bradley_kent's profile

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Tuesday, October 20th, 2020 4:50 PM

5

"woke" keyword

"woke" should not be a keyword.  It's definition: "alert to injustice in society, especially racism." This is extremely subjective, so it could perhaps be included in a review, but it has no place in a keywords list.

I think of similar possible keywords from the past, like "hip," "with in," "chic," etc., etc., etc. "woke" is very contemporary, but it is an opinion, not a fact.  It could even be considered slang.

Please, delete "woke" as a keyword.

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4 years ago

When others ask for keywords to be merged or deleted, don't you usually say they should be audited title by title?

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Yes.  If "woke" is more clearly defined, would you do the title-by-title audit? I would.

Rip and bears and other hibernators should, in fact, perhaps need a clearer keyword.  "woken-from-sleep," perhaps?

(edited)

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I don't really do such audits.

But I agree that 'woke' on its own is unclear. Note that these related keywords are already listed, among others:

woke-as-slang

reference-to-wokeness

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@Peter_pbn Great find! 

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4 years ago

Something is certified "woke" if The Rolling Stones, The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, Time, Salon, Vox or the like say so, right? Could that be a viable criteria?

:P

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4 years ago

There is indeed a problem of formulation in that. As far as I know there are larger terms like "woke culture" or "woke subcultre", maybe titles pertaining the newer meaning of the world could be moved there. Although, ther term is borderline derogatory nowadays, as well... 

Right now keyword is kind of a mess. 

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"woke-subculture" sounds good.  Could someone provide a definition?  Does it include more than "conservative-media," which is a current keyword often listed alongside "woke"?

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Please know, this is not political for me, but I am looking for objectivity.  I notice that it is used for conservative programming, but also for liberal programming (i.e., Jimmy Kimmel).  I am looking for a definition that can be applied to any title, possibly with the keyword "woke-subculture."

It is particularly curious that this is listed for few titles before 2015.  This suggests that, according to the Webster definition, it could be applied to thousands of "socially-conscious" titles pre-2015 that are part of the database.  I keep thinking that there must be a more contemporary and specific definition that justifies its recent usage. 

P.S.  There are a few exceprions like Saturday Night Ive and The Daily Show, but the vast majority of titles with the "woke" keyword are of recent vintage.

(edited)

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I just keep coming back to my original observation that this seems very subjective.  What's "hip" to one person  may be "unfashionable" to another.  What is "woke" to one person many be "slept" to another.  Passage of time would seem to be a great influence on such an evaluation.  Now, this could be very useful in a review, which, by its very nature, is subjective, but it just seems questionable as an objective keyword.

P.S. I love this discussion.  It seems life "the good ole days" when IMDb was just beginning!

(edited)

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Binary thinking to satisfy everyone could lead to an "opposite" for every keyword that exists.  Is it a "neo-screwball-comedy" or a "non-neo-screwball-comedy"?  Again, I am looking for objectivity, not subjective opinion or evaluation.

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You keep bypassing my main point.  "woke" is a very subjective keyword -- a personal judgement.  Keywords should be objective.  Than's my point.  Do you get it?

I am not objecting to someone making a judgement that a title is "woke."  I could make that personal evaluation, too.  I am just saying that keywords should be as objective as possible.  It would be much better to included this word in a review than in a list of objective keywords.

Again, I await an objective definition that could be considered for any or all titles.

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@bradley_kent I really like the neo-screwball-comedy explanation, despite there is, indeed, a similar situation with some genres. Neo-noir is at times as loosely defined as it gets. :) 

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4 years ago

Believe me, I was not talking to myself (although some self-searching is going on), nor only to Karen_P, but, more importantly,  to all contributors, and, most importantly, to the staff.

(edited)

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4 years ago

A definition of "woke" from the Urban Dictionary: “the act of being very pretentious about how much you care about social issues.”

That really seems like a very subjective judgement.