropriate.

This opinion of course is solely mine, owned by me, and ya'll are welcome to ignore it and carry on! LOLOLOLOL. As if you need permission...

 

[snarlingcoyote]

S'okay Magic Mom. No offense taken!

There are always good points to any period in history, eh?

I find the dresses themselves (those and the historical ones they represent) to be problematic in and of themselves, devoid of implication of the era. They were horrid things which required corsets that deformed women's bodies and interfered with breathing (running, moving, bending...). Not something I like to see glorified. We don't glorify the mutilation of Chinese women's feet in a bygone era, and to do the same with these dresses is as inappropriate.

This opinion of course is solely mine, owned by me, and ya'll are welcome to ignore it and carry on! LOLOLOLOL. As if you need permission...

You've never seen any collections of isty teensy Chinese women's shoes and gogled at them? I wanna say it's the Peabody Essex in Salem that has a bunch of the shoes. liddle bitty shoes. Beautiful, wow, gourgeous little ornamental shoes.

You can appreciate the artistry and beauty of an object of clothing, even if the actual practice is a bit horrific.

Women's clothing of the mid to late 19th century was confining and unhealthy, but some of it was stunning. (Not the Azalea Maids, mind.) And I can happily appreciate it.