Jordan Peterson says ABC was ‘tricky’ putting him on Q&A panel with Cate McGregor
Jordan Peterson has described the ABC as “tricky” for putting him on tonight’s Q&A panel with transgender woman Cate McGregor.
Jordan Peterson has described the ABC as “tricky” for putting him on a Q&A panel with transgender woman Cate McGregor, but says he’s still looking forward to tonight’s show.
“It’s so predictable,” Peterson told The Australian. “It was a set-up, an attempted set-up. It’s another reason why mainstream media is failing, and why people are turning to YouTube and other channels.”
Peterson shot to fame a little over two years ago when he said he would refuse a Canadian government edict to use gender neutral pronouns such as “zie” and “zhe.”
“That is not how free speech works,” he said.
But Peterson said he had no problem with calling McGregor by her chosen first name, Cate, and he’ll happily refer to her as “she.”
Asked whether Cate was, in his view, a woman, he said: “A question like probably that has to be broken down in a variety of ways. It’s context dependent.
“I don’t believe that transgender women should be competing against women in (elite) sports, for example. I don’t think there is any excuse for that.
“I can’t even understand why somebody who had undergone gender reassignment surgery would pursue an athletic career of that sort, given the degree of unfairness intrinsic in the competition.
“So for that purpose, certainly not.
“For the purposes of casual public discourse, and politeness, it depends on the person. Generally my attitude has been, I treat people as they present themselves but when push comes to shove, there are lines that have be drawn.
“There is a mixed martial artist who has transitioned from a man to a woman and he is hammering women like mad. Why that is reasonable is absolutely beyond me. I think it’s pure narcissism.”
MORE: Exclusive Jordan Peterson column — Life about more than happiness
He would address McGregor “however she would like to be addressed. I’m not a great fan of gender neutral pronouns, mostly because their use was mandated by the government, and that was enough for me to refuse to use them, because I’m not going to have my speech mandated by the government, because that’s not how speech works in a Western democracy.
“But if the dialogue is reasonable, I’ll do whatever seems to be socially appropriate because I can’t see any harm in it.’’
McGregor — a graduate of the Royal Military College Duntroon, who served Australia in the armed forces for three decades – told The Australian that the ABC probably expected fireworks when it put the two of them on the panel together.
“It’s typical and it’s a bit cute,” she said, but she, too, is looking forward to the conversation, “which will hopefully be more than boring identity politics.”
“I hope most people would accord me the status of being one of the more interesting commentators on a range of issues.
“I hope the ABC doesn’t do an eminent guest, and a potentially large audience, a disservice by picking only prosaic, mundane culture war topics.
“I get called ‘he’ and ‘him’ every day, and it hurts, and do I think people should do it? No. Do I think they should be jailed? No.
“Using inappropriate pronouns deliberately is reprehensible. But I soak the insults up with as much dignity as I can muster. I’ve displayed much less fragility on this issue than the army of free speech zealots.
“They pile vituperation on me, and I keep my dignity. It is repugnant, and it happens every day online. But the way to deal with it is not to jail people, it’s to pull our shoulders back, and keep your head high, and rely on the generosity of our fellow citizens.
“I have mostly been treated with respect with regards my transition. I’m not unsympathetic to his (Peterson’s) line on free speech. In all, I’m looking forward to it, and I don’t come to it with any baggage about his writing at all. Much of it replicates my own attempts to find meaning especially in suffering.”
Q&A screens tonight on the ABC at 9.35pm AEDT.
More Coverage
Report on ABC’s ‘doctored audio’ scandal blames lawyers
A report has blamed ABC lawyers for failing to pass on complaints by former commando Heston Russell that extra gunshots had been edited into an ABC news report.
‘Pressure from above’: ABC executive pushed by Buttrose
Christopher Oliver-Taylor was under pressure to sack Antoinette Lattouf after Ita Buttrose made clear she was ‘deeply unhappy’ with action taken on the stand-in radio host, the Federal Court has heard.