Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man isn’t the only project that was met with some form of resistance under the pretext that it may be too “woke.” Wicked, The Little Mermaid, Barbie, House of the Dragon, Snow White, The Acolyte, Agatha All Along, She-Hulk — the list goes on.

The term “woke” originates from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and was historically used to signify an awareness of racial and social injustices. It used during the civil rights movement, and Black people have often used to “stay woke” to mean be aware of one’s surroundings.

But in the recent decade or so, the word has been co-opted.

“Today, ‘woke’ is mostly used by the right to signify the presence of Black people (or women) where they didn’t expect them to be,” columnist Damon Young wrote in a 2022 op-ed published in The Washington Post.

The Merriam Webster lists two main definitions of the word. It defines “woke” as being “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” In a second (and more recent) definition, it refers to the act of being “politically liberal or progressive (as in matters of racial and social justice) especially in a way that is considered unreasonable or extreme.”

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

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