Lessons from Anne with an E.

I recently just concluded the series, Anne, with an E. A friend recommended it for me and that was the only reason why I watched it but I was glad I did. If you ever decide to check it out, I would advise that you prepare yourself for a whole lot of dialogues and also give room to learn new words.

Anne with an e was enlightening and refreshing. It was a different kind of content that what we would normally not see on TV. I love the inclusion, diversity and togetherness it portrayed. I loved how it showed a bit of how lives were for blacks even after slavery and then the scenes where it shows that life even after years of serving the white man might need a little adjusting.

In all honesty, while there are so many things to take away from the series, I believe that the relationship between Anne and Gilbert is worth mentioning because it did my heart a lot of good.

Here are a few lessons I learned from Anne with an e

1. Racism- I liked how the idea of racism was tackled in the series. Apart from the fact that it showed segregation and discrimination as we have always known. I liked how it showed that a black person can want and achieve more.
2. Friendship – OMG!!! The friendship between Anne and her best friend Diana and also between Gilbert and Sebastian was very refreshing to see. It was truthful, raw, vulnerable and filled with love. I liked that the friendship was also tested at different times and they came back strong every time.
3. Education – I liked that learning was competitive and challenging in all of the characters. As much as the desire to get married and a man fancying them was so strong, the young women of Avonlea were also educationally driven.

4. Feminism – I thoroughly enjoyed how feminism was addressed in almost every episode of the series. If there was any take-home lesson from this series, it was that I can be whatever I desire, that I can pursue whatever it is I want.

Some of the words that stood out for me are:-

• Women are not made whole by men. Women are made whole the second they enter this
  world.
• A skirt is not an invitation.
• Women matter on their own not in relation to a man.
• Women deserve the right to bodily autonomy. They deserve the right to be treated with
  respect, grace and dignity and telling them what to do.
• Women deserve to be heard, instead of being pushed, derided and told that a man knows
  about their basic rights and desires than women.
• I believe its best to say that my life experienced a positive shift after hearing those words.

5. LGBTQ – Again for most of the messages passed across in Anne with an E it quite differs from what we are probably familiar with in other series. Aunt Josephine in the series was able to subtly convey her message to cole who was still discovering himself and also able to open herself up to people who she felt they were worthy enough to be in her space.

And then there were other lessons that were addressed in the series like beauty standard, grief, sexual harassment, foster care, love, health care and a whole host of others which was consistently discussed all through the series. It’s definitely sad to see the series end due to the rift between Netflix and CBS but I’m forever grateful for the awesome 3 seasons it gave me.

I hope you guys check out the show and that when you do, you share with me all the awesome lessons you gained from it.

If you got to the bottom… hooray. Don’t forget to check out my other post on ‘coping with COVID 19 here