Why Anne Shirley is the Queen of Nerd- and Fangirls

I've noticed that people seem to think being a super-fan started in the 1950's and 60's, when both comics and The Beatles were all the rage, and when kids suddenly had free time and when they also stopped listening to their parents. As amazing as early comics were (you know, the pre-war stuff that's utterly impossible to find), and as awesome the rise of Rock and Roll must have been to teens at the time.... the super-fan had already been around for quite a while. To prove my point, we're going to look at the ultimate Nerd and Fangirl: Anne Shirley, or Lady Cordelia, or Queen Anne (a nickname given by her friends because she is fabulous). 

You can see the intense fangirl stare from here. 

Do you doubt me? Let's examine the evidence.

1. Anne spends a huge portion of her books quoting from other books. You cannot tell me that fangirls don't just walk around making references to things CONSTANTLY. 

"My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. That's a sentence I read in a book once, and  Isay it over to comfort myself whenever I'm disappointed in anything." - Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 5

2. Anne starts a "story club" (read: rich people fanfiction) with her friends, and then supplies most of the plots and characters.

If there is a group of fangirls who all belong in the same fandom, one comes up with the fanfiction/headcanons, and the rest approve or disapprove. Also, in the book, Anne cries not only when they read the stories in the Story Club, but Anne actually cries when she writes. She's got fandom feels if anyone does. 

Ruby Gillis just wants lovemaking in all the stories [Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 26]

3. Anne does not take books or book adaptations lightly. 

Anne comes downstairs multiple times in tears because of something in a book. Fandom Feels. In that same vein, she wants to live the story through adaptations, but... 

"But it's so ridiculous to have a red-headed Elaine [a heroine of Camelot]... I'm not afraid to float down [a river] and I'd love to be Elaine. But its ridiculous just the same." - Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 28

Still, Anne let acting win over looks, which is always the preferred fandom way. After she nearly dies reenacting a funeral, she says flat-out that the only romance is in stories. Boom. Fangirl quote right there. 

4. Diana Berry is her best friend. 

Diana gets a subcategory because she is the ultimate best friend/fangirl sidekick. 

Why? 

• Diana's stories have too many murders because she doesn't know what to do with side characters. I am vaguely reminded of Moffatt here. 
• Diana is a shipper. She's been Team #blythecarrots from the beginning. 
• Diana went to Matthew's school of critics. Translation: Anne wrote it, it must be brilliant. 
• Diana is going to get her own blog post one of these days.
• One of Anne's favorite things about Diana is that she has a cool name. Look it up, it's in the book. 

5. Anne calls herself Cordelia for YEARS, because Anne is a "commonplace name." 

This was such a big deal to her that Diana actually named her daughter Anne Cordelia. I'm definitely revisiting Diana in her own post.  

6. Anne KNOWS life is a stage, and takes tragedy accordingly.

See: carrots incident, the hair dye incident, the Mrs. Lynde incident, the drunk incident, the Haunted Wood incident, and basically the entire first book. 

7. Anne is head of her class. 

Even with all that reading she does, Anne has time to be the best in school in most subjects, and constantly in... guess what subject... English. Except sometimes she indulges in light reading (Like Ben-Freaking-Hur) instead of her history homework. #myactualhighschoolexperience

8. Anne just wants to read about romance. 

I'm convinced Anne would love romantic TV shows as well, but what's important is that Anne doesn't want actual boy drama. She just wants to read about it. And obsess about it. But only the fictional kind. Gossip drives her crazy. 

9. Anne stubbornly refuses to let go of her romantic ideal for OVER TEN YEARS....

Sherlock. Winchester brothers. The Doctor. Need I say more? Romantic ideals are the life of a fangirl. All nerds and Fangirls know that feel.

"Tall and handsome and distinguished-looking -- dark, melancholy, inscrutable eyes -- melting, musical, sympathetic voice -- yes, the very hero of her dreams stood before her in the flesh." Anne of the Island, chapter 25

... Then she marries her hot nerd friend with a sense of humor. 

Girl wrote the book on denying true love for years. And the book of Sass. 

And finally... 

10. Anne leads her life like she's a heroine of a story. HER STORY. 

She's the Queen of the Fangirls because Anne is always Anne, will always be Anne. She loves her books, loves her friends, and gets the fandom feels. She is supportive of her friends' interests, bravely pursues her own when no one else is following, and is all-around the heroine and Queen of Nerds, the ultimate Fangirl. And the best part is, she doesn't even know it. She just thinks she's a nerd. 

Getting Blamed: My Response

As human beings, we blame each other. The first two people who ever sinned immediately blamed someone, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the Snake. That reality has dogged human history ever since.

We also build classes, ways that we could discredit people and devalue them (a sort of blaming). These classes exploit each other and attack each other, justifying their own actions by devaluing tose they take advantage of. And, when injustice is done to a people group in a certain historical period, the victims blame the perpetrators until either justice comes or the situation is rectified. This blaming continues for generations, perhaps. Often, people don't blame the long-dead, active perpetrators, but the still-living descendants who benefit from the sins of their class (I say class instead of race because race is arbitrary. All white people are the same? Tell that to the Irish immigrants of the mid-1800's).

I am not here to say we should stop people from blaming. In fact, I would like to say the opposite.

I'm not here to present some woe-is-me victim mentality, and I am not saying everyone uses sweeping generalizations when they talk about a people group. I just want to present a different perspective. If you are actively blamed for something you had no part in, I would ask if you actively or passively disassociate from that event.

Let me explain.

If you see a systemic injustice -- one put in place by the actual perpetrators -- are you doing anything at all to tear it down? There is systemic racism and sexism built into our economic and justice system. I am on the benefitting side on one of these issues, and the losing side on the other. The fact is, there are people who categorize my entire race, who blame me for things that I had no part in, and that my family had no part in. When that happens and I see it, I can get on a high horse and say that I didn't do those things, or I can join them in their fight for justice. As a white person, I benefit at the higher levels from certain types of racism. As a woman, there is a glass ceiling that will make it very difficult for me to get to those upper levels. It is my duty to fight for the victims, to show compassion, to see from the perspective of those who have been wounded. That is what it means to love justice.

Justice anywhere is the beginning of justice everywhere.

I am in a unique position to fight for justice for those that want to blame me. If someone puts the responsibility of a few people's crazy actions on my shoulders, I can yell and fuss and say it's not my fault, or I can accept the position I was born into, and use it to perpetuate change. That's happened at a small level in my life. In Hawaii, I've seen people blame the entire white population for the overthrow, for new hotels, for fancy houses and irresponsible water use, for everything. Fact is, I can say I have nothing to do with it, or I can get involved. Instead of saying I am not to blame, I can make myself blameless by being one of the people that fights for the right thing.

If I do that, I am speaking not only to my character, but to the character of my people, my family, and my God.

Speaking of my God: 
Jesus took the sins of the world on his shoulders. He became sin. I am pretty sure that is a clear instruction/example for me, as a Christ-follower, to take the sin I am assigned by blamers in stride. By accepting the group's sins as belonging to me (just as they belong to everyone in the group) I have a uniquely strong platform for change. Think about it. That's how revolution works best: the people who are told they are wrong accept it and change.

Just like everyone else,  I was assigned a class at birth, based on my gender and ethnicity, and issues that will dog me for my entire life. I can run, deny, or blame, or I can accept and be a force for change.

I choose change.