Wanted to share Cady's newest blog entry at abc.com. It seems as if she's gotten a LOT of hate mail and wants to sound off about it a little. Read about her insight into the character that we know as Dixie:

Who Is Dixie?

I understand there are a few people out there who think Dixie is a cold, unfeeling [!@#$%^&*]. I get it. Sometimes when I watch the show and see how tough she comes off, I think, "Wow, that's pretty darn tough. Too tough? Maybe." However, I want you to know some of the thoughts I have put into creating such a tough persona. Stuff that I think about.

In order to stay away from her family, I think Dixie had to shut down an area of her heart. I think the loss of her little girl was like the loss of the softest part of herself. There is an old wives tale that says women give their beauty to their daughters, and I think there is some truth to that for Dixie.

Yes, she took a lover while away, but she never said she was in love with him. Was she? I wonder if he was some way of keeping her heart alive while she looked for Kate.

I think Dixie knew that her family was going to be terribly hurt by her choice to remain hidden from them. I think facing that hurt and the burden it has been on those she loved has been tremendously difficult, especially when it comes to Tad. His anger has been particularly hard to take, even though she knew it was coming.

Yes, she has been bitter. Yes, she has been angry. How else could she have survived to battle such a monster as Greg Madden? Sometimes anger can propel you to protect yourself when there is no one else to help you. Maybe Dixie is not so sympathetic anymore. I'm sure sorry that has been a disappointment to some of you guys out there. I truly felt that in order for her to have stayed away, she was going to have to have developed some different coping mechanisms. I wanted Dixie to be strong. Stronger than she had ever been in the past. I wanted her to lean on reason and logic instead of her heart. Maybe that hasn’t been as compelling as you hoped, but I wanted to play a woman that was a thinking woman at least as much as she was a feeling one.

Dixie may be too unsympathetic now to be redeemable, I don't know. It's pretty hard to forgive someone who gave up their child and didn't contact the father, but in the story, Madden coerced her to make the choice in a moment of terrible weakness. She thought a lot about killing herself this year and has yet to have a real good reason not to, other than JR, of course, who would be devastated. That's the only reason I can think of, though.

In the history of Tad and Dixie, it is important to remember that they had a lot of fights before she left to go to Switzerland to have the baby. He did not want her to go. There is a fine line here that seems to get swept over easily. They were both ambivalent about staying in the relationship. Dixie did not like who she was with Tad. She wanted their baby, AND she wanted to be a different person than she could be with him. Remember the "I want to be more than Dixie Martin Martin Martin?" Some people think I don't want to work with Mike. Nothing could be further from the truth. I simply don't want to repeat the past.

It's funny to write so passionately about a fictional character, but I suppose that is the degree to which I care about what I do. Dixie lives in me, I am in her. I have played this part since 1988. It's hard not to feel connected.

Now I have been trying to create something new, something different with her. Some mistakes get made in the process, but that is the process. A process that involves a lot of people. We are a team, and sometimes we play well, and sometimes we play badly, but we are all doing the very best we can because we all care. I sure hope you continue to hang in there with this character. She’s been around a long time for a reason.

I understand what Cady is saying. From the moment she returned I knew she had been hoping to skew the character more towards her wonderful turn as Roseanna on ATWT - a character I thought was superior to Dixie, and who Cady was a revelation in the role of. And I understood her wanting to do that. Sometimes, however, I think it's like a square peg in a round hole. I think maybe they went too far trying to make Dixie over as this cosmopolitan, focused woman, which let's face it she wasn't when she left, and they forgot to help the audience stay with it.

What she describes them as doing with Dixie could work on a well written show, or on primetime. Unfortunately AMC is neither of those and that's why people are pissed with the character.

Thanks for posting. I'm surprised her character is catching so much grief. I find her really likable. Maybe that's because I didn't know the old Dixie, so I don't have anything to compare this version to. I think Cady has done an amazing job. She's one of my favorite actresses. I think part of the reason she's getting so much hate mail is that Dixie came between a popular couple.

I don't blame her for not wanting to repeat the past though. I look no further than GH and CarSon as an example of a long term couple needing to move on and the characters and actors being better off trying to something new. How many times can a couple marry and divorce before it becomes a parody?

I LIKE the Dixie Cady is describing. I wish we had her on screen. What I don't understand is why this supposedly strong woman is going after another woman's husband and then verbally attacking her at every step. That is not a "strong" woman. That'a a needless catty woman. I'm not saying Kendall is blameless, but if Dixie is so strong, why does she rely so heavily on all the men in her life?

I definitely agree with what Cady has said in the past about strong women on soaps, and I appreciate the fact that she is fighting hard to portray one, but as of right now, Dixie is NOT one of these women.

POOR CADY! She got a caviar characterisation with Rosanna Cabot and she ditched it for a junk food, greased up and cheap version of Dixie who those loyal AMC peeps just hanging on are feeling all nauseous over.

POOR CADY! She got a caviar characterisation with Rosanna Cabot and she ditched it for a junk food, greased up and cheap version of Dixie who those loyal AMC peeps just hanging on are feeling all nauseous over.

I couldn't have said it better myself Marland!

As a lifelong Dixie fan I think the description Cady gave us works well with what the character has gone through. However, that's not what the show is giving us. ITA with those who have said Dixie isn't strong or logical. To me, she's even more emotional and weak than she was originally. Original Dixie had a lot of spunk and fire and was a fierce mama bear. This one doesn't even have that. THAT is the problem. JMHO.

I still find Dixie sympathetic and like the character (even this way), but the character description Cady gave (which ABC probably sold her on) is not what I'm seeing on my TV. And that's a shame.

I agree with you Gaerielsky, about not seeing that on our TV.. But I will add my two cents as a Past loyal viewer of AMC.

I loved Dixie the first character, and if Cady was able to write her own charater to come back, then she should of stayed with ATWT or went somewhere else, because the characters and stories is what I like in a soap. And I loved the character of Dix and to change it, is making it a new charater.. ok... do that but don't name her Dixie. Name her Kathy.. but the Dixie I loved , wouldnt of stood on the outside of a cabin door listen to her little boy go craze.

Anyhow.. I dont want her back at AMC.. as Dixie...

WOW I don't see Dixie the way she does at all. She's justifying Dixie's actions(which is her perrogative). Maybe that's her motivation for to play Dixie the way she does in certain scenes, BUT that's not how Dixie has been written at all.

Dixie is very unlikeable, and is beyond redemption IMO. I'm at the point that I hope Dixie NEVER finds Kate.