I unfollowed Florence Given. Why? I suppose the final straw was her decision to relocate to the US.

EDIT: She has since deleted most, if not all, of the Instagram comments I have screenshotted for this blog post. Be sure to swipe through all the images!

It’s time we had a real chat about her and the performative feminism she has built her platform on. Because the longer she coasts on slogans and aesthetics, the more obvious it is to me that maybe she’s not quite the feminist she claims to be.

I want to start off by saying I was a huge fan of her over the lockdown period. I was obsessed with her first book, ‘Women Don’t Owe You Pretty’, and I took a lot of influence from her online presence. Her eccentric colour palette, her kooky illustrations, and her bold aesthetics drew me to her. And her book looked pretty on my shelf.

Florence has built a platform on bold feminist statements and unapologetic self-love—ideologies that had me in a chokehold. She knows how to package feminism up into a pretty aesthetic parcel, but when it comes to true activism, she is silent.

You might say it’s not their responsibility or give them a free pass because you like their “work”, but to me, It’s important to hold public figures accountable, especially the ones who claim to speak for marginalised groups. Florence has profited from the language and aesthetics of feminist activism yet fails to act when it really counts.

I would like to draw your attention to:

White Feminism in Practice

She portrays herself as this “beacon of morality” but has always centred her content around issues that affect white, cisgender women, conveniently skimming over intersectional struggles. Her feminism rarely acknowledges the lived experiences of women of colour or working-class voices. Now, I’m not saying she has NEVER spoken on these issues, but it’s been so infrequent or surface-level that I genuinely can’t recall a single piece of her work that meaningfully engages with them. Her brand of feminism isolates those who aren’t white, cis, or middle/upper class. She isn’t intersectional and including illustrations of black women doesn’t change that. Which, may I add, she has been accused of copying from black creator and writer, Chidera Eggerue…

Silence in Moments That Matter

Florence has a HUGE platform but has remained silent during vital political moments surrounding women’s rights including abortion bans/restrictions, trans rights rollbacks, and more. Her selective engagement undermines everything her brand pretends to amplify. And as of this moment, she is actively ignoring the ICE raids happening on her doorstep.

Romanticising the U.S. During Crisis

I was the first to swear under my breath when her reel revealed where her one-way flight was headed for. Moving to LA in the middle of the Trump administration, a time marked by racial violence, immigrant persecution, and assaults on bodily autonomy. Instead of using her voice to challenge these injustices, she’s romanticising the city and thrifting vintage florals while ICE detain families just miles away. That isn’t activism; it’s aestheticism.

Ignoring Accountability, Embracing Praise

Her followers are questioning why she stays silent, why she’s platforming a glamorised America, and those comments are ignored. Yet comments complimenting her hair, thrift finds, or selfies? Always answered with praise. To me? The selective engagement reveals where her priorities lie. I’d also like to add, as I wrote this paragraph, she actually limited the comments on all her posts, so she can’t play ignorance here. She has seen the comments, she just chooses not to address them.

Preaching “Check Your Privilege,” Then Failing To Do So

In her book, Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, she includes a VERY important chapter titled “Check Your Privilege.” The irony? She has rarely used her privilege to call attention to systems of oppression or amplify marginalised voices. The chapter now just feels performative when not backed by action.

Running Away to the Frontlines of Injustice

LA isn’t just a trendy city (well apparently to her it is) but it’s also a frontline for state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians, immigrants, and Black communities. Her move and deafening silence on these injustices massively contradict the messages in her book. Her ability to move to LA, live freely, and be carefree just shows her privilege—something she’s not acknowledged even once since her move. It’s vapid and, dare I say, distasteful.

Anyway, I did some digging on TikTok, here are few more interesting comments made under more discussions of Given’s brand of feminism.

Profiting from Pain Without Participating in the Fight

Her whole brand profits from the language of social feminist movements, yet she remains a bystander. She’s capitalised on feminist aesthetics without demonstrating the solidarity or activism that gives feminism its power.

When your book demands others “do the work” but you refuse to do it yourself, it just loses its integrity. Feminism is not just about not wearing a bra, not shaving your armpits, or selling empowering slogans; it’s about showing the fuck up, especially when it’s uncomfortable. Looking back, her book encompasses no more than basic feminist principles with quirky illustrations, and I wish I’d been more educated at the time to see this.

By no means is her book bad, it’s just whimsical and introductory, I still learnt things from it, such as refusing to find comfort in other women’s flaws, but it avoids the heavy stuff and prioritises mainstream feminism. Mainstream feminism has to do more than just talk about intersectionality; it needs to live it. It should push us out of our comfort zones, make us think deeply, spark real conversations, and challenge the things we’ve taken for granted. Feminism isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution; class, race, and gender identity all shape people’s experiences differently, and what’s accessible to some may be out of reach for others. Something she has failed to acknowledge on multiple occasions.