I am informed and moved by this essay. Being a tempestuous girl with red hair, Anne was practially a script for me. Not just the Anne books but also the short stories about Avonlea, like Old Lady Lloyd with her made-over silk dressses, are still with me though the actual books have disappeared. (I'm 80.) I do have the journals. I deeply approved of the beginning of the new Anne series, but then it went off the rails into Disney sentimentality and righteous morality. I'll write something longer in my own blog. mscriver.medium.com. What is lacking is the idea of a perfect female friend. My best friends have been gay men out of the closet! No marriage.