I think you're over-exaggerating the decline of feminism-- it is alive and well within the world-spanning umbrella of leftism. It has diminished since the heyday of the feminist blogosphere around 2013-2014, but still remains a canonical point of doctrine among orthodox Zoomer leftism. It is true that leftists aren't fans of the TERF/GC feminist crowd, but that's not gonna turn them into a bunch of anti-feminists. Enthusiasm for feminism has certainly cooled though, and the edgier leftists make ironic sexist jokes the way they make ironic anti-french jokes.
I actually expect feminism to make a bit of resurgence with the rising salience of abortion and debates about natalism.
I think class politics making a comeback sounds a bit like wishful thinking. Wouldn't completely rule it out, but the left is getting PMC-ified hard in the US and the greater western hemisphere. College-educated, high-earning people are blue and getting bluer, while the 40k/yr McDonald's worker with tattoos and a GED is prolly gonna vote for Trump.
There's less consensus on the left outside of I/P on foreign policy-- check out Ukraine v. Russia for instance. Still, even after(?) the current war ends, I suspect Palestine will remain an important lodestar of leftism. I agree the issue will continue to grow in importance.
Thanks Hugh, these are some good points. Thoughts:
1. Part of the issue is that many very different political movements have claimed the name "feminism." For the purposes of this discussion, let's define feminism as the social movement championing the rights of females, rather than, say, the social movement championing the rights of all people to self-define however they wish.
You make a good point that there have been a bunch of recent feminist flashpoints: Roe, Vance cat lady comments, the horrible rape case in France. I do see incidents like this as galvanizing bursts of feminist fervor, but it kind of gets back to the Nietzsche quote above - in the absence of a cohesive system, these sentiments are likely to just disperse.
In the wake of Oct 7 and many of the more outlandish trans controversies, women's rights seem to be the pilar of identity politics leftists are least enthusiastic to defend. At the same time, the rightists reserve their most feverish backlash for women. Feminism-as-defence-of-women strikes me as being in a very vulnerable position.
2. Have you seen the "Quiet Quitting" and "I don't dream of labor" memes? Gen Z already seems seriously dissatisfied with their PMC-class jobs and is politicizing that dissatisfaction. I agree that we're unlikely to see young people rushing to support the United Auto Workers, but I do think they'll adopt the language of class struggle in their own lives. We might see a campaign for a 30-hour work week, for instance. I also think we might see an influx of highly-blue, educated types pivoting to skilled blue collar work like carpentry.
3. I agree that leftist foreign policy is likely to remain muddled. Their analysis is still centered a simple colonized/colonizer dichotomy, applied to situations that follow a familiar identity politics hierarchies (eg/ I-P is colonialist genocide, ambivalent on Russia invading Ukraine, silent on China/Taiwan). All this is actually a strong argument for woke remaining a dominant force, with its energy redirected into new issues.
This is such a thoughtful understanding of the ‘woke’ ideology and how it’s trending. It doesn’t seem that common sense will prevail any time soon with the numbers being so heavily skewed towards ‘woke’ in the younger generations.
Thanks for the share! :) I enjoyed reading and can see the deep thought that went into this piece. I don't have strong opinions regarding the state of woke, but it does feel quintessentially American. It feels inevitable that we would have such polarized views in such an extreme political climate—like the natural outcome of free speech + individualism + a divided culture. So I guess I agree with the point in the section about the future of woke. My opinion is that woke appears to be increasingly more cringe, and that trend may continue. But it seems likely that wokeness, as well as it's opposite found in extreme conservatism, will live as long as political polarization remains a key feature of Western culture.
I agree that the polarization is very American. It might have something to do with the two-party system, but whenever I'm in the US I'm struck by how much politics is cast as one-side-against-the-other. I also agree that it's a tendency in other parts of the West, but in Europe there seems to be an edge of ambiguity and nuance that's often lacking here.
Wow Arielle, thank you for this deep investigation into the state of Woke. I love how you have broken the ideas into 3 parts which helps me distill my thoughts around this topic. And can I just say, you write so well it is a pleasure to subscribe and get to enjoy your prose.
Is it possible that woke is not so much as declining but getting lost in the sea of voices? From the time period from when it got super popular that was when there were in general way less opinions online than there are now. Especially in the last few years it seems like a lot of conservatives figured out how to use the internet for sharing opinions. I have no strong opinion either way but in an ocean of millions of voices tuned with algorithms meant to give us echo chambers, it would make sense that some think feminism is dying when really they're just seeing more antifeminist content. and so on and so forth.
