Florence Given - Women Don't Owe You Pretty

Florence Given - Women Don't Owe You Pretty   

2⭐

Genre: Non-Fiction, Feminism, Self-Help, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health 

Pages: 226

Format: Hardback

Publisher: Cassell, Octopus Publishing Group 

Date Published: 11th June 2020

Book Blurb: 

WOMEN DON'T OWE YOU PRETTY will tell you to...

love sex, hate sexism,

protect your goddamn energy,

life is short, dump them,

And that you owe men nothing, least of all pretty.

Florence's debut book will explore all progressive corners of the feminist conversation; from insecurity projection and refusing to find comfort in other women's flaws, to deciding whether to date or dump them, all the way through to unpacking the male gaze and how it shapes our identity.

WOMEN DON'T OWE YOU PRETTY is an accessible leap into feminism, for people at all stages of their journey who are seeking to reshape and transform the way they view themselves. In a world that tells women we're either not enough or too much, it's time we stop directing our anger and insecurities onto ourselves, and start fighting back to re-shape the toxic structures of our patriarchal society.

Florence's book will help you to tackle and challenge the limiting narrative you have been bombarded with your whole life, and determine feminism on your own terms. After all, you are the love of your own life.

My Review: 

Last year I read Girl Crush by Florence Given, which was her first fiction book. That book had a lot of potential but just fell flat. However, I thought I will give Given another chance and read her non-fiction book with an open mind.

I honestly tried to like this book but it was bad…Don’t get me wrong, Given touches on some very important issues in this book, but for the most part, it felt that she just continuously repeats the same things over and over again. Apart from her opinion on numerous issues and stating that these issues of sexism, abuse, representation, racism, and privilege, to name a few, exist, she doesn’t offer the reader any solutions or any deeper insights, other than her own views. Also, for me, the lack of facts and references to support Given’s opinions and claims is what made me really dislike this book. At times it just felt that she is going in circles in this book without adding any value, without offering any learning or any important messages for readers to take away from this book.

I personally really disliked the chapters on relationships, men and marriage. All those chapters felt very patronising, especially it felt that Given is telling the reader that we are all better off alone and single or queer, rather than having boyfriends or partners that are male. Also, in a very aggressive way, it was stated that if you want a marriage then you cannot be a feminist and love yourself as much, since you are stuck with a man. I just felt that the author hates males and doesn’t hide that fact, unconsciously making the reader feel bad if they are in a long-term relationship or have a partner or want a marriage.

Also, didn’t agree with the fact that Given thinks we should all be learning from social media rather than formal education and that social media these days is worth more than formal education. Again, no solutions or facts and figures were given to support this claim, which I would have been interested to read, as it is an interesting claim, but isn’t worth much if not supported by facts.

The only takeaways (which I don’t think we're the intended takeaways) from this book were that you aren’t a real feminist if you aren’t single or queer, you aren’t a feminist if you desire to have a relationship with a male partner, you are better off single as men will ruin you, and if you want to have pleasure use toys or have one-night stands, rather than have a long-term partner.

Overall: The only positives I took from this book were that it was quick and easy to read and that I finished it in a few hours. There are definitely better books about these issues and feminism from authors, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (We Should All Be Feminist), Caroline Criado Perez (Invisible Women), and Bernardine Evaristo, that actually offer not only their opinions and experience of these issues but also offer in-depth solutions, explanations, facts and figures. Don’t think that after this book I will be ever reading anything by Florence Given. Just don’t think her writing and books are for me. 

About the Author:

Florence Given is a London based artist and writer.

In 2018, she launched a petition to cancel Netflix's controversial fat-shaming series 'Insatiable', it gained over 300,000 signatures in a matter of days. The story became global news and she appeared on many news networks across the US and UK, as well as being interviewed for various publications including Huffington Post and Grazia.

A London-based artist and writer, Florence addresses social issues with unique and playful illustrations. She grew up in Plymouth and attended London College of Fashion. Boasting over 193k followers on Instagram, her work confronts oppressive attitudes towards women and their bodies, and she uses her platform to raise awareness of issues surrounding sexuality, consent, race and gender.

Florence designed the merchandise for Rita Ora's Girls Tour in May 2018, curated her first exhibition 'Girls Interrupted, and designed a limited-edition t-shirt for the fashion brand WEEKDAY. Alongside the tee (which featured the slogan "WOMEN DON'T OWE YOU PRETTY"), the entire collection sold out in under an hour.

https://www.florencegiven.com/

Florence Given - Girl Crush

Florence Given - Girl Crush  

3.5⭐

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, LGBTQIA+

Pages: 384

Format: Hardback 

Publisher: Brazen, Octopus Publishing Group 

Date Published: 16th August 2022 

 

Thank you to Tandem Collective UK and Brazen Books for sending me a copy of this book and inviting me to be a part of the #GirlCrush #TandemReadalong. 

