The constitution

What makes a show woke?

This list is forever-incomplete and subject to change. It covers every kind of show on the site — movies, TV, games, podcasts, vidcasts, and stand-up. A submitted show sits in the review queue. Five members weigh in and the community deems it woke or not woke — that verdict is searchable even before anyone writes a review. It enters the catalog only after a not-woke verdict and a written review. If 10% file one of these labels, their written reasons need a net +5 to keep the show omitted from the catalog. Other members +1 or −1 that reason — once. The argument stays attached so anyone can see why it is in, or out.

Adapted from the working list at notwokeshows.com/criteria.

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01
Inclusivity Pandering
Identity is doing the work that character and plot should do.
A show fills an important role or plot-point with obvious pandering to a marginalized (or more often perceived-to-be-marginalized) group, rather than because the story, the actor, or the character earned the spot. The audience is meant to applaud the checkbox, not the scene.
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02
Swap Slop
Legacy characters get race- or gender-swapped for a press cycle.
An established character is race-swapped, gender-swapped, or otherwise rewritten so the studio can sell a recast as moral progress. The change is not a new interpretation of the material — it is the material being used as a billboard.
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03
Distorted Racism
Racism is treated as a one-way, uniquely Western sin.
The story presents racism as a uniquely white or Western crime and flattens history into villains and saints by skin color. Complexity, counter-examples, and non-Western prejudice are written out so the sermon can land clean.
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04
Bad Masculinity
Ordinary manhood is framed as the root of harm.
Traditional masculine traits — stoicism, competition, physical courage, fatherhood, protection — are treated as inherently toxic. Male characters are written as dangerous, useless, or in need of correction by the plot, rather than as full people.
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05
The Gay Ratio
Orientation is inserted on a quota, not because the story needs it.
Same-sex romance or identity is dropped in at a rate or in a manner that feels obligatory — a studio mandate rather than a character. Gay characters existing is not the issue. Using them as proof of virtue, or twisting an established straight character for a headline, is.
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06
Racist Expectations
Virtue and competence are assigned by identity, not by the person.
The writing assumes who is decent, smart, or guilty based on race. The minority character is always right; the white character is always the problem. That is still racial thinking — just wearing a different hat.
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07
Guns as Villain
Firearms are treated as moral agents, not as tools.
The plot treats guns themselves as the villain. Lawful owners are coded as unstable, and the weapon is a sermon against the Second Amendment rather than a piece of the world the characters actually live in.
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08
Anti-Religious Bias
Faith — especially Christianity — is a costume for the bigot.
Religious people, particularly Christians, appear only as hypocrites, abusers, or punchlines. The faith is never allowed a sincere, intelligent defender. Doubt is welcome. A stacked deck is not.
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09
Infinity Gender
Sex is treated as a menu, and dissenters as villains.
The story treats biological sex as optional and gender ideology as settled science. Characters who notice the obvious are written as cruel. The point is not that a show may include a trans character — it is that the show will not tolerate a universe in which sex is real.
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10
Normalized Killing
Abortion is staged as an uncomplicated rite of passage.
The story treats abortion as an unambiguous good or a punchline, with no moral weight, no other view in the room, and no aftermath. A culture that cannot admit a death is a death will lecture you about everything else.
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11
Sexualized Children
Minors are framed in sexual terms, or sex is pushed at children.
The work sexualizes minors, puts adult sexual content in children's entertainment, or treats the sexualization of kids as enlightened. This is a hard disqualifier. Entertainment that does this is not in the catalog, and the community is asked to document why.
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12
Communistic Love
The market is evil, the collective is holy.
The plot romanticizes collectivism, central planning, or revolution, and treats wealth, ownership, or individual success as original sin. Businessmen are cartoon vampires; the commune never starves.
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13
Flawed Feminism
Women win only by shrinking the men around them.
Female characters are written as automatically competent, and male characters as obstacles or props. Equality would have been enough. This version needs a hierarchy with a different name on the door.
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14
Climate Chaos
Apocalypse weather is the new original sin.
Climate change is not a setting — it is a catechism. Dissent is cartoonish, oil is demonic, and the hero's moral rank is measured in carbon. Drama about the weather is fine. A sermon with credits is not.
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15
Vaccine Virtue
A medical campaign is used as a character test.
COVID-era politics or vaccine status is used to sort saints from sinners. Skeptics are written as dirty or stupid; compliance is written as courage. Medicine is a subject. A loyalty oath is a lecture.
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16
Strong Woman
An unearned superhuman heroine exists to dunk on men.
The female lead is invincible without training, never loses, and the camera is there to watch men bounce off her. Strength on screen is great. Strength that the story refuses to earn is fan-fiction with a budget.