Anne Shirley was a Feminist Without Moira Walley-Beckett
Anne didn’t need to be modernized in order to be a forward-thinking woman
Fans of the widely popular show Anne with an E (or just Anne in Canada) were out in droves yesterday tweeting at Netflix to save the show after it had been canceled earlier this year. It’s been 6 months, and they’re still at it.
I’ve stated my opinions many-a-time about this show, which, if you don’t know, is an “adaptation” of Anne of Green Gables (note the use of quotation marks), and I can’t seem to help myself when I’m reminded of what this show did to one of my absolute favourite books and book heroines.
Anne Shirley, not “Anne Shirley-Cuthbert”, was always and continues to be a feminist icon. Even before MWB decided she needed to be 21st-century feminist for some reason.
The entire story was changed and twisted and mangled to make room for a forcibly modern view of what some people think rural Victorian Prince Edward Island was like. The claim is that it’s more “historically accurate,” but from whose point of view?
It seemed to be like the writers had their own set idea of what Victorian era rural Prince Edward Island was like without backing it up with much research. L.M. Montgomery wrote prolifically in her journals…