I think you're over-exaggerating the decline of feminism-- it is alive and well within the world-spanning umbrella of leftism. It has diminished since the heyday of the feminist blogosphere around 2013-2014, but still remains a canonical point of doctrine among orthodox Zoomer leftism. It is true that leftists aren't fans of the TERF/GC feminist crowd, but that's not gonna turn them into a bunch of anti-feminists. Enthusiasm for feminism has certainly cooled though, and the edgier leftists make ironic sexist jokes the way they make ironic anti-french jokes.
I actually expect feminism to make a bit of resurgence with the rising salience of abortion and debates about natalism.
I think class politics making a comeback sounds a bit like wishful thinking. Wouldn't completely rule it out, but the left is getting PMC-ified hard in the US and the greater western hemisphere. College-educated, high-earning people are blue and getting bluer, while the 40k/yr McDonald's worker with tattoos and a GED is prolly gonna vote for Trump.
There's less consensus on the left outside of I/P on foreign policy-- check out Ukraine v. Russia for instance. Still, even after(?) the current war ends, I suspect Palestine will remain an important lodestar of leftism. I agree the issue will continue to grow in importance.
Thanks Hugh, these are some good points. Thoughts:
1. Part of the issue is that many very different political movements have claimed the name "feminism." For the purposes of this discussion, let's define feminism as the social movement championing the rights of females, rather than, say, the social movement championing the rights of all people to self-define however they wish.
You make a good point that there have been a bunch of recent feminist flashpoints: Roe, Vance cat lady comments, the horrible rape case in France. I do see incidents like this as galvanizing bursts of feminist fervor, but it kind of gets back to the Nietzsche quote above - in the absence of a cohesive system, these sentiments are likely to just disperse.
In the wake of Oct 7 and many of the more outlandish trans controversies, women's rights seem to be the pilar of identity politics leftists are least enthusiastic to defend. At the same time, the rightists reserve their most feverish backlash for women. Feminism-as-defence-of-women strikes me as being in a very vulnerable position.
2. Have you seen the "Quiet Quitting" and "I don't dream of labor" memes? Gen Z already seems seriously dissatisfied with their PMC-class jobs and is politicizing that dissatisfaction. I agree that we're unlikely to see young people rushing to support the United Auto Workers, but I do think they'll adopt the language of class struggle in their own lives. We might see a campaign for a 30-hour work week, for instance. I also think we might see an influx of highly-blue, educated types pivoting to skilled blue collar work like carpentry.
3. I agree that leftist foreign policy is likely to remain muddled. Their analysis is still centered a simple colonized/colonizer dichotomy, applied to situations that follow a familiar identity politics hierarchies (eg/ I-P is colonialist genocide, ambivalent on Russia invading Ukraine, silent on China/Taiwan). All this is actually a strong argument for woke remaining a dominant force, with its energy redirected into new issues.
This is such a thoughtful understanding of the ‘woke’ ideology and how it’s trending. It doesn’t seem that common sense will prevail any time soon with the numbers being so heavily skewed towards ‘woke’ in the younger generations.
Thanks so much Tara! I agree that the trends among the younger generation are quite telling.
Thanks for the share! :) I enjoyed reading and can see the deep thought that went into this piece. I don't have strong opinions regarding the state of woke, but it does feel quintessentially American. It feels inevitable that we would have such polarized views in such an extreme political climate—like the natural outcome of free speech + individualism + a divided culture. So I guess I agree with the point in the section about the future of woke. My opinion is that woke appears to be increasingly more cringe, and that trend may continue. But it seems likely that wokeness, as well as it's opposite found in extreme conservatism, will live as long as political polarization remains a key feature of Western culture.
I agree that the polarization is very American. It might have something to do with the two-party system, but whenever I'm in the US I'm struck by how much politics is cast as one-side-against-the-other. I also agree that it's a tendency in other parts of the West, but in Europe there seems to be an edge of ambiguity and nuance that's often lacking here.
Wow Arielle, thank you for this deep investigation into the state of Woke. I love how you have broken the ideas into 3 parts which helps me distill my thoughts around this topic. And can I just say, you write so well it is a pleasure to subscribe and get to enjoy your prose.
Thanks for the support Peter! :)
Is it possible that woke is not so much as declining but getting lost in the sea of voices? From the time period from when it got super popular that was when there were in general way less opinions online than there are now. Especially in the last few years it seems like a lot of conservatives figured out how to use the internet for sharing opinions. I have no strong opinion either way but in an ocean of millions of voices tuned with algorithms meant to give us echo chambers, it would make sense that some think feminism is dying when really they're just seeing more antifeminist content. and so on and so forth.