Gatekeeping in Everyday Life
Dec 01, 2025
Gatekeeping is something most of us recognize only once we start noticing it.
It’s not always loud or intentional.
Often, it shows up in small decisions and subtle comments:
- Who do we hire?
- Whose voice do we trust?
- Who gets invited into the conversation — and who stays outside?
Gatekeeping is about control: deciding who gets to define the narrative.
And when we limit who belongs, we limit growth, creativity, and connection.
Everyday gatekeeping
Most forms of gatekeeping aren’t dramatic, but they do create quiet boundaries around who feels welcome — and who doesn’t.
Even lighthearted situations show this dynamic.
Take Harry Potter, for example:
“You’re not a real fan unless you’ve read all the books.”
Or
“Watching only the movies doesn’t count.”
It’s small, but it still divides people into “real fans” and “not real fans.”
A reminder that humans naturally create invisible rules around belonging — even in harmless spaces.
When gatekeeping becomes personal
As someone who is both Norwegian and Palestinian (from Jerusalem), I’ve felt gatekeeping in different ways.
Sometimes, my Norwegian identity is questioned because of my appearance or my name.
Other times, my “authenticity” as a Muslim is questioned because I grew up in Norway.
And then there’s the form of gatekeeping that happens around expertise.
My background is in human rights, and my master’s dissertation focused on Palestine.
Along with lived experience, this gives me a deep understanding of the history, culture, and politics of the region.
Yet in Norwegian media, “expert” voices often belong to white Norwegians — sometimes people who have never been to Palestine at all.
This isn’t about wanting the microphone all the time.
It’s about asking: Why are certain voices treated as more credible than others?
As Edward Said and other post-colonial scholars have pointed out, voices closer to Western power structures are often seen as more objective — not because they know more, but because they feel more familiar.
This explains a pattern many of us experience:
Some identities are automatically trusted.
Others have to prove themselves.
What global citizenship asks of us
Global citizenship is the opposite of gatekeeping.
It is about:
🌍 Radical inclusion
👂 Listening across differences
💬 Valuing diverse expressions of culture and identity
Gatekeeping shrinks the circle.
Global citizenship widens it.
And change doesn’t begin with grand actions — it begins with noticing where we might be unintentionally drawing lines around who belongs.
A simple reflection
Think about one space you’re part of — your workplace, your classroom, your friend group.
Who feels completely welcome there?
Who might still be on the edges?
What’s one small thing you can do this week to widen the door?
That’s where global citizenship starts.
In small, everyday choices.
Let’s stay connected
If these reflections resonate with you, you’re welcome to:
No pressure — just an open invitation to explore these themes further with me.