wokefish

English

Etymology

Blend of woke +‎ catfish, equivalent to woke +‎ -fish.

Noun

wokefish (plural wokefish or wokefishes)

  1. (Internet slang) Someone who pretends to be woke and in favour of progressive political ideologies on a social media or dating platform.
    • 2020 July 30, Ben Cost, “Wokefish’ dating trend: Shady men are pretending to be progressive on apps”, in New York Post‎[1], archived from the original on 6 October 2020:
      Couple this with the apparent nationwide divide over issues ranging from George Floyd’s death to wearing coronavirus masks, and you’ve got the ideal environment for the wokefish to thrive.
    • 2020 August 1, “'Wokefish' dating trend sees people pretending to be progressive on apps”, in Fox News‎[2]:
      “A wokefish may at first present themselves as a protest-attending, sex-positive, anti-racist, intersectional feminist who drinks ethically sourced oat milk and has read the back catalogue of Audre Lorde, twice.” However, in actuality, these practitioners of false identity politics couldn’t care less.
    • 2021 January 8, Marianne Eloise, “A guide to spotting and avoiding 'wokefishing' in dating”, in Cosmopolitan‎[3], archived from the original on 6 February 2021:
      When is a wokefish not a wokefish?
    • 2021 May 26, Georgia Mooney, “What your choice of Crocs colour says about the type of person you are”, in The Tab‎[4], archived from the original on 18 January 2025:
      You’re also a monumental wokefish.
    • [2021 August 4, Molly Longman, “‘Wokefishing’ Is A Uniquely 2021, Uniquely Terrible Dating Trend”, in Refinery29‎[5], Vice media group, archived from the original on 29 November 2025:
      If you find yourself dating a “wokefish,” it can be a lot trickier to identify than your garden variety catfish.]

Verb

wokefish (third-person singular simple present wokefishes, present participle wokefishing, simple past and past participle wokefished)

  1. (Internet slang, ambitransitive) To pretend to be woke on an online platform to deceive (someone).
    • 2020 July 30, Ben Cost, “‘Wokefish’ dating trend: Shady men are pretending to be progressive on apps”, in New York Post‎[6], archived from the original on 6 October 2020:
      Wokefishing notwithstanding, Layla told Vice she isn’t optimistic about the prospects of dating outside of political bubbles.
    • 2020 August 6, Bridie Pearson-Jones, “Have YOU been wokefished? New dating trend sees singles pretending to be more progressive than they are to attract sexual partners including a neo-Nazi who claimed to long for diversity”, in Daily Mail‎[7], archived from the original on 29 November 2025:
      Smith, from Leeds, claims she herself was a victim of wokefishing, as her former partner had lured her in believing the pair had similar beliefs, but revealed his true self when she decided to become vegan, sending her patronising texts with derogatory language.
    • 2021 January 8, Marianne Eloise, “A guide to spotting and avoiding 'wokefishing' in dating”, in Cosmopolitan‎[8], archived from the original on 6 February 2021:
      If someone says that they’re vegan but you find out that they occasionally eat a box of fried chicken when they’re very drunk or very sad, they’re not necessarily wokefishing you - they’re just human.
    • 2021 April 4, Natalie Morris, “Black Lives Matter hashtags are making dating apps even more complicated”, in Metro‎[9], archived from the original on 6 April 2021:
      Like catfishing – where someone pretends to be another person in order to attract more attention on dating apps – wokefishing is a similar kind of deception.
    • 2021, F.H. Buckley, Curiosity: And Its Twelve Rules for Life:
      People have even been known to “wokefish”: to pretend they're progressive in order to get a date.

See also

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