Gatekeeping Feat. Balzac and Bronwyn

Prompt No. 45: Flowy Faux Denim Pants, Read-Only Acquisitions, VOTE!

“Nothing is more poignant than to be like everyone else.”
- Honoré de Balzac, French Novelist

This summer, a pair of $45 Zara pants launched a thousand thinkpieces online. A TikTok creator wore the fast fashion label’s Flowy Faux Denim Pants with the caption “my jeans are sweatpants.” Several viewers inquired about the pants and failed to receive a response. The creator went on to post additional videos wearing the pants, and again left commenters wondering. Finally, an aggrieved follower made a video of her own, admitting to being so pissed that she trolled the creator for gatekeeping. “Why do you feel the need to not share resources when it doesn’t hurt you, and it’s like… free?” the follower asked rhetorically. A valid question were it directed to an Ortega, the Spanish family that owns Zara’s parent company Inditex, but instead it questions a fellow consumer for simply shopping. This notion of gatekeeping both fascinates and concerns me. Not only do we not experience it, but the misunderstanding illustrates an increasing ignorance and divide across the majority economic class.