Transcendentalism and Modern Feminism

How Feminism needed Margret Fuller

In the 1830s a new social and philosophical movement developed called transcendentalism. One of its followers was a woman named Margaret Fuller who was a feminist, journalist and teacher. Her books on feminism not only stemmed from transcendentalism but also the belief that individuals, men and women, should have their human rights. Fuller’s writings should be brought up today, in a world where feminism has been degraded, ridiculed, and even misinterpreted for many reasons. If Fuller was given more time to expound her beliefs further, modern feminism as it is known today would have changed for the better. Feminism would be seen as the equality that is a social standard and not just a dream and puzzle for future generations to figure out.

To start off, what exactly is Transcendentalism? Well that’s not exactly a simple question because it was a movement, belief and a way of thinking. One of the main people responsible for transcendentalism was Ralph Waldo Emerson. He believed that, the divine truth could be known intuitively. In simpler terms, it’s the idea that a person knows what is best for themselves, as well as the world’s truth without any conscious reasoning. Some basic beliefs would also include that people are better off on their own because each individual is good until they are corrupted either by society or by a religious evil. Transcendentalists also believe in freedom. They were active against slavery in America and slavery as a whole, because it went against individuality (which was another core belief of transcendentalists). Emerson wrote an essay, “The Essay on Self-reliance”, about how individuals should be self-reliant but in order to be self-reliant people must follow a moral law. A writer describes in an article based on Emerson’s essay, “If a law were to be considered moral it had to be the same throughout society, same for everyone. People had to realize slavery was terribly wrong and immoral.” Emerson despised slavery which filtered into the beliefs of a transcendentalist. Margaret Fuller as a transcendentalist had these same beliefs, which in her writings would appear alongside with her beliefs on feminism.

Throughout the lifespan of transcendentalism (roughly between 1830–1880) the Christian community around it at the time, heavily disagreed with many of their beliefs. Since transcendentalists were the minority, Christians would argue with them because they believed they were correct so they must share the truth with non-believers. While it may not seem like such a horrible idea for some, this Christian community degraded them. This resulted in almost no new people wanting to hear or even become a transcendentalist. When Emerson and many important leaders died in the 1880s, so did transcendentalism. It started to fade out as a movement and belief of only the past and not the future. After a time, transcendentalism as it was known disappeared completely, but their core beliefs filtered into other beliefs such as Unitarianism. Many social movements have also adopted different aspects of these two which many don’t realize.

The Christian community that was mentioned before, had specific thoughts about women. Women were to be caregivers and serve the husband. They were to stay home, clean and cook. Sometimes they were to be involved with medical practices, but more often than not they were to watch the children at home. While all this did happen after the industrial revolution where it was more normalized for women to go to work in factories, the Christian community did not put that as the role of the woman. Yes, it was more common for women to work, but it was the man that would be labeled as a provider and a worker. Therefore when Margaret Fuller would write about feminism it was understandable that she would receive some backlash.

One piece of feministic writing Margaret Fuller wrote was, “Woman in the Nineteenth Century’’ (which is actually fully available online here). This book includes many of Fuller’s thoughts and opinions on feminism as a whole. She wrote on page 175, “I have urged on women independence of man, not that I do not think the sexes mutually needed by one another but because in women this fact has led to an excessive devotion, which has cooled love, degraded marriage, and prevented either sex from being what it should be to itself or the other.” While as a transcendentalist who believes in individuality, she did not write how women would be better off on their own or they don’t need a man. Instead she included how both, men and women, need the other but also each should be independent. That way the man can “be a man” and the woman can be a woman with her own rights. Fuller also wrote, “The difference would be that all need not be constrained to employment for which some are unfit.” This sparked the idea that while women do need the same rights as men, not all women should be forced to work. Acknowledging the religious community and their beliefs about women are not completely inaccurate. The Christians in the area put specific roles on women for a reason- it was part of their religion. Their religion put these roles on women because it was visible that women were, for the most part, better caregivers and their religious text being The Bible taught them that the wife served the husband as Ephesians 5:22 states, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord”. Also 1 Peter 3:1, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives”. Fuller also wrote this knowing that she would need to explain herself a bit more detailed. She goes on to write about how the woman shouldn’t blindly serve the husband, women had their own thoughts and opinions. Therefore, in a marriage there would have to be communication in order to understand why the husband thinks this is the best path for them as a family. Fuller believed that women should be capable of being independent and if they were to choose to marry someone they could continue to be as such while also being dependent on the man and vice versa.

