Sad Puppies and SJWs: Symbolic Revolution and Challenges to Field Orthodoxy in the Struggle for Control of Science Fiction’s Hugo Awards

ABSTRACT

In 2013 a group of science fiction authors launched a campaign to reform the Hugos, one of science fiction’s most prestigious awards. Dubbing themselves “Sad Puppies,” these activists sought to correct what they viewed as a political imbalance. Science fiction, they argued, had moved away from entertaining story telling in favor of heavy-handed message fiction meant to spread pernicious liberal values. This article draws on an analysis of internet posts by actors involved in the movement to examine the Puppies’ efforts to reform the science fiction field, reclaiming it as a space for conservative authors and fans. I argue that the leaders of the movement were able to build small fan communities into a larger social movement by framing the movement in such a way as to link their efforts to exogenous political and cultural debates occurring in proximate social fields. This analysis demonstrates the processes by which tournament rituals in popular culture can come to serve as contests of values, arenas within which larger political and cultural conflicts are waged.

KEYWORDS:

• Science fiction
• tournament of values
• social movements
• popular culture
• social fields

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Awards are currently given in the following categories: Best Novel; Best Novella; Best Novelette; Best Short Story; Best Related Work; Best Graphic Story; Best Dramatic presentation (Long and Short Forms); Best Semiprozine; Best Fanzine; Best Professional Editor (Long and Short Forms) Best Professional Artist; Best Fan Writer; Best Fancast.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gregory Goalwin

Gregory Goalwin is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Aurora University. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Trained as a sociologist and historian of global politics, Greg specializes in the study of identity formation in and around borderland regions, places in between and on the boundaries of national communities. He is the author of Borders of Belief: Religious Nationalism and the Formation of Identity in Ireland and Turkey (Rutgers, 2022). His articles on religion, culture, and politics in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States have been published in venues such as Social Science History, The Journal of Historical Sociology, Patterns of Prejudice, Nationalities Papers, and Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism.