Florence Given

[mozzarellagirl]

Ambition bigger than her human limits? You mean like hopes and goals like every woman has? Ugh yes flo you know it's just "SAUR annoying it's SAUR annoying" having to WORK full time for pennies and having a body that's chronically ill and can barely do anything other than that.

So tone deaf. Sure maybe I've taken it personally but we know how out of touch she is. "I wish I could be doing this and this and this" you liiiiiiterally can. You have the money, the time, the health, the influence and connections. she has no idea what the average person sacrifices just so they can live.

 

[stopthescams]

I’m not gonna lie im very much enjoying seeing her being scrutinised, I’ve waited a long time for this. Everything about her is performative and nothing is real. She never acknowledges her privilege and like others have said, doesn’t mention class.

Slumflowers book is just as plagiarised tbh from sex workers and isn’t very good either. But she raised good points by pointing out that google favours White women over black.

 

[Mr Sparkle]

Just remembered she existed, and had a read through here - also cannot stand her ego-driven social media persona. One thing I've noticed, though - someone posted a screenshot of her IG back in June, and she was on 605k follows.

Five months later and she's grown it to a whopping... 606k.

So it looks like her surge of popularity has worn off, and hopefully this is the start of her fading into the background. Society doesn't need a recycled, image-obsessed white woman telling us that "we don't owe you pretty".

 

[Pineapple87]

Been trying to think who it is the Florence Given reminds me of. It's Carly from The Inbetweeners. Like to me her vibe is actually kind of similar, like popular mean girl vibes, but if Carly was seventies. And they have similar features...

 

[korma]

Has anyone seen the trailer Florence just dropped on her grid for the new podcast? I wonder which PR genius told her to use a mockney accent. It's so cringe she's not fooling anyone lol

Also properly insulting to anyone who's had to deal with genuine barriers bc of their native London accent

 

[GossipLady]

For some reason she made me very uncomfortable. I followed for a while but realised it was having a negative impact on my mental health so unfollowed.

In theory I agreed with a lot of her points of view but I felt the way she shouted it at people was not nice. I agree with being passionate about important issues but she seemed completely unable to listen to other people's points of view and find it very difficult to imagine her changing her mind of anything. That was the vibe she gave me.

Also, I just got the vibe that she really played on being very stereotypically thin and pretty. Yeah she is doing the whole modern not shaving thing etc but, like, but she was shouting about body image and such and I just felt like I didn't need to hear from someone like her. I felt that someone who looked different, who was say fat, would not get away with being so objectively in-your-face about things, and unwilling to admit failures.

I couldn't really decide why I didn't like her and felt a bit guilty tbh for not liking her.

 

[capriallie]

This resonates so much with me!!!!! I agree, “dump him” distresses me too for similar reasons.

Agreed. The whole “dump him” rhetoric I think only can be applied to women who are ‘seeing’ someone, it’s not serious (no children or property involved) and it wouldn’t take long to get over the split. Most people can’t just “dump him” because life isn’t that simple for many different reasons!

 

[EllsBellsWells]

Been following Floss for a while and im baffled by some of the comments here!

'The Floss Effect' is SO clearly tongue in cheek? She's posted loads of stories that make it clear that neither nor her audience think that she invented breaking up with partners, cutting your hair and coming out as bi ffs some of the messages she gets are from people genuinely thanking her for what she wrote helping them come to those desicions, and she reposts those because she's proud of helping people, not because she thinks she invented these things... she's posted loads of stories where she's giggling along with people in messages its really obviously not a serious thing...

Same with 'dump him' again... its a lighthearted shorthand thing. She's in no way pressuring or shaming you to break up with a partner even if you dont want to! She doesnt need to put a disclaimer about how obviously she isnt referring to 20 year marriages where your husband might have got grumpy about doing the dishes once... because its bloody obvious thats not what she's saying!

Why's she writing on her graphics 'a term coined by Florence Given'? You can't argue that's not being completely self centred and demanding credit for stuff? Most people who are genuinely desperate for things to progress and movements to take hold just push things out there without wanting a pat on the back for it. And I would argue that any phrases like that have already been used by someone, somewhere. But just cause she's got a huge platform she thinks she can declare that she invented it all

 

[everfair]

erm... we need more details pls !!

Not much else to say! She’s a friend of a friend and this was a couple of years ago. She was nice enough but I remember just being struck by how…not forthcoming she was, as everyone else got rounds in. She also brought up “when she was cancelled” within about an hour of meeting her.

