What makes a piece of media "sjw"? - No cis-scum allowed.

This was the acceptance speech of NK Jeminsin, winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel for 2018. Is it, or is it not, SJW? :\

oh um okay so I I had started developing this whole superstition where I only went Awards if I don't show up and my friends are texting me so I can't read my speech stop okay all right so let me get to the speech this has been a hard year hasn't it a hard few years a hard century for some of us things have always been hard and I wrote the broken earth trilogy to speak to that struggle and what it takes to live let alone thrive in a world that seems determined to break you a world of people who constantly question your competence your relevance your very existence I get a lot of questions about where the themes of the broken earth trilogy come from I think it's pretty obvious that I'm drawing on the human history of structural oppression as well as my feelings about this moment in American history what may be less obvious though is how much of the story derives from my feelings about science fiction and fantasy then again science fiction and fantasy are microcosms of the wider world in no way rarified from the world's pettiness or prejudice but another thing that I tried to touch on with the broken earth trilogy is that life in a hard world is never just the struggle life is family blood and found life is those allies who prove themselves worthy by actions and not just talk life means celebrating every victory no matter how small so if I stand here before you beneath these lights I want you to remember that 2018 is also a good year this is a year in which records have been set a year in which even the most privileged blinder of us have been forced to acknowledge that the world is broken and needs fixing and that is a good thing stop texting me and that is because acknowledging the problem is the first step towards fixing it I looked at science fiction and fantasy as the aspirational Drive of the zeitgeist we creators are the engineers of possibility and as this genre finally however grudgingly acknowledges that the dreams of the marginalized matter and that all of us have a future so will go the world soon I hope fairies and yes there will be naysayers I know that I am here on this stage accepting this award for pretty much the same reason as every previous best novel winner because I work my ass off I have poured my pain onto paper when I could not afford therapy I have studied works of literature that range widely and dig deeply to learn when I could and refine my voice I have written a million words of crap and probably a million more of me and beyond that I have smiled and nodded while well-meaning magazine editors advised me to tone down my allegories and my anger I didn't I have gritted my teeth while an established professional writer went on a 10-minute tirade at me and basically as a proxy for all black people for mentioning under-representation in the sciences I've kept writing even though my first novel The Killing Moon was initially rejected on the assumption that only black people would ever possibly want to read the work of a black writer I have raised my voice to talkback over fellow panelists who tried to talk over me about my own damn life I have fought myself in the little voice inside me that constantly still whispers that I should just keep my head down and shut up and let the real writers talk but this is the year in which I get to smile at all of those naysayers every single mediocre insecure wannabe who fixes their mouth to suggest that I do not belong on this stage but people like me cannot possibly have earned such an honor and that when they win its meritocracy but when we win its identity politics I get to smile at this people and lift a massive shining rocket-shaped finger in their direction I'm understand so how many of you all saw like Panther okay probably my favorite part of it is actually Kendrick Lamar theme song all the stars the chorus of it is this maybe the night that my dreams might let me know all the stars are closer let 2018 be the year that the stars came closer for all of us the stars are ours thank you
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Clearly a speech for the ages. Can't convey how relieved I am that she likes the Kendrick Lamar theme song in Black Panther. My day is complete now.

Fat black woman, but not the nice kind that works in your office and wear funny hats to church on Sunday. The wokest of woke.

I don't think she's a lesbian, but probably get points for looking like one.

The only caveat I would insert is that this is taken off of Vox Day's blog, and I've found it on no other sources.
 
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I feel that if a work is touting a "first" before the show even premieres, thar's a big red flag saying "look how woke we are!" First lesbian single mom superhero, first disabled trans news anchor, first transracial nonbinary orangutang on the Animal Planet...what have you. If the writers are publicly sperging about Drumpf/Current Year/trendy politics of the week and talking about how "important" or "timely" their show is, that's another strong sign.

Having a nonwhite male protagonist doesn't make something SJW to me. It's when that's the only thing the work is about and they never shut up about their cool gender or whatever. It comes off as pandering or preaching. I like entertainment that lets me think for myself, not that tells me how to feel.
 
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Intentional luridity and sensationalism. Calls for silencing/firing/witch hunts. Ham fisted attempts at forcing "diversity" to the front and center of a mundane topic. It's like the
Supreme Court said about obscenity - you know it when you see it.
 
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I know it when I see it. There are plenty of books, films, and TV shows that highlight actual oppression or problems in our world that are simply trying to give you the facts of what happened without necessarily blaming white people for everything. In some cases, white people are portrayed sympathetically or just as much of a victim of the system (like that one film about that one couple in the South who were tried in court for being married as a black woman and a white man). I would consider that to be an example of social justice, but not SJW because it clearly argues that racism and prejudice is harmful for everyone involved.
 
