Florence Given

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.

And so that the way women mask their envy or their anger is through moral righteousness.

She's taking up too much space.

How dare she?

She's so annoying.