The Publishing Industry is where Social Media Meets Capitalism
Lucy Miles / Feb 17 / Capitalism & Feminism
If you are under 25 and consider yourself a feminist, or follow artistic influencers on Instagram, or have decided to read up on the latest social vogue towards self-love and personal empowerment, then it is likely that you have heard of either Chidera Eggerue (aka The Slumflower), Florence Given, or both. These two influencers are the biggest feminist names on Instagram at the moment and are attracting headlines for the major fallout between them over plagiarism. The two women are examples of the latest trend in the publishing industry: influencer-penned books. These books take the form of a collection of the influencer’s online content, including ideas expanded from their tweets and Instagram captions, social musings and personal experiences, and sometimes original art.
Such books, with their candy-hued palettes and empowering catchphrases, are marketed towards the young, female feminist, navigating her first foray into the adult world of friendships, relationships, sexuality and self-esteem. Whilst these books are nothing new (the past 15 years has seen an increase in colourful, accessible feminist literature to bridge the gap between young feminists and densely academic feminism), 2018 onwards, in particular, has seen a shift towards a type of feminism that prioritises self-love in the capitalist modern world. Hence, feminist influencer books talk about self-care as a quiet yet powerful form of resistance against a misogynist and racist society.
Therein lies the paradox, as the act of publishing these self-help books essentially promotes the very ideologies that they claim to disempower; repackaging social media content into purchasable nuggets of wisdom, that encourage the reader to look after only themselves, is the most blatant example of capitalism there is. Like almost every other lifestyle trend on social media, ‘self-care’ itself has been absorbed by capitalism to become an ‘act’ completable through purchasing an item, whether it be a facemask, scented candle, or influencer-penned feminist guide.
Eggerue in 2019
There is nothing inherently wrong with looking after oneself. In our modern egocentric society, it is healthy and often necessary to put your own needs first. This view is taken in Eggerue’s two works, ‘What A Time To Be Alone’ (2018), and ‘How To Get Over A Boy’ (2020), and transplanted into Given’s recent debut book, ‘Women Don’t Owe You Pretty’ (2020). The two women once shared a management team, Diving Bell Group, and it is obvious that their books were marketed to the exact same demographic, due to a largely shared social media following. Further to these overlaps, Given even credits Eggerue in the acknowledgements of her book, saying ‘I had to listen and I had to learn, predominantly from black women. My understanding of these topics would not have been possible without [them]’ (WDOYP, p271). What followed was The Slumflower’s public Instagram exposé of the parallels and accusations of plagiarism against Given; although this claim has been officially dismissed by specialist intellectual property lawyers (hired by Given), the similarities between the colourful artworks, writings on intersectional feminism and dating, and punchy empowerment slogans are undeniable. This is further complicated by Given’s acknowledgements and previous admissions that she was an avid follower of Eggerue for many years.
Given in 2020
Beyond the close proximity of the content, another problem of the propagation of such self-help books is that the authors are being positioned almost as spiritual guides to all women, despite being so young themselves. To continue with the example of Eggerue, who was 23 when her debut book was published, and Given, who was a mere 20, it is problematic to posit the women as gurus of empowerment for teens when they are still battling through their twenties. Tweeting feminist slogans is one thing, collating all of this into a book that promises to help with healing and personal growth is quite another. Furthermore, as Moya Lothian-McLean points out for gal-dem magazine, these influencers are first and foremost artists and bloggers, rather than writers. McLean argues that ‘an obvious career trajectory has been established for young women who manage to build a large social media following via “feminist” content. First comes the low-level buzz, the appearances on magazine lists that feature the word “empowering” or “badass” in the title. Next up are the panel appearances. Then the podcast. Finally, a lucrative book deal – six figures or so – that will open them up to the rest of the world’.
In essence, it is commonplace for female influencers to be picked up by the publishing industry, which will then standardise their artwork and ethos to fit into a mould that is known to drive in profits. The publishers collate the artwork and feminist online content from the individual influencer, and package it into a purchasable survival-guide to being a modern woman; in essence, the publishing industry is where social media meets capitalism.
