British social activist turned writer, Florence Given, released her debut book, ‘Women Don’t Owe You Pretty’, in 2020. The book was quickly met with praise from young feminists around the globe that resonated with Given’s words, placing her on a social pedestal. The pretty pink cover and quirky illustrations draw in the youthful eye and set the scene for the perfect beginner-feminist handbook.
I was excited to get my hands on the book for a while, my favourite; easy-to-read feminist literature. The buzz surrounding the memoir/self-help guide meant that I was prepared to love it before even reading the first page. However, a few chapters in, I was ready to give up.
The book that discusses sexism, relationships, appearance, and sexuality, was one that I feel like I’ve read one hundred times before. Yes, the content itself was informative, although I found became repetitive after a while as I began to feel like Given was lecturing me instead of engaging in a discussion.
Given makes a point to touch on the importance of intersectional feminism, acknowledging black, disabled, fat and transgender feminists. She comments on her privilege, which although progressive, makes me wonder why I am reading a book on these issues written by a white 21-year-old.
It sounds cynical, but I can’t help but question whether feminists with less privilege (and more knowledge) are getting the same recognition as Florence.
In December 2020, discussion around WDOYP began to rise as black activist and author, Chidera Eggerue aka The Slumflower, came forward with claims that Given had plagiarised her work. Eggerue has published her own feminist novels, What A Time To Be Alone and How To Get Over A Boy, which look and sound incredibly similar to Given’s WDOYP, which she calls a “bootleg of an existing Black authors work”.
The saga took place on Instagram, as Given went silent online for months, and The Slumflower refused to back down, sharing her thoughts through her Instagram story every day. She claimed that WDOYP would “not exist” without her own works, as Florence completely ripped off her image and tone of voice.
In the acknowledgments page of Given’s book, she thanked black women, including Chidera, for teaching her what she knows about feminism. Here, she basically acknowledges that her book is a rebrand of black women’s ideas. So, shouldn’t we be learning from them instead?
Chidera refused to be silenced, even after being prematurely terminated from her publisher, Diving Bell Group, with three months remaining on her contract. The Slumflower continued to post thoughts, receipts and discussions of the issue on her Instagram story, now a highlight labeled ‘WHITE VIOLENCE’ (very interesting, go check it out). She posted her wishes for how to move forward from the issue, asking Florence and her team to compensate her by paying her individual reparations or pulling WDOYP from being printed.
Dealing with conflict of intellectual property is a tricky situation, but that’s what makes the issue a whole lot more complicated. So, if plagiarism isn’t exactly word for word, how do we distinguish where credit is due? Black women are constantly being silenced and overshadowed by wealthy, white women (just look at Tarana Burke and the #Me movement... maybe a conversation for another time), so it’s easy to disregard the issue without actually thinking about the impact of race. Yes, Given may have hired lawyers to dissect the books and detect hints of plagiarism (which they didn’t, of course), although when people search ‘The Slumflower’ and copies of WDOYP appear, is this not another example of a black woman being pushed back to allow a white woman to take centre stage? To talk about intersectional feminism? It seems ironic.
So why is it important to have this conversation? In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, we should all know the impact of white privilege by now. As we grow and learn the importance of listening to a diverse spectrum of voices, we need to be paying attention to those at the forefront of the issue. Society tends to be more receptive of advice when it comes from a white mouth, meaning black voices continue to be ignored and shrugged off. And if we’re discussing intersectional feminism, we desperately need to be listening to those that aren’t in the privilege limelight, like black people. This is not to say that white women shouldn’t be having conversations surrounding the intersects and oppressions faced by others (because these conversations are very important!), but what it does mean is that we don’t need them to recycle and rebrand the information given to us by those in less privileged positions.
“I really do hope that from this situation, we can focus on the bigger problem at hand here, being white supremacy and the ways Black women are sent to the back”, says The Slumflower.
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