steel magnolia

English

Etymology
  • Combining the contrasting images of steel, a hard metal, and magnolia, a flower.

Noun

steel magnolia (plural steel magnolias)

  1. (chiefly Southern US) A woman who exemplifies both traditional femininity and an uncommon fortitude.
    • 1983, Roland Bartel, Metaphors and symbols: Forays into Language, National Council of Teachers of English, →ISBN, page 48:
      Reporters called Nancy Reagan an iron butterfly and Rosalind[sic] Carter a steel magnolia.
    • 1998, John Berendt (introduction), The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook‎, Random House, Inc., →ISBN, page xv:
      Ms. Deen is an irresistible example of that extraordinary phenomenon of Southern womanhood, the steel magnolia. She is always appealing and gracious but possessed of an unfailing survival instinct — a necessary character trait for a Southern cook to make it.
    • 2009, Nancy Haddock, Last Vampire Standing‎, Penguin Group, →ISBN, page 111:
      "That's how Candy refers to herself to make the vamps think she's just a little Southern belle."
      "When she's really a steel magnolia?"
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