Jordan Peterson and his controversial anti-feminist book: 12 rules for living

Who is Jordan Peterson and what does he say in his book that caused such a stir? Since the viral interview that was published on the YouTube platform recently, his popularity has been increasing, attracting the attention of both defenders and detractors of his ideas and theories.

Jordan B. Peterson is a Canadian psychologist known for his controversial theories about feminism and gender roles. Among some principles listed in the book "12 rules to live" and in various interviews, we find statements related to sexual harassment such as: "there is no clear line on sexual consent (...) it is normal to make mistakes". In this Psychology-Online article, we will talk about Jordan Peterson and His Book: 12 Rules for Living.

Index

1. Peterson's critique of social movements
2. 12 Rules for Living: Peterson's Most Famous Book
3. Jordan Peterson on YouTube
4. Jordan Peterson's take on sexual harassment

Jordan B Peterson, born in Canada in 1962, is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. His studies in psychology focus on personality and social psychology, with an emphasis on the latter.

Peterson is known for criticize harshly to the groups that do not share his political idea, as he defines them: "the postmodern left"or"the neo-Marxists". In Jordan Peterson's point of view, these people denature the human order, deny categories, and are not confronted with the idea that there is a hierarchy of competencies. In fact, Jordan claims that there are "superior" people to others according to their competencies, an idea of violent historical movements.

Even though he published his first book "Maps of meaning: the architecture of belief"^[1] in 1999, his theory was not accepted worldwide until this year, with the rise of the feminist movement and its timely publication of the book "12 Rules for Life: an antidote to chaos"^[2]. In this book, he divides into chapters what he calls the rules for living and surviving the chaos of the modern era, these twelve chapters are as follows:

1. Stand straight and throw your shoulders back. (avoid being pathetic)
2. Treat yourself as if you were someone you were responsible for helping
3. Make friends with those who want the best for you
4. Do not compare yourself with others; compare yourself to who you were yesterday
5. Don't let your kids do things you hate (don't overprotect your kids)
6. Before criticizing someone, make sure you have your life in perfect order
7. Dedicate your efforts to doing things with meaning, not what suits you best
8. Tell the truth, or at least do not lie
9. Assume that the person you are listening to may know something that you do not know
10. When it comes to speaking, express yourself precisely
11. Leave the skateboarders alone
12. If you see a cat in the street, pet it

His well-structured speech, full of references and developed arguments, often mitigate the dangerous impact of the conservative and not very tolerant ideas of him at the socio-cultural level.

Jordan B. Peterson opened an account on this popular platform in order to reach a larger audience, share his classes and be able to give more voice to all his allegations and theories about society current. After the publication of his book and the controversial interviews that have come to light in recent months, his YouTube channel has exceeded one and a half million subscribers.

With these figures, we can affirm that he is one of the most influential psychologists on the scene today. However, it is important to remember that his theories of hierarchy, politics, and criticism of feminism are accepted by the more conservative and less tolerant community. In fact, in the United States press, it has been defined as guru of masculinity. A label that has been earned as a result of his harsh statements about women and their behavior.

In a March 2018 interview with the National Post, Jordan Peterson contributed his views on the #metoo movement to columnist Christie Blatchford. In this interview the Canadian psychologist explains sexual harassment as follows:

In the 1960s with the advent of the contraceptive pill, a new way of looking at sex was established (...) there are new rules and the line between invitation and harassment is blurred. When you are establishing these new rules, it is normal to make mistakes in the area of ​​sex.

As we can read, Peterson calls sexual harassment "mistakes" and puts much of the responsibility on women. In fact, in that same interview, he states that "Men invite women sexually and they are almost always rejected, so it is normal to make mistakes in these types of invitations".

Another criticism that Peterson makes of the new generations and social movements is that He calls them cynical considering that any unwanted sexual act is harassment and he denounces the fact that law schools are filled with "postmodernists" since they give importance to the consequence of the act and not to the intention.

That is, he protests the fact that the consequences of a crime are given importance and not the intention of this, for example: If one person has sexually assaulted another, Peterson focuses on the intent of the assailant and not on the emotional consequences of the victim. This is very dangerous since on many occasions, most aggressors tend to hide behind the fact that they "did not want to abuse the other person."

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Jordan Peterson and His Controversial Book: 12 Rules for Living, we recommend that you enter our category of Social psychology.

1. Peterson, J. B. (2002). Maps of meaning: The architecture of belief. Routledge.
2. Peterson, J. B. (2018). 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. Random House Canada.

• Blatchford, C. (2018). Interview to Jordan Peterson on the #Metoo Moment. National Post. Toronto
• Sen, C. (2018). The success of the Canadian psychologist who says that men are blamed just for being men. La Vanguardia, Barcelona.