To hoard access to something (a hobby, subculture, band, restaurant) by demanding newcomers prove their credentials.
Grrr I wish I could gatekeep the word enthusiast on this one, but it does fit sadly.
Someone recently asked me what makes a good city planner vs a bad one. Here's my answer: Good planners value working with people to solve problems & achieve shared goals. Bad planners hide behind process to make th…
To hoard access to something (a hobby, subculture, band, restaurant) by demanding newcomers prove their credentials. "Don't gatekeep the good ramen spot, just send the address." The internet's half-ironic trinity: gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss.
gatekeep means To hoard access to something (a hobby, subculture, band, restaurant) by demanding newcomers prove their credentials. It's mostly used in casual online conversation. It's casual and generally safe with friends and online. It's standard online vocabulary; nothing inherently concerning about hearing it.
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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Viral internet speak — memes, ratios, main-character moments, and the algospeak of every platform from Twitter to Reddit to TikTok comment sections.
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An extreme, almost obsessive form of gatekeeping where someone expends massive energy controlling who gets access to something they love. Hyper gatekeep goes beyond protecting a niche — it's an exhausting full-time project involving loyalty tests, tiered access, and a carefully managed information blackout. The person doing it usually doesn't see the irony that their obsessive protection is itself a form of parasocial ownership over something that was never theirs to own.
The mental state someone enters when they've decided nobody new is getting into their world. Gatekeep mode isn't a permanent personality — it's a conscious switch you flip when your favorite thing starts going mainstream and you want to protect it. During gatekeep mode, you become selectively forgetful about band names, refuse to share restaurant recs, and mysteriously lose the ability to explain your niche hobby to curious newcomers.
A gatekeep check is a moment of self-audit — or a public call-out — to ask whether someone is sharing information freely or jealously hoarding it to protect their niche identity. Online, gatekeep checks get invoked when a fan community starts getting exclusionary about new members, or when someone refuses to share a restaurant, brand, or playlist because they don't want it to blow up. The check forces the question: are you protecting something real, or just being possessive about vibes?
Right? Fuck the Midwest haters, but I will gatekeep how good we have it. Esp IL, a blue state in the Midwest? Keep believing it's all corn fields bro
"Don't gatekeep the good ramen spot, just send the address."
gatekeep means To hoard access to something (a hobby, subculture, band, restaurant) by demanding newcomers prove their credentials. It's mostly used in casual online conversation. It's casual and generally safe with friends and online. It's standard online vocabulary; nothing inherently concerning about hearing it.
"gatekeep" is slang. It means: To hoard access to something (a hobby, subculture, band, restaurant) by demanding newcomers prove their credentials. Register: casual. Use it in: casual conversation and online posts. Avoid in: formal writing and professional emails.
“Grrr I wish I could gatekeep the word enthusiast on this one, but it does fit sadly.”
“Someone recently asked me what makes a good city planner vs a bad one. Here's my answer: Good planners value working with people to solve problems & achieve shared goals. Bad planners hide behind process to make themselves petty lords of a tiny fiefdom to gatekeep prosperity.”
“Right? Fuck the Midwest haters, but I will gatekeep how good we have it. Esp IL, a blue state in the Midwest? Keep believing it's all corn fields bro”
“why would anyone gatekeep a free indie game”
“girl ive BEEN having that conversation. lucy is such a visionary; she was gaslight, gatekeep, girlbossing DECADES before it was a thing.”
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To limit another party's participation in a collective identity or an activity, usually due to undue pettiness, resentment, or overprotectiveness.
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To control or limit access to something.
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To limit (sometimes manipulatively, rather than directly) how much of a role another party, often a spouse, has in some task.
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