Have any popular, cool media franchises / works of fiction inspired real-life societal progress?

Cafe Society
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I’m wondering if any bestseller novels, cult TV shows, blockbuster movies, or other fictional media in recent decades inspired actual societal movements or progress on certain social issues due to some element in their fictional plot that proved inspiring to people in real life?

Let me explain what I mean by contrasting two books from the past that inspired major social change. On one hand, we have Betty Friedan’s 1963 monograph The Feminine Mystique This book is a work of non-fiction. Its discussion of the dissatisfaction that actual American housewives reported as regards their day-to-day existence apparently almost single-handedly inspired second-wave feminisim. First-wave feminism had in many places achieved giving women the right to vote and hold public office, as well as to reduce the power their husbands had over them (in short, to disentitle husbands from their wives’ property and from having direct physical custody of their wives). Second wave feminism brought about the current state of affairs where women have complete or near complete legal equality with men inasmuch as they must not be discriminated in the workplace, must be paid the same for equal work, cannot be required to get their husband’s countersignature on contracts, and so on.

On the other hand, there is Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This one is a work of fiction; however, it made people in the Northern United States, who up until then often had a colored and idealized idea of the lives of Black slaves received from parodies of the latter in minstrel shows, aware of the harsh lives of slaves on plantations. Fast forward 13 years (and a civil war), and slavery is illegal across the USA.

Both books have in common their having done a lot to change public opinion, leading to changes in laws with a view to give relief to a discriminated class of people. But whereas the former was a plain factual account of the status quo, the latter was a popular novel. What I’m wondering, can we find for any more recent social issue a parallel to Uncle Tom among the fictional media from the 1980s or 1990s until today? Can anything that modern society received from Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, or any other recent franchise or standalone work in any fictional format (novel, series, TV series, and so on) be said to have inspired social change, if not (ultimately) changes in legislation, on any issue (LGBTQA rights, further waves of feminism, the rights of racial groups, or anything else)?

Put another way, has any work of fiction in recent times ended up effectively inspiring society as if it were a manifesto for an issue?

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Deleted by poster. I see I didn’t answer the question as asked.

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Upton Sinclair’s 1905 The Jungle spurred Theodore Roosevelt to send inspectors to Chicago meatpacking plants. Their report forced Congress to pass the first food safety laws.

Somewhat ironically, food safety was not Sinclair’s goal. He had intended the novel to call attention to the plight of the workers.

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Kent_Clark beat me to it. I was literally just typing up about Upton Sinclair and The Jungle.

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That was my answer too but the OP wants something after 1980.

Also, interestingly, Sinclair wanted the book to spur socialism. Sinclair once said, “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” So, he achieved change but not the change he wanted.

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War Games helped the “no nukes” movement?

According to wikipedia, it did more to alert computer administrators the dangers of hacking.

Reagan’s interest in the film is credited with leading to the enactment 18 months later of NSDD-145, the first Presidential directive on computer security.

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I’m not seeing this. The message of the film was “The only winning move is not to play.” That was not something new and unknown. It was genuinely not a bug, but a feature. Mutually Assured Destruction was a massive deterrent. The US got the first nuclear bombs. We used both of them on Japan. The idea that starting a nuclear exchange would result in basically the end of the world- and definitely the end of the USA and USSR kept either side from launching.

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I missed that part of the question.

I’d say it’s more difficult in an era of multiple mass media to single out one particular work as the inspiration for an entire social movement- or even a trend.

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I would suggest:

  • The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. It was published in the 60s but its effects went well into the 80s and beyond for gender equality.

  • And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts. It really helped change the discussion around the AIDS epidemic and spurred activism and certainly was a part of getting homosexuals out of the closet and into the mainstream of public life (Shilts died from HIV a few years later).

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Not “progress” but definitely a societal movement mostly propagated online was inspired by The Matrix series that literally has millions of people rejecting the very concept of reality.

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I we are going back to the 1960s about works with a lasting influence on current societal well being, don’t forget Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed

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Silent Spring, though I don’t think it’s fictional.

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Alongside of Betty Friedan, there was Marilyn French’s The Womens’ Room which was widely read and provocatively controversial. It fleshed out many of Friedan’s major points in dialogue and character situations.

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Ayn Rand’s works have motivated the political views of a number of people.

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Oliver Twist triggered a reform movement. Wag the Dog didn’t, but it very likely prevented escalation of American involvement in wars in Sudan and Yugoslavia in the wake of Clinton’s personal scandals.

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The Handmaid’s tale, but that is more of a cautionary tale of what could go wrong if people don’t start fighting back harder. However it does seem to inspire people to resist fascism and misogyny.

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[Moderating]
Oh, and since this has some measure of subjectivity, but is about fiction, CS is probably a better fit. Moving.

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If we are going there I would suggest:

  • The End of Nature by Bill McKibben
  • This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein
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Literally half the OP is talking about this book.

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I’m not sure if this fits, but Ted Lasso seemed to inspire a wave of positivity / step back from cynical humor. I remember noticing it at the height of its success, but damn if I can think of any examples at the moment. I just remember what I perceived as a move toward a kinder brand of humor. It was nice while it lasted.