I’ve heard that saying multiple times over the past couple of years.

Get Woke / Go Broke.

I’ve largely discounted it.
People like to rhyme and use alliteration in sayings. It tends to stick in the memory, is fun to say, and is catchy. That’s why there are so many alliteration names and sideways rhymes in names like Clark Kent, Miles Morales, Peter Parker, and Otto Octavious. At some point, “See you later, alligator” has worked its way into the normal vocabulary as well as “You snooze, you lose,” and the ever-popular “Fake it until you make it.”

So, get woke/go broke was just a couple of words that became popular because of how they sound.

But, I think it’s becoming prophetic and maybe the wokeness is starting to phase out of society. Slowly. Painfully. However, the earmarks are there.

The most recent indicator is the cancelation of Batwoman.
It hit a lot of the woke checkboxes. The leading actress isn’t white and she is a lesbian in real life. The main character is lesbian or trans. The cast is diverse. I’m not sure what the story entails other than strong female characters dominating their physically stronger male counterparts. It is supposed to have a lot of action. When it first started, the WB leaned in hard on the wokeness of the show. The bat suit would only be perfect when it was fitted for a woman.

The thing is that wokeness was the focus of the show. It wasn’t the story or character development. The hero’s journey doesn’t exist because there isn’t a struggle. This leads to the actors not really knowing what to do as well as benign and predictable episodes.

From most sources I’ve reviewed, it’s amazing that the show reached the second season, let alone the third.

However, despite doing everything ‘right,’ it is being canceled because, simply, it’s awful.

But, there are plenty of examples. Star Wars. The live-action Mulan. Superman’s son. The Secrets of Dumbledore had to be edited for China lease Dumbledore’s secret get out. Dr. Stange and the Mouth of Madness has been banned in certain parts of the world and edited for others because of an LGBT character.

And all of this is fine. These are huge companies and have serious money. A little nip and cut in the editing department aren’t really setting them back. What Disney and other companies pay for editing could be more than what they would make in some of the countries that are banning the films.

What these companies don’t seem to understand is that wokeness has always been in our entertainment. It’s been subtle for various reasons. But, it has definitely been embedded through the use of established characters and well-written stories.

For example, the bond between Kirk and Spock is (or was) legendary. They are best friends, foils, and adversaries. Each is passionate and, by going deeper than just what is presented to the general audience, it would be easy to see that there could be a sexual tension or connection between the two. There used to be a ton of fan fiction, art, and one-off stories from well-known authors that capitalized on this.

But, this union only existed because the story and characters created it. The union didn’t create the story or characters.

Batwoman was created to push the woke message. The story and characters are created solely for that purpose. Now, that show is canceled.

And, the real shame is that it is going to be twice as difficult to actually create a good show about a superhero who discovers that she is a lesbian, trans, or whatever. With every failure, businesses, writers, and artists are going to start to avoid handling the situation correctly because they’re afraid of failure and potentially ruining their reputations and careers.

In the end, wokeness is really just a cash grab as companies are trying to flood the market with what they think people want instead of what people need — to be entertained, care about characters, and have a believable plot.