While Margret Fuller may have been careful about her word choice while writing “Woman in the Nineteenth Century”, she still received backlash. For instance, many of her thoughts went against the Christian community’s moral standards, but she did receive sympathetic reviews from people such as Edgar Allen Poe. He was a known anti-transcendentalist and would even call them “Frogpondians”, after the pond in the Boston Commons. When he sent a sympathetic review saying compliments to her such as, “the style of Miss Fuller is one of the very best with which I am acquainted” and, “ ‘Woman in the Nineteenth Century’, is a book which few women in the country could have written, and no woman in the country would have published, with the exception of Miss Fuller”. While Edgar Allen Poe did criticize her work he was going against his own opinions for a majority of the review because he saw another truth in her writing. In fact he had stated that he agreed with some of her viewpoints later on. In return, the community did not treat the idea of feminism as harshly as they did transcendentalism. Which only allowed for feminism to grow and to still be an active movement today than ever before.

In the 21st century, feminism has had its struggles especially since social media has created various extremely, over-exaggerated, stereotypes. These stereotypes include inane accusations of hateful speech toward men, creating an environment where women are not equal but superior to men, as well as not believing in marriage. These stereotypes are not only inaccurate but demeaning. They also harm the movement, especially when many claim to be feminists and yet they follow every demeaning stereotype about feminists. They say slogans such as “The future is female” which is inaccurate. Feminism in its simple definition is the propagation of women’s rights based on the equality of all people in the world. Using this definition, “The future is female” is completely false and inaccurate; the future is equality between men and women not women being superior in which the slogan represents. Also the fact that feminists have been stereotyped as not believing in marriage is short-sighted. Modern feminists believe in a system of dual independence which can be related back to marriage.

If Margret Fuller was given more time to continue her work or if simply her work was mentioned more often, modern feminism would have fewer stereotypes resulting in a better understanding of the views that she attempted to portray. In turn, her views could potentially lead to higher success in achieving equality between men and women. Not only do her writings specify the exact beliefs of feminists, but they denounce many stereotypes put in place by the media. Her work “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” not only addressed issues she saw in her time but she wrote it with respect and understanding of the community around her. With each article or book she wrote, the community grew with more respect and understanding as she did with the Christian beliefs even though they were not her own beliefs. By sharing her story and writing, fewer false teachers would be followed within the movement. With that there would be a greater outcome for women and society, as a whole.

Fuller envisioned a future where women could be anyone they wanted to be. “If you ask me what office women may fill; I will reply — any. I do not care what case you put; let them be sea-captains if you will.” she wrote in her moving piece, “Woman in the Nineteenth Century”. Not only did she hope for a future for women but she knew of the toxic roles society as a whole has placed for men. An article clearly explains (“Why Margaret Fuller Matters”) “She looked at gender roles in male and female friendships, and the laws and customs associated with marriage. She boldly exposed patriarchy and its effects.” With time society would grow even more accustomed to these teachings. Society in the 21st century would not only think of these teachings as a norm but it would be practiced daily. Allowing for a brighter future for equality to be more realistic than it is at present. Currently there are numerous articles on how women are better than men such as, “The End of Men” from The Atlantic. These articles include some scientific facts but then go on to include how women as a whole are the only future, completely degrading men past the point of actual equality. They call themselves feminists but completely go against the true meaning of feminism. With Fuller’s teachings these occurrences of raising women past the line of equality would be rare if not eliminated.

To sum up, transcendentalism at its peak gained many important followers, but fell due to community criticism, its core beliefs such as independence can still be seen today though. Margaret Fuller who was an active transcendentalist brought in some of its beliefs into her writing. Specifically, her writing on women’s rights and her hopes for future generations. Her book, “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” not only addressed issues visible in her time but can still be used to solve issues today such as any false teachings or thoughts on feminism, and stereotypes that have been put in place by the media. Fuller hoped that in the future women and men would be equal, not one being greater than the other. She also believed in a society where women could be whatever they wanted to be without criticism from the community, this would also include being able to stay home as women did in the 19th century for either religious reasoning or simply because that is what the women wanted. Today, society would benefit if Fuller’s writings were used more often and were even addressed in speeches, or articles, on feminism. It would become more reasonable to see a future where equality was simply a social standard.