Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair – Frida Kahlo. Wikioo

“The story of Frida Kahlo is a revolutionary one of a brown, disabled, queer, feminist icon. It’s a story of tragedy, adversity, triumph, and liberation. She continues to make a profound impact on the world not only from her talents but by standing firm in who she was. She reminds us that there are infinite possibilities beyond our physical limitations and liberation in our vulnerability.”

Leah Ratcliffe    TheFlameTree Blog.

Frida Kahlo was a true icon in relation to ‘waking up’ society to an awareness that life involves diversity and difference, and that gender and sexuality are more than binary. This was revolutionary in the 1920’s, and her impact in terms of empowering women is still being felt to this day.

Although there have been considerable changes in attitude over the years towards women, and towards LGBTQIA+ people, there nevertheless remain many who have little awareness of the issues people face when they are criticised for not ‘fitting in’ to very rigid, prejudiced ways of thinking.

• Being woke

What does ‘woke’ mean? The word alone, without context, appears to create much argument and dissension. Strong feelings emerge at the very sound of it, for and against.

Many disparage wokeism in today’s culture, feeling that it describes a kind of ‘snowflake,’ over-liberal attitude.

“In 2021, the right became increasingly irate at what it described as “wokeness” but which tended to mean any attempt to engage in civil rights or social justice. In 2022, anti-woke became an ideology in itself, an attempt for the right to rebrand bigotry as a resistance movement.”

The Guardian. Michael Harriot.

The word ‘woke’ originated amongst African Americans in the 1940’s and indicated the need for everyone to become aware of the dreadful racial injustices that black people had to suffer and endure.

The meaning has altered over the years; it has widened out and now encompasses many areas of discrimination and injustice.

Word Cloud by http://www.epictop10.com. Flickr

For me, being ‘woke’ clearly means developing an acute sensitivity to the feelings of others. It means learning about, and where necessary, acting upon, the desire to mitigate the daily burdens that others carry through suffering discrimination, bigotry and hatred.

It involves the ability to change with the times, as we all, as part of society, come across new cultures, new thoughts and ideas.

It powerfully reminds us that we have a responsibility to try to understand and deeply empathise with how sexism, gender bias, discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people, racial injustice and inequality, impact on very many people in a highly wounding, desperately painful and detrimental way.

Furthermore, being woke is also about kindness, empathy and an attitude of inclusivity and  welcome to all who are needy and afraid.

And the migrants kept coming – Jacob Lawrence. Wikioo.

“None of us are home until all of us are home.”

 Project HOME

The fact that we may not be among those who experience such fear and discrimination is not, in any way, reason enough to banish all this from our minds and our consciousness.

For being woke is about perceiving that we are all part of one world, about feeling for others, and acting on our feelings to do something to try to change the situation that others may be enduring. Altering one’s own language can have a ripple effect in terms of change.

Edvard Munch – War. 1910s Wikimedia Commons

“Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”

Night by Elie Wiesel

This ‘concern’ may be expressed through challenging bigoted ways of thinking; wokeism involves becoming alert to and confronting unconscious racism, institutional racism, abuse and coercive control, lack of inclusivity and other powerful injustices.

We can see many examples of people standing up for others today and in history, but being woke is more than supporting others, it is about deep empathy, sharing the pain of all who are oppressed as our own.

In addition, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, are examples of the terrible hostility many have to endure, in a world that can be full of hatred for difference and diversity. Some people can be discriminatory against anyone who challenges this in relation to their way of identifying themselves.

Such prejudiced people cannot, or will not, be aware of gender fluidity and choice, believing that sex and gender have to be binary and the same for all of us. They do not know, or care, that it is important not to label and categorise people, for all labels can be reductionist, restrictive, discriminatory, limiting, and a distortion of who people are.

Such extremism involves a total lack of anything vaguely resembling compassion,  a host of disowned projections regurgitated from some people’s own dark inner world.

“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”

Pema Chödrön

Whatever one’s views about the complex details and definition of wokeism, or one’s feelings about people who are regarded as being ‘extreme’ in their woke views, surely it can only be good for society to become more caring, more conscious and aware of others’ needs in a deep and meaningful way?

• Wokeism and language

Mother And Child – John Duncan Fergusson. Wikioo.

