GATEKEEPER

What Does Gatekeeper Mean?

The Quick Answer

Gatekeeper means "Person Who Assumes They Have the Right To Decide Who Has Access to a Community or Identity."

More Observations...

It actually refers to someone whose job it is to control access to a property by opening and closing a gate. However, it has long been used more widely to refer to a member of staff, such as a receptionist or personal assistant, with whom one must negotiate in order to gain access to a more senior member of staff. More recently, gatekeeper has come to be used to refer to any person who acts or speaks as if they have the right to control access to a community or identity and to deny someone else a voice, no matter how trivial or important the subject. For example:

A sports fan who says you can't be a genuine supporter of a club as you don't hold a season ticket.
A film fan who claims your opinion doesn't count, because you like a certain type of movie.
A person who says you can't comment on the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) or racism, because you're white.

Reddit has a subreddit devoted to gatekeepers at www.reddit.com/r/gatekeeping/.

Image for Gatekeeper

When I write Gatekeeper, I mean this:

"Person Who Assumes They Have the Right To Decide Who Has Access to a Community or Identity"

Summary of Key Points

We have summarized the key points in the table below:

Gatekeeper
Definition:	Person Who Assumes They Have the Right To Decide Who Has Access to a Community or Identity
Type:	Word
Guessability:	2: Quite easy to guess
Typical Users:	Adults and Teenagers