5/19/24
What It Means to be a Woke Author
This is number sixty-two in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.
I GUESS I just pronounced myself anathema. There is little in the American English language that currently creates such a backlash as the word “woke.” And that is a case of lumping things together so we can dismiss them all instead of dealing with the one thing that makes us uncomfortable.
I hear that “woke” means having men in women’s restrooms. That “woke” means taking away everyone’s guns. That “woke” means rewriting history and denying cultural heritage. That “woke” means political correctness. That “woke” means you can’t compliment a woman on her looks. That “woke” means allowing the country to be overrun by illegal immigrants. That “woke” means increasing taxes to pay for foreign aid instead of helping veterans. That “woke” means giving handouts to people who are too lazy to work. That “woke” means paying millions of dollars to forgive student loans instead of making them work to pay them off like everyone else. (Except large corporations and banks who get their debts forgiven all the time.)
Pseudo-conservatives wrap anything up that they dislike and refer to it as “woke” in order to keep from acknowledging the one simple thing that it is: To be aware of and concerned about social injustice.
And believe me, neo-liberals contribute to the same load of crap by claiming that whatever their current cause is amounts to being “woke.”
My earliest writings—we’re talking about the 70s and 80s—carried the same themes that my current writings do. Equal rights. Civil rights. Women’s rights. Antiwar. Anti-discrimination. Freedom to control our own bodies, families, money, and thinking. Freedom to be who we are and not who the government or a political party tells us we have to be.
It strikes me as strange that political parties that claim to be in support of no government regulation, and personal rights (like freedom of speech, freedom to bear arms, freedom of assembly, etc.) are also the ones voting for regulation of those very things. Please don’t tell me I am anti-Republican or anti-Democrat because I consider both to be equally bad about this.
In my 2020 Nathan Everett book release, A Place at the Table, I went back in time and created an alternate history America in which there was an established system of classes that was rigidly adhered to. But in writing, I discovered they had to deal with the exact same issues that our America had to deal with. There was racism, but it was largely supplanted by classism. There were labor disputes. There was an attempt by illegal syndicates to control the government.
Essentially, I took us back to a time when we didn’t know the awareness of and concern for social injustice was to be called “woke.”
A Place at the Table is available in eBook from Bookapy and in paperback from most vendors.
One of the things that surprises me is how one side will take a position that it ordinarily would be opposed to if it weren’t for the other side being opposed to it. For example, show a picture of a young woman standing on the American flag and the right will want to crucify her. But show a picture of the American flag with a blue or black stripe replacing a white stripe, and the same people will talk about how it patriotically honors policemen or fallen first responders.
No, my friends. It is desecrating the American flag just as much as standing on it or burning it! That is not the flag we pledge allegiance to. It has been defaced! But since the left doesn’t like it, the right must declare themselves in favor of it, ignoring the actual law regarding display of the flag. (While you’re at it, check out what the law says about wearing the flag or using it as decoration on vehicles or clothing. It’s pretty specific about what is allowed.)
Fly a thin blue line flag (blue stripe against a black field) if you wish. Fly a rainbow flag if you wish. Fly an MIA/POW flag if you wish. But this law-abiding patriotic author objects to you flying a desecrated American flag. That’s not “woke.” It’s simply obeying the law.
So, why do some people object so strenuously to the term “woke” and insist they are anti-woke because they are conservative?
It’s really pretty simple.
If I lump together all the things that some people claiming to be “woke” believe (gun control, gay marriage, men in women’s bathrooms, open borders, etc.) then I can be against it and ignore the fundamental item of being aware of and concerned about social injustice.
So, scrap the word “woke” from your vocabulary. It has become burdened with so many extra items, the people who use it on either side of the aisle are using a meaningless term. If you are anti-woke, stand in front of a mirror, and declare to yourself, “I am unaware of and don’t care about social injustice.” Then you get a free pass to be whatever kind of asshole you want to be.
As for me, I will continue—as I have for forty-five years as an author—writing stories that bring attention to racism, women’s rights, voter rights, antiwar, gay rights, freedom of religion rights, and the entire bill of rights, and these unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
If you insist on calling that “woke,” then go back to sleep and live in your dreams where real life can’t interfere.
If I have any readers left after that rant, I’ll invite you to join me as I continue to explore the responsibilities of an author of erotica. Next week: “Consent in Fiction.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
