At the 37th minute of the video, Peterson claimed that men were able to solve their conflicts with each other because there is always an underlying threat of violence between two men, but could not act the same way during conflicts with women.
“Here’s the problem—I know how to stand up to a man who’s unfairly trespassed against me. And the reason I know that is because the parameters for my resistance are quite well-defined, which is: We talk, we argue, we push and then it becomes physical,” stated Peterson, adding that fighting between men is the known pattern when civil discourse has failed.
“That’s forbidden in discourse with women and so I don’t think men can control crazy women,” he said. “If you’re talking to a man who wouldn’t fight with you under any circumstances whatsoever, then you’re talking to someone to whom you have absolutely no respect.”
Peterson also discussed how he believes that social views of human identity have become encompassed into Canadian law and there is an imbued growing sense of anti-male ideas.
“There’s this insistence that all forms of masculine authority are nothing but tyrannical power,” Peterson stated.
“The increasing demolition of young men—and not only young men—in terms of their academic performance. They’re falling way behind in elementary school, falling way behind in junior high, and bailing out of the universities like mad.”
The U of T professor added that there are too many symbols of tyrannical male figures that show the “destructive force of masculine consciousness,” with constant positive images of female figures, which has led to the destruction of masculinity.
“I think that women whose relationship with men that’s been seriously pathologized cannot distinguish between male authority and competence and male tyrannical power. Like they fail to differentiate because all they see is the oppressive male,” he said.
“And their experiences with men might have been rough enough so that differentiating never occurred. And it has to occur. You have to have a lot of experience with men, and good men too, before that will occur.”
“But it seems to me that we are increasingly dominated by a view of masculinity that’s characteristic of women who have terrible personality disorders and who are unable to have healthy relationships with men,” he continued.
Peterson faced public scrutiny last year when he uploaded a YouTube video refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns in his classroom at U of T.
Since then, Peterson has become known for his outspoken views and his admonishment of university institutions over freedom of expression.
The Medium could not reach Peterson for comment as of press time.
He’s simply right. The whole video was intellectually magnificent, thank you for introducing this
You deliberately failed to provide context to what Dr. Peterson said in order to make his statements appear inflammatory. I listened to that entire discussion between Paglia and Peterson and your article in no way conveys the brilliance of the points they were making.
Hey Alicia, I implore you to approach this issue with a more open mind. Even if you do it just for yourself. I don’t want to criticize the article (you’ll probably hear enough of that anyway). I just want to invite you to try and understand why so many people see reason in what he is saying.