Social Justice Blogging

About

Social Justice Blogging is a type of blogging where the poster dedicates their time to demanding equality for racial minorities, women, LGBTQ groups, the disabled, etc. These bloggers are often criticized for being rude, obnoxious or misinformed about the topic, especially on Tumblr where people who mockingly called “social justice warriors”^[1] will attempt to find any excuse to fight for their beliefs.

History

Social justice blogging seems to have taken off some time in the mid-2000s when several LiveJournal communities dedicated to activism were created.^[7] Many of these blogs were localized, with groups at colleges or in a specific city, discussing events that were relevant to that area.

Pre-Internet

The idea of “social justice” was first proposed by an Italian Catholic scholar named Luigi Taparelli^[2] in 1840 and popularized further during the 1848 political and social upheavals that took place across Europe.^[3] Fighting for social justice is implemented into the teaches of the Catholic church, the Protestant church and the Green Party.^[4] In the late 20th century, philosopher John Rawls^[5] popularized secular social justice in his 1971 work A Theory of Justice^[6] by stating that every person has equal rights to the “most extensive basic liberty.”

Online Presence

The online presence of social justice blogging on Tumblr is extensive, spanning over a wide range of issue topics from religion, racism and gender equality to ablism, homosexuality and classism among many others. While many social justice bloggers may not explicitly identify their blogs with promoting social justice, there are a number of blogs that provide general discussions on the topic of social justice , including Social Justice Reads, Social Justice Situations, The Social Justice Kids, Why We Need Social Justice, Trigger Warning Social Justice and WTF Social Justice.

Reception

In Fandom

Around 2009, social justice blogging began making an impact in various fandoms^[10] the communities began to interact on Tumblr and Livejournal. In 2012, the LiveJournal community Fail. Fandom. Anon.^[11], dedicated to complaining about cross-fandom problems compiled a list of social justice bloggers who had interfered in topical fandom posts with which they were not aligned. Also in 2012, fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic had to deal with an influx of social justice bloggers who found the fan-named pony Derpy Hooves offensive to disabled people.

Criticisms

The concept of social justice blogging been criticized by outsiders of the community as being overzealous and self-righteous. In response to the pervasive nature of social justice bloggers on Tumblr, anti-social justice blogs had begun to surface by early 2011, including Fuck No Tumblr Social Justice Warrior^[8] in May 2011, Shit Social Justice Allies Say in May 2012, Silly Social Justice in June 2012 and Fuck No Social Justice Warriors^[9] in July 2012.

Related Memes

KBURD

KBURD is an acronym for “’(O)kay, but (yo)u (w)rong doe” that is commonly used by anti-racism bloggers who identify as people of color to dismiss white people who argue against them.

Social Justice Sally

Social Justice Sally is an advice animal image macro series that parodies certain kinds of Social Justice Bloggers who are perceived as being hypocritical or rude.

Check Your Privilege

Check Your Privilege is an online expression used mainly by social justice bloggers to remind others that the body and life they are born into comes with specific privileges that do not apply to all arguments or situations. The phrase also suggests that when considering another person’s plight, one must acknowledge one’s own inherent privileges and put them aside in order to gain a better understanding of his or her situation.

“SJ” Troll Blogs

As social justice blogs became more prevalent on tumblr, there were groups of people who would make troll blogs mocking SJ blogs by appropriating a lot of the politics and misconstruing them. A lot of these blogs would harass people who have been criticized by SJ bloggers for various things in order to pin the blame on SJ bloggers.

Search Interest

External References