[Music fades in]
[Music suddenly interrupted by gate closing sound effect]
Did you discover Steve Lacy before Gemini Rights? Do you write all your poetry at the Marjorie Weinberg Garden? Did you start drinking Coffee Lab in your freshman year? Did you share these things with other people? In the era of the internet, with information so easily accessible, people have resorted to gatekeeping to protect the exclusivity of their favorite things.
STEPHANY MARTINEZ: I feel like I have been gatekept stuff honestly my whole life, I feel like that’s a normal thing that happens a lot, even on TikTok, they’ll be like “oh I got this nice lipstick” but they won’t say what lipstick it was, stuff like that.
That’s Stephany Martinez, a self-described lifelong victim of gatekeeping. Her stance: gatekeeping is not girlboss.
MARTINEZ: I don’t mind if the things I like go mainstream. I don’t need to be an underground person – I’m fine if people have my same interest. Life is too short to be living like that. Just enjoy the things you like and do the things you love and stop worrying if other people are doing the same things.
Martinez says she shares all her secret finds with friends. Still, she recognizes the downside of publicity.
MARTINEZ: The only time it’s annoying, when it’s a singer, in the case that now I can’t get concert tickets, it’s just bad if it comes to “Oh I can’t get tickets” or “Oh they’re overpriced now.”
But what if there is some value to nicheness? As much as she likes the idea, Martinez also recognizes that bringing things into the mainstream is a double-edged sword.
MARTINEZ: I kinda wish beautiful places and cool stores weren’t as gatekept, but I guess that’s what makes it so cool and beautiful because not that many people know about it, but it would be nice if it wasn’t as gatekept.
Martinez isn’t the only one on the fence about the utility of keeping cool things to yourself. Weinberg junior Stella Bishop agrees that there’s a time and place for it.
STELLA BISHOP: Spots to hang out, I feel like you wanna keep that gatekept because then it would get super crowded, and it wouldn’t be a good spot to hang out.
Martinez and Bishop can see the value in gatekeeping, but don’t do it themselves. McCormick Junior Ty Bennett, on the other hand, is readily willing to admit to gatekeeping.
TY BENNETT: I mostly gatekeep things that are smaller, more personal to me, that make certain things in my life better, but don’t detract from others. For example, small things, like it could be certain foods I like, places on campus I like to go to, old video games I like to play, TV shows I like to watch… Things that are more leisure and that only benefit me.
Bennett likes to keep his gates kept, so he didn’t reveal many specifics, but these days it’s impossible to hide cool stuff for long. Recently, one of his favorite things at Northwestern has become so popular that he has given up on keeping it secret entirely.
BENNETT: I can say this now because it is very public: on Friday and Saturday lunch and dinner, Plex dining hall has the best tacos imaginable. You can get as many as you want, they’re delicious, they cook the taco shell and the meat for you, they have so many toppings to go with it, it’s amazing. At the beginning of the school year, normally there are very few people in line for Plex tacos because the freshmen haven’t discovered it yet, but as the quarter moves along, people know when Plex tacos are, and everyone wants them. So right when class lets out, there’s a huge line at Plex tacos, which means that there’s less food, you have to wait longer, and typically, to be able to feed that many people, the food is lower quality. It’s harder to eat Plex tacos later in the school year because everyone knows Plex tacos, everyone knows it’s good, and as someone who’s been doing it for the past two years, Plex tacos for me is a very sacred place, and when there’s a large line it just feels less sacred, it’s less special.
Clearly, Bennett feels strongly about the issue. And reasonably so—when Plex tacos went mainstream, the experience actually changed for the worse.
To me, at the heart of gatekeeping is the desire for the things we like to belong to us. It’s harmless, really, as long as you aren’t going out of your way to exclude people. There’s no need to burst open the gates, but maybe just leave them slightly ajar?
Although it’s pretty much impossible to keep the Steve Lacy’s and the Plex tacos of the world under wraps forever, the time where only we knew about them will always be special to us. And hey, now we can be a little smug that we were there first.
[Music fades in]
For WNUR News, I’m William Kramer.
