CANADIAN academic Jordan Peterson has denied holding homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic views ahead of appearances in Scotland to promote his new self-help book.
The Toronto University psychology professor has a huge following online after speaking out against “PC culture” and refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns on campus.
He is also a critic of Canada’s federal transgender-rights bill that prohibits discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act on the basis of gender identity and expression.
Scottish charities have criticised Peterson’s “sexist” and “toxic” statements and warned that his comments on gender should be “treated with extreme caution and scepticism”.
Peterson will be in Glasgow and Edinburgh in October to discuss his best-selling book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which he described as a “self-help” manual.
Speaking to the Sunday Herald last night, Peterson admitted he’s “not a fan of the radical left” who he said use social media to accuse him of “homophobia, transphobia, racism, fascism and misogyny”.
“There isn’t a shred of evidence I hold any of these views,” Peterson said. “It’s so strange to watch all this because these events are ridiculously positive. They aren’t political rallies full of people manifesting their resentment at the world.”
He will deliver lectures and take part in question and answer sessions at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow and Edinburgh Playhouse.
More than 200,000 people have attended similar events in 60 cities across Canada and the US, and Peterson said he plans to visit a further 35 cities. He has sold two million copies of his latest book, which he said will eventually be translated into 45 languages.
Peterson said: “People buying my book and coming to these lectures are trying to put their lives together. The media concentrates on political polarisation but this has nothing to do with politics.”
When asked whether he accepts that he has courted controversy, Peterson said: “I did get involved in a political controversy in Canada over a sneaky law which completely transformed the legal definition of gender.”
James Morton, Scottish Trans Alliance Manager at the Equality Network, said: “We abhor Jordan Peterson’s various sexist comments, such as his claims that men are naturally more competent than women and that angry young men are entitled to sexual relationships with women to reduce their likelihood of committing murder.
“We also strongly disagree with his attacks on human rights protections for transgender people and his attempts to close down university gender studies departments.”
Peterson previously used his YouTube channel – which has around one million subscribers – to call for the discontinuation of some academic courses, including “women's studies, and all the ethnic studies and racial studies groups”.
Lydia House of Zero Tolerance, a charity working to tackle the causes of men's violence against women, said: “His views are toxic towards both men and women. He has argued that enforced monogamy would stop men committing mass murder and that men are in more positions of power simply because they are more competent.
“His arguments are hackneyed and tired, dressed up as ground-breaking by a veneer of academic respectability, but they are also dangerous. Peterson's videos and lectures are reaching many young men at an impressionable age. His views should be treated with extreme caution and scepticism.”
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