Translation please

“Woke” is a word stemming from African American argot. It gets a lot of derision, but in fact as I understand it, it means being aware and having empathy for other people who may not look like you, or come from the same place as you, or who have had the same experiences as you. So, being kind and generous in your opinions of others.

Except it now seems to mean taking exception to anything anyone says that you do not like. You take a high moral tone and send them to Coventry and try to get as many people as possible to do the same thing.

I agree the meaning has completely changed, seemingly depending largely on which side of the political spectrum you are.

Woke is when things go completely over the top to avoid offending some people, but in the process offend half the population.
Describing women as 'people with wombs' or 'people who bleed' on the NHS website to avoid offending transgender people is an example of wokeness.
Also, Kier Starmer being unable to say what a woman is, again not wanting to upset transgender people.
Books in universities being given 'trigger warnings' in case they mention things that might upset the students.

I've asked the same question and received the same answer - but I don't understand the answer.
My views on the Royal Family are totally opposite from the ones of friend in S Africa. Who is being (or not being) WOKE here?
Our skins are different colours and we live half a world apart and are great friends, we just don't agree and I don't understand her point of view but I empathise with her and agree she can think what she likes, and she feels the same about me (I hope).
So am I being WOKE or un-woke?

ExDancer It doesn't sound as though either of you are woke! You agree to disagree which is what should happen. No-one is laying down the law based on some perceived injustice, and refusing to engage with the other person.

No, woke isn’t “ going completely over the top to avoid offending some people.” Do you have a problem with racism, sexism, ageism? It’s about understanding, acceptance, kindness. I’d rather be called woke than ignorant.

On FB a couple of weeks ago, our Surgery was inviting ‘people who have a cervix’ to go for a smear test.

That is ‘woke’.

No comment about how I feel about it.

Probably because there may just be someone who is a trans person, living as a male, but with female genitals. Why would it bother you?

I think living as a Male is deeply sexist Dora

Why is it necessary to (maybe) offend 50% of the patients at the surgery who are women just in case we offend one person Doramarr? That is being woke.
And it may offend a good few men too!

How is it offending 50% of the patients? Would it offend you? It wouldn’t offend me. However, if I had a family member who was trans I would be grateful for the sensitivity shown towards them.

And there are lots of other areas where being woke is concerned: ageism, for example. Here’s an example: my mother, 94, broke her femur. She used a walker for a time, and her walking was slow and painful, but she still went out and about. My sister and an assistant in a shop had a good laugh about her progress, with my the assistant saying she was like a toddler learning to walk. This happened two years ago and my mother is still angry about it. My sister was not being woke. If she had been she would have been patient and understanding with my mother, and would have called the assistant out for being ageist and ableist.

Another example: a teacher insisting a child give her eye contact when she was talking to him. The child was autistic and found eye contact distressing. She wasn’t considering his needs. I think we have to imagine how we or someone we love is being impacted by people who do not consider their needs. It’s easy to scoff at wokeness, until you are on the receiving end of non- wokeness.

DoraMarr

Probably because there may just be someone who is a trans person, living as a male, but with female genitals. Why would it bother you?

But you never see "people with a prostate" do you?

Cold

DoraMarr

Probably because there may just be someone who is a trans person, living as a male, but with female genitals. Why would it bother you?

But you never see "people with a prostate" do you?

And perhaps you should! Why would it bother you?

The sexism in ' live like a man' is deeply offensive though but you have just used it.

Galaxy

The sexism in ' live like a man' is deeply offensive though but you have just used it.

How is it offensive?

We have moved from the tyranny of the majority to the tyranny of the minority.

It has nothing to do with being kind to people, you can be equally kind to people under either regime, or indeed under any regime.

Today I got up and went to work as did DH, both did stuff around the house, both wore trousers, which one of us is living as a Male?

Under Fascism? Repressive communism? Fundamentalist religion? Why are you reducing it to majorities and minorities? If you have a disability you are a minority, do you not think you should be treated with respect and understanding? Or if you are gay, or from an ethnic minority?

I don’t know, are you? We’re you born female but always felt you were male? Has it been a long and difficult path for you to finally express your true identity?

You used the phrase living as a man I have never heard that explained without regressive sexist stereotypes.

Under Fascism? Repressive communism? Fundamentalist religion? Why are you reducing it to majorities and minorities? If you have a disability you are a minority, do you not think you should be treated with respect and understanding? Or if you are gay, or from an ethnic minority?

What are you talking about? No one has suggested that anyone, no matter how niche their need, should not be treated with respect and understanding. But when a minority, whatever their minority is, demands that everyone has to change to accommodate them, then that is extreme.

For example if people dependent on wheelchairs for getting about independently, were to demand that staircases should be removed from every building in the country, domestic and private, old or new, so that we became a staircase free country and only had approved ramps or lifts for changing levels, I think almost everyone would consider that excessive.

However this does not mean that we should not do all we can to ensure that all public buildings are accessible to all disabled people and do everything we can to see there is no where they want to go that they cannot get to.

We’re (sic.) you born female but always felt you were male? Has it been a long and difficult path for you to finally express your true identity?

I was born a girl and always wanted to be a boy, I had even chosen the name I would be known as, if I was a boy. Within the time and place I was born in, My interests were ones traditionally seen as male. I was so relieved that I grew up quite small breasted, I really didn't want to befull breasted like my mother. I was considered to be a bit odd and was accused several times of thinking like a man.

But remember all these ideas of what makes someone a woman or a man are entirely culturally driven and vary hugely round the world and I cannot see why we cannot just accept people for what they are and not impose all these different gender definitions on them and then instead change the way society looks and thinks about people so that it no longer associates specific behaviour with specific body types. It seems extreme to expect people to undergo radical surgery so that they can conform to what are only cultural norms which may have completely disappeared in a couple of decades.

As to what my true identity is, well it is the one I was born with: a female body with a mind that is culturally seen to be more masculine than my body, and where I would now be culturally encouraged to alter my physical body to match the mind I have been cultured to believe is incompatible with the body I have been born with.

I am so glad I was born when I was and left to be myself, whatever I may be.