I am a forty-one-year-old woman who has been into anime and video games since I was fourteen so gatekeeping is nothing new to me, nor should I be even a tiny bit surprised over the gatekeeping that has popped up regarding the new Frankenstein movie. And to be fair, I'm not surprised but I am seriously disappointed, especially since much of this seems to have come from women who have broken into male dominated industries. This the very last corner of fandom that this behavior should be coming from but here we are.
The only end result of Gatekeeping is keeping people away from something that they love and in so many cases with the most highly patrolled areas of fandom; Books, Games, and Anime the end result is to keep someone away from something that could be life changing. You can't in one breath state that a certain IP was a life changer for you and then tell people who are experiencing that IP for the first time that they are somehow experiencing it wrong and they should shut up. It's hypocritical at best and classist and racist at worse. Especially when it comes to the classics. I read Frankenstein in my first year in college, I pretty much assumed everyone had it as assigned reading at some point. Guess what I was very, very wrong. Because it turns out not everyone has the same access to literature that I did and still do. For some reason people seem to believe that because libraries exist everyone has access to literature and that is the farthest thing from the truth. At forty-one I am now more surprised when I come across someone who has read the original and that is because I understand that access to literature is a privilege reserved for middle class and upper middle class white people. Rural areas in the South heavily populated by Black humans who are the literal descendants of slaves rely heavily on mobile libraries, if they are lucky. The neighborhood I live in is full of Trump supporters, poor White people who actually push a narrative that education and reading is wholly unneeded, that reading, especially if you are a boy makes you weak and reading as a woman is an unattractive trait.
For Black and Brown creators and readers sci-fi and fantasy has been a genre that they have historically almost violently been kept out of. Which means on top of the lack of access to literature you have a secondary problem of entire groups of people being told that they are not allowed to enjoy these genres. Literally, not allowed. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that a Black or Brown human has never read or watched a Frankenstein movie and omigoodness yes you are a horrible person if you are calling out someone from these groups for "not realizing the whole point of the book is that Dr. Frankenstein is the monster". A horrible person. And look we've had this conversation a million times in regard to the inherent link between gatekeeping and racism. A million so the fact that here we are once again having it is disgusting.
Circling back to the group I am seeing most of this poison seeing from and why for me this is infuriating as women, regardless of our race we have spent our whole damn lives being told that the world we are trying to enter is a "Man's world" and we are ruining it. Video games, anime/manga, and literature we have been told time and time again that we don't belong here. Especially in the sci-fi and fantasy realm. It is mind boggling to me that a woman who has faced this would treat anyone else the same way they were treated. What is the godsdamned point of you busting down a door only to slam it shut and lock it on some cartoon ass level with eighteen locks for the women who are trying to come after you!? Yes, telling a woman that how dare she not already know the point of Frankenstein is a form of Gatekeeping. But to do it as a woman with Frankenstein is the most grotesque form of Gatekeeping I can imagine.
And since I'm clearly on one let's add Homo and Transphobic to the mix. Because guess what, it's that too. I can count on one hand the number of openly Transgender authors who have been published traditionally. If I include Gays that goes up to maybe two hands and my toes. The number of times I have had to tell someone that Gregory Maguire is gay since the new movies came out is a number that is so high it has made me want to laugh until I cried numerous times. Go look at reviews of Gay and Trans authors on Goodreads, the gatekeeping is so blatant a five-year-old could point it out. The number of cisgender straight women who have literally capitalized off of the backs of the Queer community by publishing Queer novels is disgusting. When an actual Queer person can't get a novel published traditionally with a Queer MC and/or cast but a cisgender straight woman can there's a serious fucking problem.
Finally, and we are coming to the whole point of this. If you believe that there is only one way to interpret any piece of art and it's the way you do than not only, are you Gatekeeping but I feel so fucking sorry for you. My dad is an abstract artist, I can tell you the meaning behind every painting he has ever made because I know it, I've spoken in depth to him about them. I have never in my entire life opened a conversation with a person who has seen his work with "This is what it means." Neither has he. It is always "What does it mean to you?" Everyone's responses are vastly different and that's what matters, that's what makes art special no matter what form it takes. It isn't about you, not in the way that Gatekeepers seem to think it is. It is about the relationship between the artist, their art, and the viewer and that relationship is sacred. If you consider yourself an artist, regardless of your medium and you gatekeep people you aren't an artist. You will never be an artist; you simply can't be.
Long Story Short: Gatekeeping is not good hell I'd call it borderline evil. It was one of the most self-serving behaviors someone can have, and it doesn't serve any purpose. Not for the one Gatekeeping and certainly not for the ones they are keeping out. It is one of the most perfect examples of a person who fears ideas that are not their own. In SFF especially Gatekeeping others people in a genre that screams from the top of its lungs to accept all people regardless of race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, or religion. And this is truly the worst part keeping people out of a space that says "We accept you regardless" is deeply unhinged.
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