Florence Given

[Theplantmum]

Florence again, not sharing my thoughts opinions... Probably because I'm straight cis woman, married with kids. She asked something along the lines of "what do you do even though you've been shamed for it?"
I said 'shaved my head', she didn't share it despite sharing LOADS of generic answers like "talking loudly", "growing armpit hair", "reading your book Florence". Then it dawned on me, Florence loves her mullet doesn't she? So again, she's only sharing answers that she agrees with or that reflect her opinions. That's how it seems anyway.

 

[blondelolita]

I actually have both books and they’re both great if you want an early opinion on the topic of feminism , but there is definitely more available out there. That said, Chidera raises some great points about race and class that Florence doesn’t - the google search particularly raises a really important issue, especially since the BLM movement that many influencers were all over and then suddenly forgot about as the years ending. Honestly, both books are coffee table books.

 

[Bubblemamaa22]

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.

She's driving me even more mad than usual at the moment.
People are being blown up, shot in the head and systematically starved, cant afford to put their heating on or feed their kids - and she's here shaking her arse in front of a room stuffed with clothes, putting on outfits and giving her. best life coach spiel. Manifesting her joy. Telling everyone that her main worries are that she can't just fit all of her DREAMS in at once. And its SO hard.

She has such unimaginable privilege.

Not to mention travelling around endlessly with seemingly no budget, sitting in coffee shops thinking about her hair and clothes and jewellery and how cool she must look oh, and "writing" of course.

What a fucking inspiring person.

She makes me feel fucking sick. So self absorbed.

 

[Greenlentils]

I'm so glad she has a thread! The first time I saw her book I was convinced that it was the same old white feminist stuff I saw on Tumblr years ago (y'know, the stuff that often ignores female poverty, racism, class issues and reduces female empowerment to simply deciding who to have sex with etc etc), and interviews gave me the impression that its author is completely lost in her own ego.
Even small quotes give me narcissistic vibes. This idea that it's her who's helping all these people, having 'divine' energy, dumping her boyfriend because she didn't want him to be 'jealous of her success' - this isn't someone who genuinely cares about helping other women live their best lives. Selling corny shirts for £60, parading her wealth online and putting her (somewhat helpful) book behind a paywall, thus making her advice near inaccessible for less privileged doesn't help my opinion of her. Shocked that she's making so much money from views that are shared by far more worthy, less wealthy women.

This is spot on.
It’s such a shame that these trendy, marketable online personalities keep missing the point.

But then again, anyone actually addressing the issues you’ve raised above wouldn’t likely be given a platform/book deal and all the marketing behind it because it’s controversial and challenges oppressive systems.

I’d LOVE to see someone mainstream challenge both the FG/Slumflower Instagram aesthetic ‘feminism’ without actually calling them directly out (which would maybe cause people to just dismiss it) and talk about full, proper intersectionality in an accessible way.

 

[Smithsmile]

Also found it interesting that in the WhatsApp messages Florence admitted to having a ghost graphic designer lol

 

[Funny_username]

Hi!
New here but I’ve been following the whole FG and CE thing, I don’t like either of them tbh but had more time for CE until recently.

I followed FG for a little while but she said some really ageist stuff about women in their thirties once - I can’t remember the details but as a woman in my thirties, I thought ‘F-you, you silly little mare’ and stopped following.

Something that has bothered me that I’ve not seen anyone mention is that none of FG’s art is original, I thought that she worked with another artist who I follow and that the similarities were due to their collaboration but there is no collab or credit anywhere in FG’s work that I have seen. The artwork is too similar to be coincidental - I’ve tried to add a pic here but it might not have worked. The artist I follow has been posting in this style since 2014.

 

[stopthescams]

Anyone really missing Florence's dancing and fake drumming?

