Gatekeeping is Good

There’s been a lot of talk about gatekeeping lately. Certain groups have stepped up to set the “terms and conditions” of their fandoms, and the world wants to know: Is this right? Should they be allowed to say who’s a real fan and who isn’t?

The short answer: Yes.

Fandoms don’t just happen by accident. They are built by people coming together over a specific love, comics, franchises, genres. This goes back further than the internet; from 19th-century clubs to the Scienceers of 1929, fans have always organized to celebrate what they love. But for every group trying to keep their community pure, there are outsiders looking to pervert it. They want to make the fandom about something else, something that has nothing to do with the original vision.

Call them tourists, vandals, or gate-crashers. These people aren’t fans. They never were.

Fandoms have always been welcoming; because they start small, they’re usually happy to find like-minded people. But they didn’t see the trap. These crashers get a foothold, then immediately start pushing ideas that are antithetical to the main focus. Once they’re in, they bring their friends to help dismantle the original group.

When the OG fans finally object, the usurpers start screaming, throwing out “ists” and “phobes” to shut down the conversation. They make so much noise that “normies” on the outside think they’re the majority and side with them. They become the “useful idiots” for a group that doesn’t even care about the source material.

This has been happening for decades, and now fandoms are splitting or surrendering completely. It didn’t have to be this way. To defend against a gate-crasher, you need a gatekeeper.

When the vandals storm the gates, you need a core group of true fans willing to hold the line. They have to be strong enough to take the vilification and the abuse, because the tourists won’t let the truth drown out their message without a fight. Gatekeepers get treated like villains, but they’re the ones actually doing the hero work.

Tourists will always be around. Wherever people celebrate a franchise, vandals will try to turn it into a Trojan horse for their own agendas. Don’t let them tell you gatekeeping is wrong. The people saying that are either the crashers themselves or the idiots following them.

Be a gatekeeper. Protect your fandom from those who only want to tear it down.