“This Barbie is Woke!”: unpacking ‘Woke’ as a contested keyword in the gendered culture war

“Woke” has become a focal term in contemporary culture wars, particularly in online debates around cultural products. Originally signifying awareness of social injustice, the term is now often used pejoratively to reject progressive or feminist values. This article examines the construction of “Woke” as a contested keyword in online responses to the 2023 Barbie film, a global blockbuster recognized for its feminist themes. While previous scholarship has analyzed the film’s messages and its place within “popular feminism,” this study shifts attention to the anti-feminist backlash it provoked, examining how “Woke” was framed and mobilized in these critiques. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of 648 user comments from YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and Metacritic, we identify three targets of criticism: the film itself, the values it is seen to promote, and the discourse surrounding it. This three-tiered framework illustrates how a concrete cultural product and its evaluation serve as the foundation for wider ideological conflicts. The findings highlight how online spaces serve as a space where values and meanings are negotiated. While popular culture products represent a focal space for such discussions, they are ultimately one arena within wider cultural and political clashes between liberal and conservative ideologies.