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Article published In: Discourses of Discrimination: Language aggression in the construction of otherness
Edited by Angeliki Alvanoudi and Marianthi Georgalidou
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 14:1] 2026
► pp. 12–34

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(Re)contextualizing the ‘anti-woke’ discourse

Attitudes towards gender-inclusive language in English and French on X (formerly Twitter)

ORCiD logo with link | University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Liverpool.

Published online: 11 July 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00114.joh
Abstract
This study examines how ‘anti-woke’ discourse is drawn upon by French and English-speaking X (formerly Twitter) users to abnormalize gender-inclusive language practices from a Critical Discourse Analytic (CDA) perspective (Fairclough, Norman. 2010. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. 2nd edn. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Using strategies and tools drawn from the Discourse Historical Approach (Wodak, Ruth, and Martin Reisigl. 2017. “The Discourse-Historical Approach.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Studies, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Martin Reisigl, 23–61. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and CDA (interdiscursivity and recontextualization), I compare and discuss how ‘woke’ is (re)appropriated within online arenas across both linguo-cultural contexts to other and undermine those invested in challenging gender-based discrimination(s). Responses, therefore, contribute to a broader right-wing (populist) project that substantiates the uncivil and ‘unsayable’ by subverting the civil and ‘sayable’ amid the emergence of borderline discourses (Krzyżanowski, Michał, and Per Ledin. 2017. “Uncivility on the Web: Populism in/and the Borderline Discourses of Exclusion.” Journal of Language and Politics 16 (4): 566–581. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). I conclude that ‘anti-woke’ discourse has become a symbolic catch-all discursive strategy to bolster far right attitudes at the expense of abnormalizing the struggles faced by marginalized genders. This analysis thus provides further insight into how discriminatory ideologies become more viable political alternatives through rhetorical and discursive phenomena (Wodak, Ruth. 2015. The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. London: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Borderline discourses, in/civility and the new ‘far-right’ norm
    • 2.2In/civility and political discourse on X
    • 2.3Discourse identification and Critical Discourse Analysis
  • 3.Data and analytical methods
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Procedure of analysis
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Quantitative results
    • 4.2Qualitative results: Ideological battles and the ‘war on woke’
      • 4.2.1French-speaking posters’ attitudes
      • 4.2.2English-speaking posters’ attitudes
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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