Using the term "woke" as a pejorative sledge is not having the impact that its most prolific users in the commentariat imagine, says a new report that surveyed Australians on what the word means to them.
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A quarter of Australians (26 per cent) described themselves as woke, but their numbers were dwarfed by the number that did not know what the word means (43 per cent), in the research conducted by the Australia Institute in April this year.
Those familiar with the term woke mostly attributed it a positive definition (40 per cent), described to those polled as being alert to racial injustice from its modern origins in black activism from the United States, rather than a negative one (30 per cent), described as punishing people for thinking the wrong things.
Bill Browne, director of the Australia Institute's democracy and accountability program, said even those who would not describe themselves as woke were as likely to give the term a positive definition as they were a negative one.
"The word woke has been used to describe everything from the Royal Family, Disney, the Wiggles, climate action, vegan food, Pope Francis, federal and state Liberal MPs and racial justice to how the Tasmanian Liberals arrange their Senate ticket," he said.
"When critics accuse everyone from the Wiggles, the Queen, the Pope and the Australian cricket team of all being woke, Australians will unsurprisingly wonder what is so bad about being woke, or indeed what actually constitutes 'wokeness'.
"The approach some commentators and politicians take of accusing everyone they don't like of being 'woke' may be cancel culture finally gone too far."
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It could also be ineffective as an attack, with just 12 per cent of Australians fitting the criteria of knowing what the term meant, not describing themselves as woke, and choosing the negative definition.
People who didn't describe themselves as woke were evenly divided between the positive (37 per cent) and negative definitions (38 per cent).
Australians in rural and regional areas were about as likely to describe themselves as woke (44 per cent) as those in metro areas (45 per cent).
While of those who described themselves as woke, three in five were major party voters (59 per cent) and more intended to vote for the Coalition (24 per cent) than intended to vote for the Greens (22 per cent).
Young people were the most familiar with the term, and the most likely to describe themselves as woke (49 per cent), decreasing with age through to those aged 60 or older (9 per cent).
It comes as Defence Minister Richard Marles lifted his predecessor Peter Dutton's ban on some charity, cultural and diversity events in Defence, citing a desire to stamp out a 'woke agenda' within the department.
Harley Dennett
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
