Rouse argues that “Margaret Fuller provides one example of how marginalized Americans were redefining citizenship through their discursive acts” (111). In terms of the nineteenth century shift to the individual, Fuller “was certainly not anti-individual; her major writings championed individualism. The paradox is that she claimed the individualist notion of self-culture as a right for marginalized citizens, which ultimately led her to call for social change” (111). Fuller believed that “only through recognizing their assumptions and asserting themselves could these young women [those Fuller educated] escape the cult of True Womanhood – or choose it. Self-culture, or the life of free self-development Fuller wanted for all women, prepared women to make choices rather than to accept ‘fate’ and to voice their opinions instead of being subjected to the opinions of others” (122).
In the nineteenth century, women were being called to be the Republican Mother and act in True Womanhood. The Republican Mother was “a sensibly educated female citizenry [who] educate[d] future generations of sensible republication” (113). Though the place for this education was in the home, woman could use this role subversively because “the notion that a mother can perform a political function represents the recognition that a citizen’s political socialization takes place at an early age, that the family is a basic part of the system of political communication, and that patterns of family authority influence general political culture” (113). This meant that women and the home held some power. “Many women used ideals of womanhood to position themselves as agents of the polis and identified themselves as having a responsibility to work not only for the good of the family unit but for the common good of the community as well” (116). This was countered with the second ideal for women, the True Womanhood, which upheld four “cardinal virtues”: “piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity” (114).
Rouse argues that “Margaret Fuller provides one example of how marginalized Americans were redefining citizenship through their discursive acts” (111). In terms of the nineteenth century shift to the individual, Fuller “was certainly not anti-individual; her major writings championed individualism. The paradox is that she claimed the individualist notion of self-culture as a right for marginalized citizens, which ultimately led her to call for social change” (111). Fuller believed that “only through recognizing their assumptions and asserting themselves could these young women [those Fuller educated] escape the cult of True Womanhood – or choose it. Self-culture, or the life of free self-development Fuller wanted for all women, prepared women to make choices rather than to accept ‘fate’ and to voice their opinions instead of being subjected to the opinions of others” (122).
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