Florence Given

Obviously, I lose so many followers whenever I post a dancing video on social media, but more than that, I get people actively trying to put me back in my cage because they feel so uncomfortable with being confronted with my freedom, with the way I'm moving my body, just having fun.

I think dancing is the epitome of being free of your internal cage.

And so a few years ago, I mean, I go through like a round of public shaming all the time, just like constantly.

And that's just the way that shame works.

It's the way that life works, especially when you're someone that's very self-expressive and you put yourself out there.

You have to accept shame.

hearing the worst imaginable things being said about you and getting the fuck back up again, right?

Alchemizing that shame and using it to compost and grow beautiful flowers and grow into an even more fucking beautiful version of yourself.

But a few years ago...

I decided, what if I lean the fuck in to my annoyingness?

This inherent fear of being annoying, of being too much, of talking too much, of taking up too much space, of dancing to whatever, of being annoying and having opinions and being loud and having a fucking podcast and posting videos of myself online.

What if...

Actually, the reason that that was something that was shamed and poked at in me isn't because it's inherently fucking embarrassing.

It's because my freedom triggered other women.

And I'm saying other women because even though...

Like, I don't even have men.

Men just don't talk about me like that.

They just don't.

Because men, they're more direct.

Women are covert and passive.