Absolutely not

 

[Pineapple87]

I think the general consensus is that neither had an original idea but I suppose the slumflower really imploded / self destructed so she probably came off worse, with Florence mostly staying silent and taking an insta break

Florence had the polish of a rich white girl in handling the drama. Slumflower had the raw hurt of someone who actually knows struggle.
I think Slumflower overreacted and neither came up with any of the concepts in the book. In fact, Florence references Slumflower multiple times. Neither book is groundbreaking and the whole thing was cringey. But I feel for Slumflower a bit, she lost her shit and I doubt anyone will want to work with her after how crazy she came across. It was too much.

 

[lushstudent]

I cannot be the only one who is not looking forward to this fiction book? I think bisexual representation in fiction (and media in general) is really important and whilst the concept is not something that I would necessarily go for, I think it's great that it's being done. As a bisexual woman though, coming from her it just feels so cringe. WDOYP was a fine first book for her, and I think it'd have been nice for her to come back to it in maybe 3-5 years and update it with what she's learnt now, but she's pushed this fiction book out in what, 9 months? 100% it will have been ghost written (at least partly, if not wholly), and I can just imagine it being so cringey and a reenactment of her instagram stories.

 

[sugarytea]

Has anyone seen theslumflower’s stories regarding Florence’s book? Interesting considering both their books are like Pinterest quotes in book form with pictures but wonder how she will handle it

OMG! I was just coming here to ask that! My thoughts exactly too- "their books are like Pinterest quotes in book form with pictures" .LITERALLY I was so disappointed when her book arrived and I realised it took me only half an hour to read Idk if it was the advertising or what, but they really tried to pull that off as an inspirational self help book, when rly like you said its pretty much a quote picture book

I get what theslumflower is saying about copying but really half the stuff she's got in her book and the subjects she writes on, have been said before many times. So I don't really think its for any of these twenty babies to try and claim their opinions as the original source.

I’m sure she comes from Plymouth.

really? gosh i pegged her to be one of those awful hampstead middle class girls, seems tho the plymouth ones are just as bad, lol.

 

[moosesauna]

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

Like a majority of popular feminists today - or at least that's how it seems! I've read so many books - fictional and otherwise - that are just written by these same privileged, slightly condescending and self-obsessed women. They add absolutely nothing to feminist debate and reiterate the same stale ideas the patriarchy campaigns for: if you want to do anything and be liked as a woman, you've got to be pretty, white, rich and marketable.

 

[GossipLady]

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!

Nah it is pretty clear how self centered she is if nothing by the way she has been talking to Chidera

 

[Pineapple87]

I knew it. She is so obviously full of shit and she’s so narcissistic it’s not even empowering. Everyone who worships her are mugs.

Absolutely this. I came across Florence properly this week and couldn't quite make my mind up about her at first. She seemed kind of appealing at first but something about her didn't sit right with me. I watched more of her videos, read about the drama with the Slumflower, soaked up her vibe a bit more and decided that no, she's really not a good person at all. She seems very priveleged and yet I noticed she posts these sob story type things about having been broke and struggling to make rent. It seems quite clearly bullshit. If she came from poverty and is self-made, then fair play, but I hate people who lie about their background to make themselves look more successful. It's fucked up.

Her latest reel is so annoying I feel like she’s just trying way too hard now like why is her vagina always open like that

It's like how she flashes her arm pits. Trying to be provocative. She's derivative of Sixties/Seventies icons,but they were actually authentic. She's just a total narcissist trying to make money. There's nothing genuine or authentic about her.

Okay I do enjoy Florence's content and I think she can be great, but I'm really not enjoying the holier than thou vibe shes started giving off. I don't know how to explain it properly but all these stories of her dancing and when she does her like "empowering" IGTVs or whatever, it just feels so fake like it's just her brand. I feel like al influencers get like this at some point where they just stop being authentic and it's so annoying

I was even wondering if her friends are paid actors? Like in group videos, there's the overweight one, the black one, the trans one, the white tall one. It's like... a bit too on the nose in terms of wokeness? I think her entire fucking brand is a complete lie. It's all artifice. She's studied 70s style and desperately emulates that style and vibe in a very artifical way. Her opinions are all derivative. Her vibe of enlightened sassy hippy is fucking bullshit for someone who is clearly very manipulative and passive aggressive. Even claiming women don't owe men pretty while being obsessed with coming across as cute online. Her entire fucking brand revolves around wanting the internet to think she's pretty. Urghh, she's really wound me right up.

