Why books by social media influencers about feminism (or self-help?) seem so similar to one another
Popular feminist books are often designed to appeal to younger readers, rather than those well versed in feminist theory. Dec 24, 2020 · 05:30 pm Polls have found that feminism has been declared unappealing and irrelevant to young women. | Flickr,CC BY-SA 2.0
On December 9, a debate began to simmer on social media over the resemblance of two popular women’s empowerment books released in 2020: Chidera Eggerue’s
How to Get Over a Boy (published in February by Quadrille Publishing) and Florence Given’s
Women Don’t Owe You Pretty (published in July by Cassell Illustrated).
On December 9, debate began to simmer on social media over the resemblance of two popular women’s empowerment books released in 2020: Chidera Eggerue’s How to Get Over a Boy (published in February by Quadrille Publishing) and Florence Given’s Women Don’t Owe You Pretty (published in July by Cassell Illustrated).
Comparisons between the two have circulated for some time. Given and Eggerue, also known as The Slumflower, are both influencers (people with large followings and marketing influence on social media) and both promote a message of self-love, acceptance, and body positivity.
Earlier this month, Eggerue and some of her followers accused Given of copying two of her books: How to Get Over a Boy and her debut, What a Time to be Alone. This sparked fresh questions over similarities between their works in terms of style and content.
The social media saga involving Chidera Eggerue (aka The Slumflower) and Florence Given has only intensified over the past few days. Chidera has made more statements on her Instagram stories in light of her claims that Florence stole her book concept.
Chidera claimed that Florence’s new book, Women Don’t Owe You Pretty
, ‘”looks the same” as her 2018 book, What a Time To Be Alone.
But the controversy has continued as Chidera has made lots of comments on her Instagram stories and posted screenshots of WhatsApp conversations between herself and Florence.
Chidera Eggerue posted on a WhatsApp conversation between the two from June
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.