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The Shadow said:
I feel that if a work is touting a "first" before the show even premieres, thar's a big red flag saying "look how woke we are!" First lesbian single mom superhero, first disabled trans news anchor, first transracial nonbinary orangutang on the Animal Planet...what have you. If the writers are publicly sperging about Drumpf/Current Year/trendy politics of the week and talking about how "important" or "timely" their show is, that's another strong sign.

Having a nonwhite male protagonist doean't make something SJW to me. It's when that's the only thing the work is about and they never shut up about their cool gender or whatever. It comes off as pandering or preaching. I like entertainment that lets me think for myself, not that tells me how to feel.
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The best "firsts" is when they deny everything before it happened. Best example was this shit from 2015. It's wrong even if you limit it to Marvel and there's no technicality that makes this a correct statement. Another from their company that I figure most people would know is Jubilee but there are many others.

ab012f2e5b2ca2e31b74ec93e3429b7c.png
 
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Some good examples are things like the Charmed reboot and this Crunchyroll anime thing, both of which have threads here. Like others have said, they're touting diversity (or really 'diversity', because they think it means 'no straight white men' rather than 'a mix of representation') over any other aspect of the production, as if the only thing required for an audience to watch something is to feel like they're woke by doing so.

If instead of trying to tell a good story they're clearly trying to tell a politically correct story, then it's SJW.
 
The term is starting to get overused to the point of meaning pretty much anything. To me, an "SJW" work is one comparable to obvious christian propaganda, but from the other side of the political fence. So like a Kevin Sorbo movie, but instead of telling you it's bad to be an Atheist, it's telling you that it's bad to be white/straight/whatever.
 
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Elwood P. Dowd said:
This was the acceptance speech of NK Jeminsin, winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel for 2018. Is it, or is it not, SJW? :\



Clearly a speech for the ages. Can't convey how relieved I am that she likes the Kendrick Lamar theme song in Black Panther. My day is complete now.

Fat black woman, but not the nice kind that works in your office and wear funny hats to church on Sunday. The wokest of woke.

I don't think she's a lesbian, but probably get points for looking like one.

The only caveat I would insert is that this is taken off of Vox Day's blog, and I've found it on no other sources.
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Fuck off. That thing was so rambling and incoherent I could barely understand any of it. There's no way that speech was written by a fucking writer.

Also, holy shit. She's won the Hugo award for best novel three times in a row.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._K._Jemisin

Here's the wiki articles on each, in turn, that won the Hugo that year for best novel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Season_(novel)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Obelisk_Gate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stone_Sky

I have tried to read the summaries...and I have no fucking clue what these things are even about.
 
Having black characters, disabled characters etc to meet a quota is what makes something SJW. A lot of soap operas and dramas here in the UK seem to be adding trans and autistic characters and I think it's because of the whole representation bullshit.
 
LagoonaBlue said:
Having black characters, disabled characters etc to meet a quota is what makes something SJW. A lot of soap operas and dramas here in the UK seem to be adding trans and autistic characters and I think it's because of the whole representation bullshit.
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Yeah, especially in period pieces, like I've been watching The Frankenstein Chronicles recently, it's set in 1829, 4 years before slavery was banned in the British Empire, and there are two black guys shown in the show. I can get behind the criminal one, black Fagin wouldn't seem too out of place, but Sean Bean's working for Sir Robert Peel and gets partnered with a black Bow Street Runner. I guess the show subtly mocks the concept as Sean Bean keeps sending him to do stake outs and shit, and the dude always gets spotted, but then black dude has a creepy relationship with a teenage witness, that Sean Bean all too readily accepts.

It really breaks the immersion...
 
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And here is where I get to be a long-winded sumbitch.

The problem with labeling shit "SJW" nowadays is tricky because the rampant overuse of the term. That isn't to say a lot of it out there isn't virtue signaling bullshit and pandering for Social Media clout, but I bring that up because the tenants I use to label as "SJW" media doesn't pertain exclusively to said media, but they are main instigators of the following.

1) Lack of Originality - SJW media thrives on taking pre-existing franchises and IPs and breaking them down into a slurry of metahumor and lolsorandom tropes.They seems physically and mentally incapable of coming up with their own concepts and instead leech off of the work of others that came before them.

2) Lack of Style - Most SJW media likes to use simplistic, purile artistic methods such as CalArts because it is a minimalist art style that even children can make, which means it is all-inclusive or some bullshit. It is also handy for large publishers because if they keep the bar so low, they can effectively hire any art school dropout and pay them shit wages . I am 90% certain this is the reason why most of Marvel's comics look like so much crap these days - instead of growing and cultivating talent like they would back in the 80s and 90s, they lowered the bar so low it seems the only qualification seems to be to not somehow choke on your Wacom pen.

3) Lack of Awareness - If a SJW media wants to be taken seriously, its is always about the self - about one's sexuality, one's gender, one's ethnicity - or harping about depression/anxiety. SJW media rarely expands much farther out about itself because it is created by self-serving, narcissistic children in adult bodies. They are utterly terrified in creating actual outside antagonists with the exception of the boilerplate "super evil bad guy" because, ironically, for all of their yammering about diversity, they look at the world as binary - "I'm right, and everything that I don't like is evil."

