Social justice warrior

"SJW" redirects here. For other uses, see SJW (disambiguation).

Social justice warrior (commonly abbreviated SJW) is a pejorative term for an individual who promotes socially progressive views, including feminism, civil rights, and multiculturalism, as well as identity politics. The accusation that somebody is an SJW carries implications that she or he is pursuing personal validation rather than any deep-seated conviction, and engaging in disingenuous arguments.

The phrase originated in the late 20th century as a neutral or positive term for people engaged in social justice activism. In 2011, when the term first appeared on Twitter, it changed from a primarily positive term to an overwhelmingly negative one. During the Gamergate controversy, the negative connotation gained increased use, and was particularly aimed at those espousing views adhering to social liberalism, cultural inclusiveness, or feminism, as well as views deemed to be politically correct or authoritarian.

The term has entered popular culture, including a parody role-playing video game, Social Justice Warriors, released in 2014.

Origin

Further information: Social justice

Dating back to 1824, the term social justice refers to justice on a societal level. From the early 1990s to the early 2000s, social-justice warrior was used as a neutral or complimentary phrase. The Montreal Gazette in 1991 described a performance in a local jazz festival that incorporated "sound bites from Charles de Gaulle and Quebec nationalist and social-justice warrior Michel Chartrand".

Katherine Martin, the head of U.S. dictionaries at Oxford University Press, said in 2015, "All of the examples I've seen until quite recently are lionizing the person". As of 2015, the Oxford English Dictionary had not done a full search for the earliest usage.

Pejorative use

"the 'social justice warrior,' i.e., the stereotype of the feminist as unreasonable, sanctimonious, biased, and self-aggrandizing."

Scott Selisker

According to Martin, the term switched from primarily positive to overwhelmingly negative around 2011, when it was first used as an insult on Twitter. The same year, an Urban Dictionary entry for the term also appeared. The term's negative use became mainstream due to the 2014 Gamergate controversy, emerging as the favoured term of Gamergate proponents to describe their ideological opponents. 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. Usage of the term as a pejorative was popularized on websites such as Reddit, 4chan, and YouTube.

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".

The negative connotation has primarily been aimed at those espousing views adhering to social progressivism, cultural inclusiveness, or feminism. This usage implies that a person is engaging in disingenuous social justice arguments or activism to raise his or her personal reputation. Allegra Ringo writes for Vice, "In 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."

According to David French, the aims of social justice warriors are opposed to those of Christian conservatives.

The term is commonly used by participants in online discussion in criticism of feminism. 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".

In August 2015, social justice warrior was one of several new words and phrases added to Oxford Dictionaries. Martin states that "the perceived orthodoxy [of progressive politics] has prompted a backlash among people who feel their speech is being policed".

Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes on reason.com that proponents of "social justice" on both the left and the right share similarities such as outrage, claims of victimhood, and portraying opponents as bullying and evil and their side as the truly oppressed.

In May 2014, the concept was incorporated into a parody role-playing video game titled Social Justice Warriors. 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." Users were able to select a character class; and gameplay involved changes to user meters of Sanity and Reputation. 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."

See also

• Call-out culture
• Egalitarianism
• Left-wing politics
• Regressive left
• Social criticism
• Social equality

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. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)