Book Blurb: 

GIRLCRUSH is a dark feminist comedy by bestselling author Florence Given.

In Given's debut novel, we follow Eartha on a wild, weird and seductive modern-day exploration as she commences life as an openly bisexual woman whilst also becoming a viral sensation on Wonder Land, a social media app where people project their dream selves online.

But as her online self and her offline self become more and more distanced, trauma from her past comes back to haunt and destroy her present.

Eartha must make a choice: which version of herself should she kill off? 

My Review: 

I have so many mixed emotions regarding this book. I really liked some aspects of it, especially the deeper look into how social media can affect us all both, negatively and positively. However, there were some things I found really problematic with this story, such as the very damaging queer stereotyping, as well as feminist comments that are very superficial and at times hypocritical. I definitely believe that this book had so much potential, but most of it did not shine through. This story really wanted to highlight a lot of current societal issues but ended up lacking depth, storyline and takeaway messages.

The book follows Eartha, who hates being in a monotonous relationship where she feels like she is a full-time mum to a grown-up adult, a.k.a. her boyfriend. After her boyfriend cheats on her, she decides to dump him but soon after ends up drunkenly posting a video online talking about her relationship, how she now hates men and eventually comes out as bisexual. Her video on the most popular social media platform Wonderland goes viral and over one day she becomes a rising social media star. Being a viral sensation whilst also navigating her bisexuality becomes quite a challenge to Eartha, and whilst her online persona is living a dream, her offline life is slowly crumbling down. Will Eartha find a balance between both worlds or Wonderland will end up consuming her entirely?

Honestly, when I started this book, I thought that it is going to be so good. I really enjoyed the start of it, especially when Eartha stood up for herself and dumped her cheating boyfriend, who in reality did not respect her at all. He was very manipulative and psychologically abusive and had the decency to cheat on her. So, it was rather empowering when she stood up for herself.

However, what happened after that is the book went downhill. Instead of picking one theme and exploring it in depth, Given crammed all the possible themes and subjects into this one storyline…Online online abuse, social media, mental health, sexuality, and feminism all were crammed into Eartha’s life. It made me feel that the plot of this book is all over the place and in the end, it is hard to know what this book was actually all about.  I think if Given chose to explore one of the arcs in-depth, either the social media arc and what it's like to be a famous feminist on social media, especially shining the light on mental health and effects of online abuse or the arc of Eartha exploring her queerness and navigating her sexuality, it would have made this book so much better. That and the book could have been turned into a two-part book or a duology about Eartha.

Apart from this book being all over the place and having loads of negative and unhealthy stereotypes of bisexuals and feminists, there were some positives about this book. For me, the Wonderland social media platform felt really like Black Mirror’s Nosedive episode, especially during the parts where Eartha describes people living their lives and spending their every minute there, whilst posting perfect versions of their lives on it but forgetting to actually live their life. It really made me think about our obsession and addiction to social media and displaying perfect pictures with perfect versions of ourselves. It also was interesting to see how much power social media and strangers on that social media can have an effect on us. That is, it is not a physical space but it can make us sad, angry, lonely, happy, and jealous, which in turn can both negatively and positively affect our mental health and well-being.

Overall: This book had so much potential and it started off so great but quickly went downhill for me. It seemed that the author wanted to squeeze too much into one book and it simply didn’t work out. There was so much going on and yet there was very little character growth or lessons to be learned from this book. I felt that Eartha as a character just stagnated during this book. Additionally, I felt that other characters weren’t developed fully, too. Also, I found that some parts of this book were very problematic, thus I would recommend checking trigger warnings before reading this book. 

About the Author:

Florence Given is a London based artist and writer.

In 2018, she launched a petition to cancel Netflix's controversial fat-shaming series 'Insatiable', it gained over 300,000 signatures in a matter of days. The story became global news and she appeared on many news networks across the US and UK, as well as being interviewed for various publications including Huffington Post and Grazia.

A London-based artist and writer, Florence addresses social issues with unique and playful illustrations. She grew up in Plymouth and attended London College of Fashion. Boasting over 193k followers on Instagram, her work confronts oppressive attitudes towards women and their bodies, and she uses her platform to raise awareness of issues surrounding sexuality, consent, race and gender.

Florence designed the merchandise for Rita Ora's Girls Tour in May 2018, curated her first exhibition 'Girls Interrupted, and designed a limited-edition t-shirt for the fashion brand WEEKDAY. Alongside the tee (which featured the slogan "WOMEN DON'T OWE YOU PRETTY"), the entire collection sold out in under an hour.

https://www.florencegiven.com/