After the first online session on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Rosalie contacted me and asked me to expand on a comment I made in the chat about learning from geek and fandom communities about gate-keeping. I apologize for taking so long to get to this, but some of you may be aware that it's back-to-school time in the midst of a pandemic and things are a bit busy.
What I have to say on the subject of gate-keeping is not, unfortunately, a guide for how fandoms and geek communities have effectively dealt with it. Gate-keeping is, unfortunately, an ongoing problem. Rather, this is a sort of cautionary tale about what gate-keeping is and what it looks like. I could talk about the ways that it is toxic to the communities involved, but I think that will be fairly clear. I am well aware that many people in this community may already know more about this topic than me, so I apologize in advance if this seems simplistic or if I'm telling you things you already know. I also apologize for errors in my writing. I already found and fixed several places where my faster-than-my-brain fingers turned "you're" into "your."
"Toxic fandom" and the "toxic fan" have almost become tropes and are the subjects of jokes. One of my favorites (and least dark) is a "hipster" version of the classic "light bulb" joke.
Question: How many hipsters does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: It's a really obscure number that I happened on when I was in Seattle --- you've probably never heard of it.
What makes this funny is many of us have met someone like this, a person who claims to be a fan of Indy music, say, but who belittles others for not being as "into it". People who are fans of something (be it music, comics, movies, science fiction, or even math) are often proud of their encyclopedic knowledge, depth of knowledge in a narrow part, or grasp of nuance of the subject. That by itself is fine, and often justified. But it becomes a problem when it takes the form of
gate-keeping, by which I mean setting, and testing people against, arbitrary criteria for membership in the "in" group.
Gate-keeping is often cast as being about what it means to be a "real fan" (and what brought this to mind for me was when the term "real mathematician" was used). A gate-keeping interaction might be something like this.
"Oh, you're a fan of the Marvel Comics Universe [MCU]? I bet you can't even name three X-Men other than Wolverine. You're not a real fan."
In many of the fandoms, this kind of gate-keeping is directed overwhelmingly against women, and has given rise to terms that have become pejorative. One of the mild ones is "(fake) gamer girl". The same thing could be directed against anyone who doesn't immediately seem to "fit the mold", though. Jokes and memes sometimes exaggerate and lampoon the tests, showing how ridiculous they can be. ("Oh, you're a fan of people? Name all of them.")
There are folks in various fandoms who have started addressing the issue by pointing out that if you love a subject, you will want to share it. You will want to invite people in, not put up walls. Taking the example from above about the MCU, a more welcoming approach, with some important things in bold might be something like this.
"Oh, you're a fan of the MCU? What have you read so far? Who's your favorite character? Cool! If you like Wolverine from X-Men, did you know that there are several Wolverine titles and cross-overs? What kind of books and characters are you looking for? Oh, you're looking for women characters? Have you heard of Laura Kinney, X-23? She's the new Wolverine and she's my fave."
Let me beat you over the head with the differences. The gatekeeper sees someone who maybe doesn't look like them, assumes they can't be a "real fan" and sets an arbitrary (and maybe ridiculous) standard based on how much they know.
The inviting fan sees someone who doesn't fit the stereotype, probes a little,
listens, and offers suggestions for how to get more involved. They use their depth of understanding to ease the newcomer's entry rather than block their way.
Listening is important. If the "inviting" fan had taken the approach of saying, for example, "Oh, you're a woman who likes comics, you must be looking for the woman Wolverine, X-23," that's almost as bad as gate-keeping.
(I happen to love X-23. She is very aware of being a woman in a field dominated by men, and she goes ahead with who she is anyway. As far as I'm concerned, she redefined the role of Wolverine in her image without taking away from the original at all. I have to admit, I might suggest those titles even if they weren't exactly what the person was looking for!)
To wrap up, I guess I'll end by inviting you to brainstorm ways that we, as "real mathematicians", may be inadvertently engaging in gate-keeping, and then considering ways to change our approach to be more inviting.
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Clark Wells
Grand Valley State Univ
Allendale MI
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