“Teach her to question language. Language is the repository of our prejudices, our beliefs, our assumptions.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

It seems to me, therefore, very important that we keep up with the times in terms of the language we use, and that we help our children to understand this from their early days. Our language changes and evolves over time, and new meanings and implications develop.

The dictionary does not contain anything ‘final’ or absolute in terms of the form of words and their meaning. It follows and reflects us, human beings who live and breathe …. and change.

I think we all have a responsibility to be up to date with these changes and to understand that some words and phrases can mean something very different to different people.

If we see language as fixed, we would still be speaking Old English! Here is an example from Beowulf, which I studied at University over 50 years ago.

Then, I understood all of it, having explored this wonderful epic poem in great detail. Now, I have forgotten most of what I knew about it, for I have moved on, much time has passed, and our language has changed, almost beyond recognition.

We certainly no longer speak like this…

Like people, living language alters dramatically over time, to accommodate new ways of thinking, new technology, new inventions and new ideas. Latin, a dead language, now remains unchanged.

It is interesting to learn about all this; but it is crucial to know the words and phrases that may offend others today. Words can wound, through using them in ways that have become hurtful to others.

Johannes Helder. Man with a Pistol, 1923. Wikioo.

“Words are loaded pistols.”

Jean-Paul Sartre

For example, a lack of awareness of the broadness of the gender spectrum and of the necessity to use gender-neutral words can result in causing offence and being disrespectful to others.

To avoid this, and in order not to make hasty assumptions about a person’s gender identity, we can stop using the binary ‘he/she’ pronouns and, instead, use ‘they’ and ‘their,’ which are more sensitive and inclusive.

Exclusive language is discriminatory and potentially hurtful to people who feel overlooked and ignored by it.

For example, words like ‘policeman,’ ‘actress,’ ‘waitress’ and ‘guys’ refer to one sex; they can be replaced by the gender-neutral ‘police officer,’ ‘actor,’ ‘server,’ and ‘everyone.’

Other exclusive words which can be insulting and unconsciously racist, are, for example, ‘blacklisting,’ and ‘black sheep.’ We need to be scrupulously aware of how such words, which we may have used for most of our lives, now need to be reconsidered and replaced. Old habits die hard, but die they must…

“Try not to present the privileged, tech-savvy, wealthy, able-bodied, white, cisgendered, anglo-centric male experience as ‘standard’ and everything else as ‘other’ or ‘diverse.’ Seek ways to place the ‘other’ in the center of things instead.”

A Human Approach to Product Content. Beth Dunn. Medium. 5/11/18

Using inclusive language means that everyone will feel empowered and respected and no-one will feel left out or marginalised. Doing this helps avoid assumptions about people’s race, nationality, ability, culture, their ethnicity, sexuality or gender and other aspects of their identity.

A growing awareness of the words we choose shows that we are caring and alert enough to consider our own personal unconscious bias, and bring this to consciousness.

As a further example, the phrase ‘the worried well,’ which has been common in the world of health workers, has an implication that we are judging the person as hypochondriacal and it comes over as critical and denigratory.

Whilst some criticise woke language as ‘ridiculous’ or extreme, we must be aware that, for many, this is still a whole set of different ways of speaking, thinking and acting to take on board. The beginnings of change can be difficult.

A story was once told  to me about a common reaction to new discoveries, new feelings, new behaviour. It explains how, sometimes, as we practise our new ways of being, we can, initially, go over the top.

I have found this helpful in many different situations:

When the peacock first finds its tail, it is displayed all over the place. Then, as the peacock gets used to this wonderful display of fine feathers, it does not have to exhibit it so often… the novelty has worn off!

(Unknown)

In time, many people will become used to being more woke, as some already are. At least, that is the hope….

“Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Livin’ life in peace
You
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one”

John Lennon

(Imagine lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Capitol CMG Publishing, Royalty Network, Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC)

Portrait of John Steinbeck – 1963.Martiros Saryan. Wikioo.

“A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”

Ursula K. Le Guin

Glue-words – 1967. Ronald Brooks Kitaj. Wikioo.

“Words! What power they hold. Once they have rooted in your psyche, it is difficult to escape them. Words can shape the future of a child and destroy the existence of an adult.
Words are powerful. Be careful how you use them because once you have pronounced them, you cannot remove the scar they leave behind.”

Vashti Quiroz-Vega

© Linda Berman