Blog Post 7: EOTO Terms and Concepts

 07/02/2024 

Gatekeeping: Does it Have Merit


    In our modern era the term gatekeeping gets thrown around quite alot. Many however don't know what it actually is and thus are quick to judge the word. A gatekeeper is someone who controlls access to something. While this might seem quite harsh it's quite common throughtout or society. Specific examples will appear later however it's first important to understand the implications of such a term. 


     One of the concerns that gatekeeping brings is people being excluded and that people will become further and further apart. There are those who are concerned about minority groups being gatekept from things like popular cultural IPs (more on this later). Others say gatekeeping is a way for people to hold information to themsleves while not sharing it with others. More on the potential flaws of gatekeeping can be found here: https://www.businessinsider.com/gatekeeper-online-trend-insult-explained-2022-6


    While these may seems to  be quite negative gatekeping can be a positive force in keeping a community strong and focused. For example let's take people who play chess. If a new player wanted to come in and learn the game of chess and the people were already established into that community let him in that would be great and welcome. However if someone came into the chess community and sought to change all the rules to make it less complex and thus make it more inclusive then the chess community could rightfully gatekeep them for their community. It's all about context. Is the person wanting to be involved in something out of genuine interest or instead are they seeking to change something because they personally don't like it. 

    A more recent example is what's been occuring with Star Wars. While Disney's track record with Star Wars hasn't been the best, (besides Andor it's really good I highly reccommend it) the issue came to a head when the  recent show The Acolyte released. It quickly becam the center of alot of controversy due to it's diversity centric casting in place of a well written show. It's currently sitting at 14% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes which is the lowest rated Disney Star Wars show to date. The issue came in where many in favor of the show critize people who have genuine problems with the show as people who hate diversity and having many different types of people in a show. This has then caused the people who are Star Wars fans to gatekeep those who just want to put diversity as the forefrontal focus in developing a Star Wars show. Do I think this is justified I'd say yes. It's clear that the show has not set well with most and the focus on putting certain types of people in the show over a good story has ended in diaster. It's not to say Star Wars fans hate diversity. Rogue One and Andor were very diverse but were not better or worse because of it as they were focused on telling stories that enchance the Star Wars universe. Do I think people who seek to change Star Wars with shows that hurt the universe and have ulterior motives with the franchise to leave and move on? After the wildfire this has caused, I think my answer may be yes. 


   

    Gatekeeping is a way to keep society segmented by interests and maybe in even level of experience in some way. As college students a big one that affects us is hiring. If you don't have the right skills then you're not going to get the job which is a way of gatekeeping those who are qualified and those who aren't. Another example is in high school and college most sports teams tthat have tryouts and cut people. In a way this is gatekeeping. It's saying if you're not good enough go to a lesser commital team or just play for fun on your own. The Olympics are an example happening now, but no one seems to have a big problem with these examples but they know they're exclusive from the beggining. The issue is whenever something isn't exclusive so people think they're able to just join anything and make it how they want instead of adhering to whatever the majority in that group or community wants. 

    In conclusion while gatekeeping can be used to exclude those for no reason or because of some hateful retoric it's often used to keep communities centered and to divide people based on talent or skill level. Everyone can't be into or good at everything and while it may sould harsh, gatekeeping is a way to ensure that for a organized and effective society. 

    









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