Roar writer Molly Green reviews Florence Given’s “When Women Don’t Owe You Pretty”.
“When Women Don’t Owe You Pretty” was published at the beginning of the year, I refused to read it. The overly stylised 70’s, pink and orange cover felt somehow patronising, although admittedly part of my dismissal of Florence Given was also the number of tweets I saw explaining why it wasn’t worth buying.
Recently, her name has come up again, and I felt that if I wanted to truly have a part in the argument, I should read her book. Within a few pages, I wanted to throw it away, but since I’d borrowed it from a friend I persevered. In her introduction to the book, Given writes an imagined conversation between an older, far more enlightened self, and her 13-year-old self. The gist of it is that ‘Older Floss’ spouts buzzwords to which ‘Younger Floss’, after a little resistance, is entirely receptive and becomes a newly progressive feminist.
Florence Given and The Slumflower drama explained: Chidera Eggerue calls out book on Instagram!
Florence Given and The Slumflower have both made names for themselves within the feminist non-fiction space, but the pair are involved in Instagram drama surrounding their books. Read on to find out what happened.
The Slumflower, who has 308,000 followers on Instagram, has books named What a Time to be Alone and How to Get Over a Boy, both of which present feminist ideas to the reader with illustrations. What A Time to Be Alone released in 2018 while How To get over a boy was in 2020.
On the other hand, Florence Given released her book Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, which became a Sunday Times Bestseller earlier this year. With 590,000 followers the book became hugely popular on the app.
The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending 10 December
Bestseller chart
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.
AUCKLAND
Counterpoint: go spend 20 minutes in Westfield St Lukes. Actually any Westfield.
2 Shuggie Bain by Stuart Douglas (Picador, $38)
Winner, all by itself, of the 2020 Booker Prize.
3 Trio by William Boyd (Viking, $37)
“William Boyd is one of those authors I always mean to read more of, but when I check my reading spreadsheets (yes, I have them) there are never as many of his novels there as I expect. So in an attempt to rectify that, I jumped on Trio shortly after release” – Sam Still Reading, on Goodreads