Fanny Fern and Feminism

The famous and infamous Fanny Fern was a well known popular female feminist writer of the 19^th century. Her birth name though was Sarah Willis Brown. Fern was very controversial for her time. The subjects that Fern would write about including events in her personal life were just plain unheard of for women during that time period. By the 1850’s she was the highest paid columnist in the U.S. What really caught my attention in reading her introduction is that when her first husband passed away from an illness, she remarried another man whom she said turned out to be jealous and repulsive. She left him after two years which was a very revolutionary act and quite ironic because normally you’ll see the opposite happening in a marriage. At the height of her success she remarried again and made him sign a prenup so he would not get any money from her writings, yet another controversial act for a woman of this time period.

“Aunt Hetty in Matrimony” Fern basically tells the story of an Aunt speaking to young girls about how awful marriage can be and how their husband will not show any appreciation for them. In “Hungry Husbands” she speaks about how basically a man that is full on food is very easy to take advantage of so feed him well and get him full and basically he’ll be under his woman’s spell. In “Male Criticism on Ladies’ Books” Fern basically states how male writers are criticizing her works and that they are envious because her works are doing better than hers. I love how at the end of this piece she is so blunt and tells them like is with no remorse saying

Finally in “A Law More Nice than Just” she tells the story of a woman who reads in the paper that another woman had been arrested for wearing men’s clothing which during that time was against the law. In turn, the woman puts on her husband’s clothes to make herself appear like a man and goes out in public. In today’s society it is quite normal and in style to see a woman wearing clothing inspired by men’s clothing, such as suits, blazers, boyfriend tees, jeans, etc.

Personally, I really love and enjoyed Fanny’s works. I am all for women being treated equally as men and it is nice to see a strong courageous woman of this time period speak out against the norm. It was very encouraging and inspirational for me.

Shania Twain’s “I Feel Like a Woman” song and video show and illustrate Fern’s point to a “t”. The lyrics talk about being free, wearing men’s shirts and not acting politically correct. Also in the video she is wearing a woman's version of a man’s suit.