Hi!
New here but I’ve been following the whole FG and CE thing, I don’t like either of them tbh but had more time for CE until recently.

I followed FG for a little while but she said some really ageist stuff about women in their thirties once - I can’t remember the details but as a woman in my thirties, I thought ‘F-you, you silly little mare’ and stopped following.

Something that has bothered me that I’ve not seen anyone mention is that none of FG’s art is original, I thought that she worked with another artist who I follow and that the similarities were due to their collaboration but there is no collab or credit anywhere in FG’s work that I have seen. The artwork is too similar to be coincidental - I’ve tried to add a pic here but it might not have worked. The artist I follow has been posting in this style since 2014.

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This doesn't surprise me IN THE LEAST. It seems there's a lot of influencers around at the moment who are pushing out a quirky artsy vibe but don't actually have an artistic bone in their bodies. They're just narcissists who want to wear the clothes, look cute and take the credit for other artists work. It's fucking atrocious. They're commercial, fake and soulless. Arghhh.

These women are all narcissists, largely ignorant of actual feminist discourse and the important work done by feminists decades before they were born...

Sorry but I can’t stand this feeble, social media-driven, learned via Tumblr type of “feminism”, or any of the women who perpetuate it as a cash-grab career.

Florence Given makes me cringe the most out of all of them. The fact that her “feminism” lacks any class analysis says it all.

Don’t even get me started on her posing in a pornified way, yet just with a quirkier hairstyle, so obviously she’s not at all conforming to patriarchal standards for women. No way. She’s totally able to understand that the current idea of what passes for sex positivity and empowerment has been moulded by the patriarchy, porn addiction and even capitalism to have the exact same effect as the types of oppressive media representation of women that she & her friends rally against - but our Floss, she has a haircut that men do not like and therefore it is totally empowering and entirely her choice within a patriarchy-free vacuum when she poses with her shirt open and her nipple almost popping out! She’s not trying to conform to any male-gaze led standard. Oh no sir. FFS!

She has hairy armpits so when she poses like a pornstar, it's obviously hella empowering and woke!

 

[stopthescams]

I feel like more white influencers should be calling Florence out on her bullshit. I think Chidera has fallen out with people in the last year or so, definitely Stephanie Yeboah from what I remember. But it’s still surprising to see a lack of people sticking up for her.

 

[urghmummybloggers]

Is she really taking credit for basic feminist principles? Saying she coined them in 2016? The lies she’s telling herself is getting beyond embarrassing

 

[HinchythetwattyGrinchy]

Omgggg I am living for all of this!!! I bet Floss isn’t prancing around dancing in her flat now she’s been called out. Hahahahaha I feel SO bad for laughing. Cannot wait for her to respond to all of this

 

[HinchythetwattyGrinchy]

I loved Florence and still like her message but after seeing those tweets...

Exactly the same as me! She is an influencer though and the most important thing to remember about these people are that they are NOT your friend. They only survive off making money off their followers. As you said, her illustrations were cool and I thoroughly loved them. As I said earlier, I wish I had this book years back as it’d have saved me going through so much shit mentally, physically & emotionally. I’ll definitely be saving this book aside for my daughter when she’s in her teens.

 

[PurpleBroccoliBetch]

She wern't so nice in school but thats a whole nother story

 

[soph30]

Am I reading it wrong? Lines 4/5 don't make sense?

Rose is obviously a they/them you archaic raging non binary phobe

 

[missbct]

Of course she would go to LA... she's pretentious enough to fit right in!

I howled when I saw the big reveal. It’s like the most obvious place someone like her would go. Basic.