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"'''Social justice warrior'''" ('''SJW''') is an informal, derogatory noun referring to people who hold socially progressive views. The phrase originated in the late 20th century as a neutral or positive term for people engaged in [[social justice]] activism. During the [[Gamergate controversy]], the term took on negative connotations, and was utilised to attack wide range of progressive viewpoints.{{refn|name=Ohlheiser}}{{refn|name=Johnson}} |
"'''Social justice warrior'''" ('''SJW''') is an informal, derogatory noun referring to people who hold socially progressive views, while pursuing [[Social validation|personal validation]] in place of deep-seated [[Belief|conviction]]{{refn|name=Heron & Belford}} and engaging in [[wiktionary:disingenuous|disingenuous]] arguments.{{refn|name=Ringo}} It has been associated with being "[[woke]]" and [[call-out culture]]. |
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The phrase originated in the late 20th century as a neutral or positive term for people engaged in [[social justice]] activism. During the [[Gamergate controversy]], the term took on negative connotations, and was utilised to attack wide range of progressive viewpoints.{{refn|name=Ohlheiser}}{{refn|name=Johnson}} |
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==Origin== |
==Origin== |
Revision as of 21:00, 30 November 2019
"Social justice warrior" (SJW) is an informal, derogatory noun referring to people who hold socially progressive views, while pursuing personal validation in place of deep-seated conviction[1] and engaging in disingenuous arguments.[2] It has been associated with being "woke" and call-out culture.
The phrase originated in the late 20th century as a neutral or positive term for people engaged in social justice activism. During the Gamergate controversy, the term took on negative connotations, and was utilised to attack wide range of progressive viewpoints.[3][4]
Origin
Original meaning
Dating back to 1824, the term social justice refers to justice on a societal level.[5] From the early 1990s to the early 2000s, social-justice warrior was used as a neutral or complimentary phrase,[3] as when a 1991 Montreal Gazette article describes union activist Michel Chartrand as a "Quebec nationalist and social-justice warrior".[3]
Katherine Martin, the head of U.S. dictionaries at Oxford University Press, said in 2015 that "[a]ll of the examples I've seen until quite recently are lionizing the person".[3] As of 2015, the Oxford English Dictionary had not done a full search for the earliest usage.[3]
Pejorative meaning
"the 'social justice warrior,' i.e., the stereotype of the feminist as unreasonable, sanctimonious, biased, and self-aggrandizing."
Scott Selisker[6]
According to Martin, the term switched from primarily positive to negative around 2011, when it was first used as an insult on Twitter.[3] The same year, an Urban Dictionary entry for the term also appeared.[3] The term's negative use became mainstream due to the 2014 Gamergate controversy,[7] emerging as the favoured term of Gamergate proponents to describe their ideological opponents.[3] In Internet and video game culture the phrase is broadly associated with the Gamergate controversy and wider culture war fallout, including the 2015 Sad Puppies campaign that affected the Hugo Awards.[4][2][8][9][10][excessive citations] Usage of the term as a pejorative was popularized on websites such as Reddit,[11] 4chan,[11] and Twitter. The term has been associated with being "woke"[12] and call-out culture.[13][14][15]
Description
The negative connotation has primarily been aimed at those purportedly hypocritically espousing views adhering to social progressivism, cultural inclusivity, or feminism.[3][4] This usage implies that a person is engaging in disingenuous social justice arguments or activism to raise his or her personal reputation.[2] Allegra Ringo writes for Vice that "[i]n other words, SJWs don't hold strong principles, but they pretend to. The problem is, that's not a real category of people. It's simply a way to dismiss anyone who brings up social justice."[2]
Vice reporter Clinton Nguyen quoted the term during a report which analyzed the aggressive behavior behind 'social justice'-oriented Tumblr users, citing an example in which Tumblr users engaged in sustained harassment towards an artist on the site over the content of the artist's work. The subsequent torment was so vicious that the artist attempted suicide. Users who supported the artist reported at least ten attackers to the police, which led to at least one arrest.[16]
The term is commonly used by participants in online discussion in criticism of feminism.[6] Scott Selisker, writes in New Literary History, "[Forum participants] often make personal criticisms of what they see as a type: the 'social justice warrior,' i.e., the stereotype of the feminist as unreasonable, sanctimonious, biased, and self-aggrandizing".[6]
In August 2015, social justice warrior was one of several new words and phrases added to Oxford Dictionaries.[3][17][18] Martin states that "the perceived orthodoxy [of progressive politics] has prompted a backlash among people who feel their speech is being policed".[3]
Use of the term has been described as attempting to degrade the motivations of the person accused of being an SJW, implying that their motives are "for personal validation rather than out of any deep-seated conviction".[1]
In 2019, former president of the United States Barack Obama has expressed his disapproval of "woke" call-out culture.[19]
Technology
Technology companies like Google and Facebook are reported to have penalized the term "SJW" in their search platforms.[20][21]
In popular culture
South Park has dedicated episodes mocking social justice warriors.[22]
In May 2014, the concept was incorporated into a parody role-playing video game titled Social Justice Warriors.[23][24][25] Developed by Nonadecimal Creative, Social Justice Warriors involved the concept of debating online against Internet trolls who make racist and other provocative comments by choosing from different responses such as "'dismember their claims with your logic,' rebroadcast their message to be attacked by others, or go for the personal attack."[24] Users were able to select a character class, and gameplay involved changes to user meters of Sanity and Reputation.[24] Game creator Eric Ford explained that the game was designed to foster critical thinking and was not "intended to suggest that racist, sexist, or other offensive comments shouldn't be confronted online. The goal is to encourage critical thinking on how it can be done more effectively, and at less cost to the real-world social justice warriors."[24]
See also
References
- ^ a b Heron, Michael James; Belford, Pauline; Goker, Ayse (2014). "Sexism in the circuitry: female participation in male-dominated popular computer culture". ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society. 44 (4): 18–29. doi:10.1145/2695577.2695582.
