Week 2: The Relevance of Fanny Fern

            Just like most of the class, I could’ve talked about Fanny Fern’s writings for hours. Fern’s writing was refreshingly real and funny, and I was surprised that her observations about the lack of gender equality are still relevant today. At a time when it was scandalous for a woman to write anything at all, Fern was writing about inequalities, her lack of patriotism in a sexist country, and the daily struggles of working women. I found myself nodding in agreement as I read Fern’s essays, for women today are still struggling for the level of equality that Fern sought, and they are dealing with a lot of the same problems.

            Fern’s piece, “Mrs. Adolphus Smith Sporting the ‘Blue Stocking’”, reminded me of my mother’s busy schedule, and it also made me think of the incident in 2017 when a professor, participating in an interview with the BBC at his house, was interrupted when his two kids walked into the room. This seems like a totally random connection to make, but as I thought about it, it sort of made sense that my brain linked the stories. In both stories, a parent is interrupted at work. The fictional mother, Mrs. Adolphus Smith, is trying to write a novel while simultaneously keeping her household from falling apart. Eventually, as the chaos builds around her working space, Mrs. Adolphus Smith stops her writing and takes full charge, for her husband, kids, and staff clearly cannot cope without her. In the other story, the working father is in the middle of a live BBC interview when his kids come in seeking his attention. Soon after the kids wander in, their mother hurries to shepherd them away so as not to bother the father. The father hardly glances at the kids, for he presumably expected the mother to take care of the issue discretely. The mother in both examples drops everything to take care of her family. I’m not criticizing the professor in the BBC interview, but it’s just interesting to me that a mother’s “real job” is taking care of the children, and their careers are given less importance than the father’s career in most cases, fictional or otherwise.

Another one of Fern’s essays that stood out to me was “A Law More Nice Than Just”, the longest of our selected readings. Fern questions the strict dress code of women in this story. Why must a woman always wear floor-length dresses in order to go out in public? Because it was indecent for a woman to wear anything else in Fern’s time period. In the story, Fern remarks that women are forced to wear restricting dresses that cover everything all of the time because “philanthropists who are interested in the public study of female anatomy” (2106) could be present at any moment, therefore showing skin would be inappropriate. Women must follow this dress code so men aren’t distracted or intrigued. This sad fact of society is still present today. Every public school in the country has a dress code that is supposedly geared for both genders, yet only girls have to avoid certain outfits altogether to meet the school’s standard. In public schools, girls can never wear outfits with low necklines, jeans that are ripped above the knee, tank tops with thin straps, or shorts that are shorter than mid-thigh. These are just a couple of examples. Boys in public schools are just asked to wear a belt so their underwear can’t be seen, and girls have to hide their shoulders, thighs, chests, and any other part of the body that would be too distracting for men if clearly seen. Fern would be happy that we've made a lot of progress on the road to gender equality, but she would also be frustrated, as most women are today, at how much work still needs to be done.