Full Interview with Cathy Newman on Channel 4.
“What’s in it for the women, though?” Newman asks.
“Well, what sort of partner do you want?” Peterson says. “Do you want an overgrown child? Or do you want someone to contend with who is going to help you?”
“So you’re saying,” Newman retorts, “that women have some sort of duty to help fix the crisis of masculinity.” But that’s not what he said. He posited a vested interest, not a duty.
“Women deeply want men who are competent and powerful,” Peterson goes on to assert. “And I don’t mean power in that they can exert tyrannical control over others. That’s not power. That’s just corruption. Power is competence. And why in the world would you not want a competent partner? Well, I know why, actually, you can’t dominate a competent partner. So if you want domination—”
The interviewer interrupts, “So you’re saying women want to dominate, is that what you’re saying?”
1. Really horrible interview (re: the interviewer)
2. Somehow, an even worse article - is the Atlantic like Medium now, where pretty much anyone can post things?
3. I feel kind of bad for Jordan Peterson. He's definitely got some opinions I disagree with, but he's a fairly moderate, well-reasoned speaker, and I always at least understand where he's coming from and how he gets there.
That being said, his fans can be pretty terrible - I think that a large part of the negative associations with him are due to his shit-eating fanboys (and, it should be noted, fangirls as well - my GF listens to a ton of his lectures, albeit partly just to see what the fuss is about) posting snippets of his lectures as "factz-based" told-you-so's to bleeding heart liberals. I think both sides tend to lose the nuance, and just skip to the parts that help prove whatever point they're trying to make, regardless of his larger arguments.
Idk, I am generally not a big fan of people who hold the scientific method above literally all else in life, but I think that's more of a problem with his fans than with him. Also not too pleased with Psychologists doing the work of social scientists, but that's another thing entirely.