Today’s article was just a short one, and engaging in what makes everyone roll their eyes: seeing something happen on Reddit and writing an article about it.
To cut it short:
- Billie Eilish (famous singer) uploaded a picture of her old Nintendo DSi in gallery of images, to her Instagram account
- Someone shared that on Reddit
- Half of the comment section slid straight into shitty gamer dude Hell (the other half did not)
- Some man on Mastodon attacked me
- Post removed from Reddit when moderators spotted the comments
…this is a fast-forward of the oddness, but if you want to read over my ramble here, and see some shittiness, the link will help:
https://gardinerbryant.com/you-dont-look-like-a-gamer/
I see this shit all the time, and it is not only exhausting, but something no one should see (no matter their identity) should be subjected to. Anyway, read on if you’d like!


Missing the point in so many ways, you’d think a stormtrooper wrote this
which point?
I’m sympathetic about her complaint over reddit but nothing with mastadon had anything to do with her being a woman
“Calling women fake gamers, larpers, attention-seekers, or outsiders for visibly enjoying games is gatekeeping. It turns a hobby into a status boundary and makes gaming spaces worse.”
That’s the point I got from GPT-5.5.
I disagree with the conclusion - I don’t think gate-keeping is bad. I used to think it wasn’t, but I see a lack of gate-keeping spaces, on both a local and national level, as the cause of certain issues. Go create your own damn hobbies with sparkle-ponies and hot-Antonio-Banderas lookalikes. Just leave mine alone.