Guiding us through her perspective on the Grace Beverley controversy, TV Editor Sam Wait offers her opinion on whether privileged individuals should be talking about productivity
Grace Beverley, the 23-year-old influencer and CEO of two businesses, has recently come under fire on Twitter. Beverley founded both her fitness businesses, TALA and SHREDDY, whilst studying full-time at the University of Oxford. The tweet which has caused this controversy has received over 67,000 retweets and 379.3k likes and is as follows:
@sarahlostctrl, who tweeted the viral post, later added ‘the tweet was meant to be light-hearted’ and they ‘do not endorse any personal attacks’ on Beverley. Unfortunately, this is what the tweet incited – as many responses disregarded the entrepreneur’s accomplishments due to her being from an affluent background.
Beverley’s upcoming self-help book ‘Working Hard, Hardly Working: How to Achieve More, Stress Less and Feel Fulfilled’ is what has incited this backlash, as the Twitter user felt it suggested that those from working class backgrounds could achieve the same monumental success as Beverley. Obviously, this is far from the case.
It is unsurprising that many have found her book offensive to those who are physically and mentally incapable of being productive
A new study from Oxford University has debunked that the main reason children from working-class backgrounds are less likely to succeed is not because they are ‘less bright’ than others. The differing facts of social class performance in school are so well-known that D. F. Swift remarks they ‘hardly need repeating.’ It is well known, then, that working class students are less likely to succeed due to material and cultural deprivation. With Beverley being privately educated, it is unsurprising that many have found her book offensive to those who are physically and mentally incapable of being productive due to their socio-economic background.
However, Beverley’s book is yet to even be released. It is incredibly unfair to dismiss her book as ‘offensive’ or ‘problematic’ when no one has, apart from the excerpt she has released on Instagram, been able to read a single page. From the excerpt she has released, Beverley has been sensitive in outlining the issues many face in modern day life. It is impossible to tell how nuanced it will be before it is available to read; those on Twitter have only been successful in judging a book by its cover.
What these Twitter users are really angered at, rather than Beverley herself, is the myth of meritocracy that the UK perpetuates. Is Beverley perpetuating this meritocracy too? I hope not. It will be impossible to tell until the book is available to read. It seems incredibly tone-deaf for her not to acknowledge how her privilege has helped her reach the position she is in today, and she has always been vocal about her privilege before in interviews.
Their class should not diminish their achievements, but merely explain how it was possible for them to come to fruition. To argue otherwise seems akin to classism.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge has received similar criticism as Beverley for being privately educated and successful, and has never claimed not to have been privileged from her affluent background. However, she reiterates Beverley’s sentiments concerning her hard work by saying ‘it’s not like my privilege created Fleabag. I created Fleabag, but from a point of place in my life where I was able to sit and write.’ Though these women are undoubtedly more privileged than most, that should not diminish their achievements. This should only highlight how difficult it is for women to break into these positions of power without being white and privately educated. Their class should not diminish their achievements, but merely explain how it was possible for them to come to fruition. To argue otherwise seems akin to classism.
It is true that the working class, and people of colour, must work twice as hard to get half the success. The most recent example of this is Michaela Coel’s astounding series I May Destroy You being snubbed for a Golden Globe in favour of Emily in Paris. Yet, disallowing Beverley to share her productivity tips does nothing to prevent these social inequalities. It is not her that is at fault, but the system that claims the UK is a country which ‘facilitates the means for talent to rise to the top.’ Thus, not recognising race, class, gender or sexuality as significant barriers to success.
Yet that does not mean they do not have something to say. They just do not have anything to say about that.
Elizabeth Day’s book How to Fail and Pandora Sykes How Do We Know We’re Getting it Right? Essays on Modern Life are both heavily prefaced with their respective privilege. Both white, upper middle class and privately educated, they take care to mention they are aware their opportunities in life have helped them reach the position they are in today. Though neither offer productivity tips, they offer advice and their experience on modern-day issues. Neither of their experiences include ever going hungry or worrying how they might survive. Yet that does not mean they do not have something to say. They just do not have anything to say about that.
As Virginia Woolf writes in her famous essay The Leaning Tower, ‘the writer is destined to look most intently at the class from which he himself springs’ whilst falsely believing ‘he is looking at the whole of life.’ All writers can do is acknowledge their position of privilege, and sensitively display their own experiences without appearing tone-deaf to those worse off.
As far as the marketing goes, Beverley’s upcoming book does not claim to be a guide to instant economic success. It seems to be a response to her fans asking for her productivity tips, which she should be able to give, privileged or not. It is not Beverley’s privilege that made these businesses or achieved her degree; granted, it facilitated them – but she still had to work hard. She is an influential and successful young woman who has infiltrated the male-dominated role of CEO, which she should be commended for. To give productivity tips does not seem, to me at least, to be a problem. That is, as long as they do not disregard socio-economic factors which could inhibit an individual’s success.
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