Woke, everyone seems to be tossing this word around. Some people use it to attack those who start sprouting out “liberal” and modern views about society other people use it to attack those who want to make complaints about outdated and traditional processes. Others may use it to praise those who seem to have “awakened” themselves to the injustice minority groups face.

Most recently woke has become a quite popular term to describe an individual who addresses the idea of social injustice.

Will Knowland, a teacher at Eton, has been pictured all over the media for recently being fired for his decision not to remove a lecture video on gender roles from his YouTube channel. His justification of his decision was that it opened the eyes of those who may want to find an alternative perspective on gender roles.

The video was never shown to students however, it has received over 147,000 views on YouTube and majority of the comments express deep sympathies for the former teacher.

If we quickly look at a few arguments behind the case of Will Knowland it is clear to see that on the one hand it is a progressive and inclusive society that the headmaster of Eton is fighting for and therefore, any member of the school community who may challenge this or is being seen as challenging this new direction places an obstacle in achieving the new aims of the school. However, it is also evident that Knowland has been accredited as a popular teacher who simply shared his opinions on such a giant topic in today’s society. His opinions were well researched and explained with detailed evaluation to why he believes that certain gender types and thus gender roles are a certain way and then he subsequently used science to defend his points. Ultimately, Knowland had the right to post the video to his Youtube Channel and he has kept this right as the video is still up for the entire world to see. However, one thing he has not kept as a result of the video was his job. Arguable the request for the removal of the video can be seen as a direct denial of freedom of speech however, it is evident that Eton has had a serious history of not being an inclusive space for young people who are minorities whilst also being known for producing a minority of students who have then gone on to hold quite controversial views. However, technically it is not a crime to hold controversial views, post a video on the patriarchy or refuse to remove a video that does not violate the law in its nature and purpose.

Therefore, why has the video caused such outcry?

Has wokeness gone to far?