- ^ a b c d Ringo, Allegra (August 28, 2014). "Meet the Female Gamer Mascot Born of Anti-Feminist Internet Drama". Vice. Archived from the original on January 14, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ohlheiser, Abby (October 7, 2015). "Why 'social justice warrior,' a Gamergate insult, is now a dictionary entry". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 26, 2017.
- ^ a b c Johnson, Eric (October 10, 2014). "Understanding the Jargon of Gamergate". Re/code. Archived from the original on January 2, 2016.
A Social Justice Warrior, or SJW, is any person, female or male, who argues online for political correctness or feminism. 'Social justice' may sound like a good thing to many of our readers, but the people who use this term only use it pejoratively.
- ^ "social justice". The Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005.
- ^ a b c Selisker, Scott (2015). "The Bechdel Test and the Social Form of Character Networks". New Literary History. 46 (3): 505–523. doi:10.1353/nlh.2015.0024. ISSN 0028-6087. OCLC 1296558.
- ^ Jeong, Sarah (2015). The Internet of Garbage. Forbes Media. ISBN 9781508018865.
- ^ Clarke, Donald (October 18, 2014). "Are Gamers Misogynistic? Some Certainly Are". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on January 2, 2016.
The term "social justice warrior" (surely a good thing) has been used pejoratively to describe those writers who choose to examine the social and political subtexts of contemporary video games
- ^ Dewey, Caitlin (October 14, 2014). "The Only Guide to Gamergate You Will Ever Need to Read". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
...'SJW,' for social justice warrior—a kind of shorthand insult for liberals and progressives.
- ^ Waldman, Katy (April 8, 2015). "2015 Hugo Awards: How the sad and rabid puppies took over the sci-fi nominations". Slate. Archived from the original on January 14, 2016.
- ^ a b Hill, Max (November 17, 2014). "In defence of 'social justice warriors'". The Peak. Archived from the original on March 17, 2016.
- ^ "To Be or Not To Be 'Woke'". Psychology Today. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
- ^ Williamson, Brett (March 31, 2017). "How social justice warriors are killing key discussions". ABC News. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
- ^ Loh, Sandra Tsing (October 16, 2019). "A Liberal Uneasy in the World of #MeToo Feminism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
- ^ McDermott, John (November 2, 2019). "Those People We Tried to Cancel? They're All Hanging Out Together". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
- ^ Nguyen, Clinton. "An Attempted Suicide Forced a Tumblr Community to Open Its Eyes About Bullying". Vice. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
- ^ Wagner, Laura (August 27, 2015). "Can You Use That In A Sentence? Dictionary Adds New Words". NPR. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016.
- ^ Steinmetz, Katy (August 26, 2015). "Oxford Dictionaries Adds 'Fat-Shame,' 'Butthurt' and 'Redditor'". Time. Archived from the original on January 20, 2016.
- ^ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2019/oct/30/barack-obama-calls-out-politically-woke-social-media-generation-video
- ^ EDT, Benjamin Fearnow On 3/18/19 at 4:43 PM (March 18, 2019). "Donald Trump Jr. says 'Red Pill' groups allow Conservatives to "express themselves"". Newsweek. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Gilliland, Donald (March 17, 2019). "Conservatives face a tough fight as Big Tech's censorship expands". TheHill. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ "South Park Shows How to Defeat the Social-Justice Warriors". National Review. November 2, 2015. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
- ^ Parreno, Ryan (September 9, 2014). "Social Justice Warriors Now Have Their Own RPG". Gameranx. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015.
- ^ a b c d "Social Justice Warrior Review". Technology Tell. March 30, 2015. Archived from the original on January 3, 2016.
- ^ Breiner, Andrew (March 13, 2015). "Don't Feed The Trolls, Fight Them". ThinkProgress. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016.
External links
- "social justice warrior: definition of social justice warrior in Oxford dictionary (American English) (US)". Oxford Dictionaries; Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on January 28, 2016.