Taking this view, it is no wonder that there are overlaps in the execution. This is not to imply that the individual influencer is blameless in an act of plagiarism, but that the capitalist agenda of publishing is the driving force behind such overlap. Hence, the current fallout between Eggerue and Given, the full details of which can be viewed on Eggerue’s ‘white violence’ highlight and Given’s ‘statement’ highlight on Instagram. As it stands, Eggerue is continuing to draw parallels between her own work and that of Given on Instagram. She states that the ‘sentiment and style’ of her work has been ‘lifted and repackaged’, meaning that booksellers have stopped stocking her book ‘because of this white woman quite literally taking up space’. Eggerue argues that she is owed reparations for the ongoing fiscal and emotional consequences of such close proximity.
Excerpts of Eggerue’s Instagram
Given has since released two statements in response, the first stating that she ‘never claimed to be the first person to talk about these topics’, and that her book ‘was always going to look this way’. Following the initial statement, three weeks ago Given stated that two separate lawyers specialising in intellectual property were hired, and neither found any grounds for plagiarism or copyright infringement. She goes on to say ‘no one has a monopoly on writing about their experiences’ and hopes that the situation will not discourage women to ‘write books on similar subjects’. Eggerue’s supporters, often white women, have been quick to call Given a ‘fake ally’ as she is now profiting from work that is uncomfortably close to Eggerue’s, despite her previous activist work on social media during the past year of BLM. Eggerue’s supporters also berate the white supremacist attitudes of her management, who have prematurely ended Eggerue’s notice period, causing her financial damage through losing the work still being negotiated, and enduring great emotional strain. Furthermore, in a statement released on 17th December 2020, Diving Bell Group founders, Kim Butler and Justin Girdler, claimed to be ‘totally shocked and saddened by the narrative that has been implied to suggest that we protected one client over another due to their race’, the wording of which creates doubts around Eggerue’s credibility, and is a form of gaslighting. Given has since reposted the support she has garnered from prominent black feminists, such as Munroe Bergdorf, in a seemingly triumphant powerplay of social support.
The central issue is that the only winners in this situation are the publishing houses, who continue to profit from the fallout on social media. As it has been said, any publicity is good publicity, and it is certain that book sales are booming; Given was on the Sunday Times Bestseller List for 12 weeks, and Eggerue’s two books are now sold out of bookshops nationwide in a tidal wave of support, according to her Instagram. What this illuminates is that the dominant capitalist system, whether it be in the form of publishers or talent management, will always prevail. Furthermore, beyond the capitalist agenda of the publishing industry repackaged social media content into self-help books, there is a more insidious force at work here. There are parallels between the publishing industry’s capitalist colonisation of social media content, and Given’s alleged colonisation of Eggerue’s work.
Capitalism is a force founded on racism. The economic force profited off of the dehumanisation and oppression of black people; as Peter Hudis states for Historical Materialism, ‘capitalism first emerged as a world system through the anti-black racism generated by the transatlantic slave trade, and it has depended on racism to ensure its perpetration and reproduction ever since’. Therefore, as capitalism and white supremacy are linked, it is unsurprising that these forces are still at play today. In this situation, whilst Eggergue grapples with the emotional trauma of the public fallout and alleged colonisation of her intellectual property, the profit-driven publishing houses continue to thrive. Eggerue carved the way for Florence in the trajectory of their careers, as McLean pointed out for gal-dem mag. The parallels between the two demonstrate that the publishing industry prioritises profit and will replicate a winning formula across multiple influencers: sharing the same demographic of followers on social media ensures that books of the same genre will sell under different influencers, as this Grazia article suggests. Rather than engaging with the socially conscious attitudes highlighted in 2020, and allowing black women’s voices to be prioritised and for white women to ‘pass the mic’, the publishers hire a tick-box diversity reader for Given, and continue to capitalise on book sales; as Eggerue herself argued, ‘if you need a diversity reader, you need to pass the mic’.
The tragic truth here is that until white supremacy is overthrown at a systemic level, the victims will always be black women. The example of Chidera Eggerue and Florence Given suggests that whilst capitalism continues to dominate economic systems, black women will continue to be silenced, colonised and plagiarised within the whitewashed, profit-driven publishing industry.