Comments on: Margaret Fuller’s “Great Lawsuit”

By: Chris Gould

Chris Gould — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:31:00 +0000

I really enjoyed reading and learning about Fuller. I have heard of her before but I never really read anything of hers. So this was interesting for me to learn about how she wrote and her thoughts on feminism. I would not agree with Adam though, I think she was a radical because not only did she want change and reform and also write about her transcendental views she was a women doing this. I think that fact makes her a bit of a radical.

By: Adam Klug

Adam Klug — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:13:58 +0000

I personally do not see Fuller as a radical. The writings that she produced did have a small hint of wanting change and reform, but she was basically branching off and combining it with her transcendental views at the same time. So calling Fuller a radical maybe taking it a little far, but I can see how people will think that of her.

By: william Schwartz

william Schwartz — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:34:01 +0000

I’m very impressed with Margaret Fuller for translating books, and especially for writing articles for woman rights. This was a big step for woman, because in the 1800 the only work a woman did was housework. I believe that her work was very important to give woman rights, and freedom. I believe that woman are still being discriminate against today, and we need more Margaret Fullers to stop this problem.

By: Josh Kasper

Josh Kasper — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 03:26:22 +0000

Margaret Fuller was a very influential transcendental writer than feminist. Fuller points out very key feminine characteristics about the inequality of men and women, but she realized that she could not change things like other radical people. I agree with Chase that Fuller wanted to achieve her ideas culturally. Fuller seemed like if changed happen in favor of women that it would be good, but wasn’t expecting it to happen right away. Fuller was very revolutionary in later women’s rights movements.

By: Jan Cheney

Jan Cheney — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:26:13 +0000

Margaret Fuller was a wonderful proponent for women’s rights and she seemed to go about it in a very civilized manner. She was able to get her ideas across without being too radical in her approach. Fuller’s ability to spread the message of equality without completely rejecting men made her commentaries more compelling. I believe,women of today owe a debt of gratitude to Margaret Fuller and her female counterparts for paving the way for the rights all women enjoy today.

By: Anders Thompson

Anders Thompson — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:39:07 +0000

Fuller’s early feminism is an important step on the path to the feminism of the twentieth century which brought about actual societal and structural change. Her advocacy of female liberation did not ask for immediate equality on all levels with men; rather, it focused on the personal growth of women and the loosening of restraint. By not demanding a radical change in the power structure of the United States she helped foster a movement which in time could bring about measurable progress. As Adam pointed out, Fuller and society continued to use and view masculinity as the superior quality in regards to leadership, thought and ideals. By not creating an ideal of femininity which would threaten the male dominated power structure, Fuller established the beginnings of a school of thought not vehemently opposed by existing institutions.

By: Chase Hedrick

Chase Hedrick — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:23:37 +0000

I think Margaret Fuller’s thoughts and writings were at the time, quite radical. Considering “The Great Lawsuit” is said to be the first feminist manifesto in the United States, I cannot doubt that many of her views were quite new and even foreign to a large percent of society. What I admire most about Margaret’s feminism is the transcendental perspective she bases it in. Fuller certainly wanted change, but it seems to me that she wanted it accomplished culturally. She never called out for specific roles women should play in a more equal society, but that women should be given equal opportunity to achieve their goals, whatever those may be. Though her actions may not be considered radical, her thoughts and views on the human soul, male or female, certainly was.

By: Adam Reidinger

Adam Reidinger — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:52:15 +0000

In “The Great Lawsuit” by Margaret Fuller, there is a part in which Fuller talks briefly about how she is viewed by some of her friends of the opposite sex. She states that one intimate friend of hers had said that she deserved to be a man, and yet another friend had called her “a manly woman”, which was meant to be a compliment. If a man were to attempt to use that as a compliment in this day and age I can’t help but think it would be found to be most likely offensive. Fuller also goes on to say that “It is well known that of every strong woman they say she has a masculine mind” (pg. 309 in American Transcendentalists). It goes to show that even if a man respected or admired a woman during this time that they did not see that person as a woman, they placed her above her sex or tried to point out qualities in the woman that were considered “manly” to justify their respect or admiration.

By: Meghan Winter

Meghan Winter — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:39:40 +0000

It’s easy for me to see that the feminists of the early 1900s got some of their inspiration from Margaret Fuller and the women in her discussion circle. However, I think that Fuller’s writings are more Transcendental than feminist. Only Fuller applied these Transcendental ideas to woman as well as men. I think Fuller would have been even more influencial if she had been as radical in her actions as in her writings.

By: Eric Bansemar

Eric Bansemar — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:27:33 +0000

Although Margaret Fuller was one of the originators of American feminism, it would be difficult to consider her a radical, even in her own time, as much of what she wrote was an extenstion of previously established (unitarian and transcendentalist) ideas. Fuller did not, like modern feminists, spend much time arguing for specific rights or roles, and instead argued for the basic freedom for women to make themselves whatever they wanted to be.