From "Gone with the Wind" : On the novel's first page the reader learns Scarlett had "magnolia-white skin—that skin so prized by Southern women and so carefully guarded. Mammy constantly reminds Scarlett to keep her sunbonnet on so she doesn't get freckled. Soft, pale skin is a sign of a true lady.
Mammy's recommendations seem pointless in this new world, where so much more than a smooth complexion is at stake. Yet society's judgments live on: when Scarlett tries to trick Rhett into proposing to her, he feels the callouses on her hands and says, "These are not the hands of a lady."