 

[soph30]

Listening to her podcast on feminism and she swears and shouts in exclamation ALL the time- ''that's f...king brilliant'' etc. I kind of feel she can only get away with that as a cis, middle class white woman- a black woman or a trans woman would probably be viewed as overly aggressive and a working class person doing it would be viewed as brash and chavvy

 

[urghmummybloggers]

I get the maddest cringe when she starts lip syncing and dancing around like a Poundland Stevie Nicks

 

[l0vecat]

I used to like Florence but the other day on her stories one of her followers asked her something like "how come you're so self confident at such a young age?" and her answer was just "because of trauma" which I just think is such an empty and ridiculous thing to say when she seems to have a hell of a lot of young followers who hang on her every word. Surely there must be positive reasons that she could have mentioned as why she is self confident?!

 

[kissfm]

Can we talk about the radio silence from her when Sabina Nessa was murdered? She did nothing but post selfies of her going out at the time. Sorry this is a bit dated, never occured to me to search for a Flo thread. This year has been a horrible year in regard to women safety and women rights and I found it unbelievable there wasn't a single story from someone who's apparently such a die hard feminist.
I'm reading her book now (trying to at least, but it's so dull and honestly just a stream of consciousness) and since I do have an actual uni degree in gender studies and did a whole dissertation on gender, it's just so... unfinished. Empty. The only references being newspaper articles, which, obviously, are on the same level as references off Wikipedia. Granted, I didn't expect a scientific journal from her but this seems like a very simple read to someone who is either very young or has never thought about these kinds of things.
Would just also love to add how in the very intro of the book she says that often times she's wanted to get rid of her femininity by shaving her head and thus she'd avoid sexual harrassment off men on the streets. What a problematic statement Flo's stans just chose to completely ignore. As if there are no assault victims with shaved heads. As if hair equals femininity. As if only feminine women get harrassed. Wtf.

 

[moosesauna]

For sure.

I couldn’t imagine her having the content to release a whole other book. She hasn’t even been showing off her artwork as much or really posting any meaningful content other than her constantly parading round in front of the camera which is getting boring.

I'm so tired of the constant influx of ''self-help'' books, especially those marketed at young women. Surely the feminist thing to do is to trust your heart and get your advice from trial and error rather than rely on the patronising words of someone who's consistently been in a more privileged position to you?

 

[tawelwch]

She seems to be alluding to the fact that she maybe wasn’t a very nice person in the past in her latest IG post...

 

[Poppetta83]

I had to see if she had a thread on here because although I follow her, a tiktok of hers came up where she’s talking about being cringe gives people something to talk about. And I thought, I wonder… and here we are! I’m surprised it’s not more active tbh. Her dancing shaking her bum with a nightie barely covering her tits IS cringey, thanks for the fodder Florence

 

[That’sOk]

She is definitely a performative upper class white girl who is trying to capture a niche in the market

 

[areejsaleh]

I used to be quite a fan of slumflower, but a few years ago when I saw her pushing misandry on Twitter and stealing from sex workers I unfollowed and distanced myself - she's completely unhinged, watching this unfold has been like watching a car on fire. It's even worse that's she's bullying people on Twitter and getting people to pile on for expressing their opinions on her unproblematic behaviour.

 

[Ranter]

Her silence on what’s happening in Palestine is DEAFENING. For someone who’s forged a career initially using “online activism” why would you stay silent when there is a literal genocide happening in front of our eyes. She could share info on protests, places to donate, mp letters.

 

[GossipLady]

No because people have really hard times in relationships, people are shitty to eachother. God I know I’ve been shitty to my husband and him to me. We have 3 kids, life can be pretty fucking tough.... you get through times, you have family deaths that put immense pressure on your relationship and illnesses. But floss has got it sorted with her one liners and ‘hilarious’ songs done on her keyboard in her central London flat. Piss off.

Really agree with this. I felt she was dead set on the idea of there being completely right and wrong relationships and that any difficulties we should just leave our relationships. But life isn't like that... men can be pretty shitty and relationships can be pretty hard but this comes from both sides.

I think leaving things as soon as things get a bit tough is very defeatist and even as someone with very left leaning points of view, I think is one trait of our individualistic society that can bring more negatives.

Also she is completely failing to take into account people who need to stay in relationships for practical reasons. Immigrants, people with serious health issues, people with lots of kids and not family support, obviously all these people can leave a relationship and pursue their "freedom" as she would proclaim, but really being able to be that picky about freedom etc really is a luxury.

Yes people should be able to have lives which are as fulfilling as possible, but I think shouting constantly at people just to leave and drop everything is irresponsible and not going to happen and potentially dangerous.