4) Lack of Actual Diversity - SJW media would like to give the impression that they love diversity, but much of it is so much window dressing. They will litter their works with people of every single pigmentation, but rarely do said characters get to be Politically Correct Stereotypes. Let's go down the line:
- Black character - Either in a position of authority, or working for THE MAN. If they are male, their personality is about the equivalent of a rock, if they're a woman, they're allowed to be sassy. They will normally be depicted in the middle class suburbs, but if they're inner city, they will never be affiliated with a gang or do drugs.
- White Female Character - will most likely be the main protagonist. Literally a Disney princess with a gun and/or can throw a punch, they are almost perfect in any capacity and will most likely have strong fascination with SCIENCE or HISTORY or something the creator can easily bullshit through.
- White Male Character - They they will be the sidekick/ comic relief character who seems barely capable to function in society.
- Gay character - If lesbian, they are a dangerhair covered in piercings and tattoos. If gay, they doesn't exist unless they are unrepentant in their fabulousness.
- Fat character - Typically able to do anything any physically fit character can do. If it is a superhero-based story, chances are they are the strongest in the group.
- Indian/Pakistan - Scientist. Always a scientist.
- Japanese/Korean/Chinese - See above. May be allowed to also be an engineer. If they're an older character, they will be rife with worldly knowledge.
- Muslim - Always the pinnacle to calmness and composure.
- Christian - 90% of the time depicted as some backwater redneck.
There is more I can go through, but that's a good start for now.

5) Social Acceptability Through Harassment and Cajoling -
Ghostbusters
Thundercats
She-Ra
GI-Joe
Marvel Comics
Mass Effect
Battlefield V
Star Wars
Star Trek
Crunchyroll
Warhammer
These are some IPs I have pulled off the top of my head, and I'm certain there are more. Every single one of these IPs in the last 2-3 years has had some kind of SJW reboot. People who are the actual fans of said IPs bitch about it because they're changing the formula. SJWs screech about it, they get their journo goons to write up a few hit pieces about it, and they decry harassment and alt-right and DRUMPF. They lose their fanbase, nad the normies decide they don't want to do much with these screeching blue-haired weirdoes. The IP invariably tanks. Big companies who own said IPs keep allowing this to happen, if only because none of them want to be the bad guy and say, "Nah, we're a company and we want to make money." and instead like the SJWs act like jackasses until they got a reason to shitcan them and put their IPs back in the vault.

So, just my thoughts on this. Thanks for giving me an excuse to expound upon these for a bit.
 
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There's a few real good indicators, but I don't think it's a binary thing.

However, if, before the piece of media becomes available, there are articles and thinkpieces about why people will be wrong not to like it, that's a solid indication.
If there's more criticism of criticism than criticism of the media, if the reviews are mostly about the people making it and not the thing itself.

I guess a really simple way to put it, although perhaps oversimplifying it, would be to say that you can judge it based on how much gaslighting is done on its behalf.

For example, if a movie changes the race of a character, and the creators say "We realize this may seem like a strange choice, but we liked this actor, and felt like it worked, bla bla bla" then, even though it looks like tokenism, it might not be, so it wouldn't necessarily be accurate to call it a SJW work.

If, on the other hand, the creators say "Why wouldn't [historically white] character be [approved race]? Maybe you need to examine your prejudices" or some shit like that, yeah, it's an SJW work.
 
When you are making a different product and need something to go up against so you can shill your thing without being put on blast for it.
 
LagoonaBlue said:
Having black characters, disabled characters etc to meet a quota is what makes something SJW. A lot of soap operas and dramas here in the UK seem to be adding trans and autistic characters and I think it's because of the whole representation bullshit.
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I'd argue that British soaps are such total irredemable shit that the usual SJW principles don't apply, since they'll always gone for the flavour of the moment about 2 years too late while at the same time they'll have beaten the curve due to the desperate desire for attention. I recall Holyoaks had a trans character back in 2010 which was basically a really attractive girl wearing a hat with no make up on.
jasonhollyoaks.jpg


Trying to SJW-up UK soaps is like dropping a turd into an ocean of tard bodily fluids.

To constribute to the subject I'd argue a lack of applicability is important to sjw media. Usually a political message will have a universal applicability, for example the star wars prequals while influenced by the Bush administration had clear overlaps with the 3rd reich and the Roman Empire and comparisons could be drawn in any country where democracy is being slowly subverted, for example Turkey.
In contrast Secret Empire was about Donald Trumps America is a really ham fisted and painfullt of the moment, to the point where it will most likely eventually become almost a periodical piece in a way.

By definition their has to be a substantial drop in quality to qualify as SJW, since the primary objective of the work is not to produce art but proliterize your beliefs. For example the new ghostbusters in comparison to say Aliens despite both nominally have strong Femminist overtones.
 
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