Woke Washing in Representation and Translation
Image Source: Beyond Pink World
Definition and Examples
Woke washing, also called social washing, is when an organization or state (falsely) adopts a social movement or progressive values to promote their brand or regime.
This concept applies to many types of purpose washing like purplewashing and bluewashing, but woke washing encompasses most of these types at once, which is what many organizations and states do nowadays.
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi uses the World Youth Forum to ‘woke wash’ the violations committed by his regime against youth and other dissidents. He also falsely adopts “new progressive values of anti-racism, gender equality, green policies and cultural diversity” to distract from the restriction of public and private freedoms and the imprisonment of journalists, lawyers, and activists.
Accurate Representation in Translation
I attended Rachel Pierce’s presentation “Subtly Sexist Sources: What’s a Woke Translator to Do?” (article based on this presentation here) and loved it. She went beyond making nouns and other constructs gender-neutral and presented fascinating research and helpful tips. I already implement some of these practices and plan to implement some others if the opportunity arises, but examining ‘woke washing’ made me wonder if you could go too far in this respect. I mean, making gendered nouns gender-neutral is gratifying, but will making more comprehensive revisions create more issues?
A good portion of our job is advising our clients on what terminology is best, which is not something I’m suggesting we stop, of course, but could our consultations contribute to this concept of woke washing? For example, if I advise a company to use certain terminology that indicates they are inclusive of all genders, when their actual policies do not reflect such a stance, am I helping them to woke wash their brand? This is an extreme example, but I think it’s an idea worth contemplating.
And yes, it depends on the context (I couldn’t help myself). I think specializations involving marketing and corporate communications, maybe even government communications, are the ones where we could definitively analyze this concept. For specializations like mine (human rights, social science, etc.), there is no brand/regime to woke wash (because the company/state is the adversary) and glossing over language is not an option. Also, I often work with research papers and testimonies that need advocacy for marginalized people; using terminology adopted by progressives is just a good practice.
Final Thoughts
We will never stop trying to improve our clients’ communications; it’s our job. But I think we should critically reflect on the effects of said job.
Resources
Woke Washing: How purpose driven marketing is being hijacked
Woke-Washing, The Glass Cliff And The Need For A Better Answer In Diversity Leadership
New Study Shows Consumers Are Uneasy About Health & Beauty Brands Supporting Woke Causes
Woke-Washing | How to Avoid it or Make it Right After Getting it Wrong