Noun: "(neologism) a backlash against media, speech, etc. deemed inconsistent with social justice principles, or viewed as perpetuating unwoke or reactionary ideas"[edit]
2019 September 12, Polly Vernon, “I watched it at 22. I'm still watching it: Friends is the most-streamed show on Netflix, its jokes shared by today's teens”, in The Times, London, page 2:
A “wokelash”, I called it, a backlash designed to denounce Friends’s ageing values. I was scathing about this wokelash at first: all those youngsters raising their voices in condemnation, so confident that the things they thought and said, felt and believed wouldn't seem preposterously outdated 25 years hence too… but then I realised you only judge a cultural property by today's values if it is still relevant according to today’s standards and habits.
His unguarded remarks about the state of comedy inspired a huge wokelash.
[…]
I don’t want to overstate what’s happening to [director Todd] Phillips, but his detractors are a bit ridiculous, and calling out people who are being a bit ridiculous is part of my job description (along with scolding David French for loving Aquaman). In the High Court of Social-Media Justice, Phillips stands in the dock charged with two crimes. First, he has claimed without cause that cancel culture exists and is detrimental to the comedy business. Second, in Joker he has made an irresponsible movie that is going to warm the hearts of incel lunatics, maybe even nudge them toward violence.
2020 January 21, Hugo Rifkind, “We're wrong to shout down cries of racism”, in The Times, London, page 23:
Over the past fortnight, in the background of the Sussex soap opera, it has often felt as though Britain has been enjoying what you might call a wokelash. The first royal of colour is quitting not just the firm but also the country, after only 18 months in the job, and the big question is who ought to feel bad about it.
Noun: "(neologism) a backlash against or mass rejection of wokeness, or of media, policies, etc. deemed woke or politically correct"[edit]
2020 January 31, Catriona Stewart, “TV awards illustrate backlash against woke cultural snobs”, in The Herald[1], Glasgow, page 21:
There is a solid demographic of people who are fed up with what they see as increasingly rigid progressive ideals who feel clamped by the modern liberal consensus. […] Liberal ideals are being subjected to a wokelash, and telling people what they should and shouldn’t culturally consume is not going to help build any bridges between divided factions.
If there’s one sentence I hear more often than any other from Telegraph readers, it’s that “the pendulum will swing back”.
Actually, sometimes it’s a “dial” that “will right itself”, or the more generalised assertion that “good sense will prevail” – but the point is that throughout the darkest, wokeist years, you have remained largely optimistic. Certainly, you’ve never been hell-in-a-handcarters – even when I was face-down on my keyboard over the shameful lack of “womanholes” in the streets of Britain, and the “ode to statutory rape” that is Baby It’s Cold Outside.
2021 November 20, Angela Mollard, “Gen Z cancelling musical Grease is disappointing”, in The Daily Telegraph, Surrey Hills, N.S.W:
Fortunately, there’s early signs of a “wokelash” from institutions that won’t cower to this nonsense. When staff at publisher Hachette threatened to down tools because they regarded JK Rowling as a toxic transphobe for a tweet mocking “people” who menstruate instead of “women”, management pushed back saying they couldn’t refuse to work on a book because they disagree with the author’s views.
Some centrist Democrats today say “woke” politics have gone too far and provoked the “wokelash” (causing Democrats to lose elections in 2021).
2022 February 25, Sean Salai, quoting Gregory T. Angelo, “Conservatives criticize 'woke' corporate diversity policies”, in The Washington Times:
“Wokelash is real,” Mr. Angelo said. “Americans of all political persuasions are increasingly opposed to or exhausted with businesses injecting polarizing cultural issues into their branding, hiring, and employee trainings.”