Sorry I have to interject.
Woke fiction is NOT the same as diverse or even political fiction. Sorry but woke people don't get a monopoly on women or minorities as much as they'd love too.
Something like Red Dwarf or Xena for instance are NOT woke, because they have female, black and LGBT leading characters and just get on with it. Xena doesn't shit on men, Red Dwarf has never mentioned ONCE that half its cast most of the time is black. In all the feuds, bonding moments with Lister and Rimmer not once has it ever been brought up Lister is black, Rimmer is white.
Also whilst Xena is a very feminine character, that's not all she is. Xena and the other strong women of the show like Callisto and Alti and Gabrielle are fully rounded characters, and they aren't meant to represent women, because how could they? How do you represent 50 percent of humanity? It would be ridiculous to assume that Batman needs to talk about issues facing young men today because he is a man. Similarly let female characters be their own thing.
Woke fiction meanwhile, will never shut up about how great it is for having black people, LGBT people and women as leads, in the show itself. Never mind the insufferably smug writers on social media and actors, but in the show itself, they'll often mention it. Furthermore the men will be shat on for being men and the female and minority characters will have to represent every issue facing those groups even if they are aliens from outer space and will have very little personalities beyond those aspects. Really they're trophies for the writers ego.
Do NOT tell me you don't see a difference between those two series in how they tackle female characters. That's why Xena was a huge hit and Supergirl well inspired videos like the one above taking the absolute piss out of it.
Of course fair enough sometimes if you are setting something in the past, when racism and persecution were more common, and you want it to be authentic, then fair enough you may have to draw more overt attention to a character being black. Something like the Umbrella Academy that had a bisexual man and a black woman in 1960s America I think was a good example of doing this but not making it too preachy, but even then watch you don't make it too condescending.
Also there is a difference between a new character and gender flipping an old one. People don't like their favourite characters being changed in all kinds of ways, and yes sometimes that can include their gender and physical appearance, which absolutely applies in reverse. Imagine a white, blonde haired Blade? Even just physically that wouldn't seem like the character.
Meanwhile in terms of making something political, again there are ways of doing it that don't wind people up.
Look at ironically the original DW series. The first Dalek story is very political, but it follows the general rules for getting away with politics.
1/ It's story still holds up. Regardless of the politics the story builds up a spooky atmosphere, intriguing mystery, the Daleks themselves are fleshed out and interesting antagonists who have had a lot of thought put into them, and there is great world building and imagination.
2/ The politics is presented as a metaphor and therefore doesn't have to reference the current day and date itself
3/ The Daleks whilst inspired by WW2 tap into race hatred in general, as well as fascism, man's destructive effect on the environment and mindless conformity.
4/ It was a brave and bold move back in 1963 to tackle race hatred, never mind WW2
5/ It was presented in a natural way, IE part of the plot, the Daleks motivation, so when it was talked about it felt natural and not just a lecture.
Modern day woke politics meanwhile almost always fails in these respects. Ironically look at a Jodie Whittaker era Who story like Rosa. It has a paper thin plot, because the writer cares more about the politics than the sci fi. The villain has no motivation, no backstory, nothing to help him stand out. The actor is good sure, but he isn't given anything to work with. The story does reference modern day politics like Obama, which has already dated it as since it aired positive opinion of Obama, particularly among the left has dropped considerably. It also was not brave doing a story about how racism is bad in 2018. It was jumping on a bandwagon and had nothing original to say about Rosa Parks. (In fact it was a very shallow reading of her legacy.) Finally it wasn't even presented in a natural way. We literally had Jodie lecturing the audience at the end with video footage to back it up like a lecture!
Now Buffy IMO falls much more into Classic Who and Xena and Red Dwarf territory when it came to its politics and how it presented minorities and female characters, than it does modern day woke crap like Supergirl. Of course that's not to say that sometimes it didn't mess up, like Beer Bad being too on the nose politically. Even the greats **** up (personally I think Invasion of the Dinosaurs was an example of a terribly done political classic who story, whilst ironically Star Trek TOS I think ****ed up all the time when it came to overt politics like The Omega Glory that IS as badly done as something like Supergirl, only it's right wing politics.)
Still let's not conflate Buffy with the crap of today.
(That said I do agree that the backlash to woke shows has become so great, that sadly yes nowadays people are often quick to assume anything with a gay, or female lead will be woke. This hasn't been helped by guys like Nerdrotic and Critical Drinker who are a genuinely toxic influence on the genre and its fandom. Still if that has happened, well the people to blame are still the woke writers and producers who whipped everybody up into culture war crap.)
