Social Justice Activism

Origin
Original Meaning
Dating back to 1824, the term social justice refers to justice on a societal level. From the
early 1990s to the early 2000s, social-justice warrior was used as a neutral or
complimentary phrase, as when a 1991 Montreal Gazette article describes union
activist Michel Chartrand as a "Quebec nationalist and social-justice warrior".
Katherine Martin, the head of U.S. dictionaries at Oxford University Press, said in 2015
that "[a]ll of the examples I've seen until quite recently are lionizing the person". As of
2015, the Oxford English Dictionary had not done a full search for the earliest usage.
Pejorative Meaning
"the 'social justice warrior,' i.e., the stereotype of the feminist as unreasonable,
sanctimonious, biased, and self-aggrandizing."
Scott Selisker
According to Martin, the term switched from primarily positive to negative around 2011,
when it was first used as an insult on Twitter. The term's negative use became
mainstream due to the 2014 Gamergate controversy, emerging as the favored term of
Gamergate proponents to describe their ideological opponents. In Internet and video
game culture the phrase is broadly associated with the Gamergate controversy and
wider culture war, including the 2015 Sad Puppies campaign that affected the Hugo
Awards. Usage of the term as a pejorative was popularized on websites such
as Reddit, 4chan, and Twitter.
Description
The negative connotation has primarily been aimed at those espousing views adhering
to social progressivism, cultural inclusivity, or feminism. This usage implies that a
person is engaging in disingenuous social justice arguments or activism to raise his or
her personal reputation. Allegra Ringo writes for Vice that "in other words, SJWs don't
hold strong principles, but they pretend to. The problem is, that's not a real category of
people. It's simply a way to dismiss anyone who brings up social justice."
The term is commonly used by participants in online discussion in criticism of
feminism. Scott Selisker, writes in New Literary History, "[Forum participants] often
make personal criticisms of what they see as a type: the 'social justice warrior,' i.e., the
stereotype of the feminist as unreasonable, sanctimonious, biased, and selfaggrandizing".
In August 2015, social justice warrior was one of several new words and phrases added
to Oxford Dictionaries. Martin states that "the perceived orthodoxy [of progressive
politics] has prompted a backlash among people who feel their speech is being policed".
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